Radio/TV Coverage Comments

philstar

Isn't that guy Gerry Thornley the irish times rugby corresponent (you hear him on the radio sometimes)....isn't he ...the quintessential D4 Head
his accent wrecks my head "roight roight the dort dort"

EdgarAllenPoo

philstar wrote:

Isn't that guy Gerry Thornley the irish times rugby corresponent (you hear him on the radio sometimes)....isn't he ...the quintessential D4 Head
his accent wrecks my head "roight roight the dort dort"

Indeed he is and I can't stand listening to him though he does make good points, his accent annoys me.


Since I can't really find anything about him can someone tell me what experience if any he has of playing or is he just a lucky and highly paid armchair coach?

Dodge

GDM wrote:

Since I can't really find anything about him can someone tell me what experience if any he has of playing or is he just a lucky and highly paid armchair coach?

Doubt its any. He used to cover League of Ireland football for the Times. Best sports journalist in Ireland IMO

Pride Fighter

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Did you think he was great when he said Argentinian Captain Pinochet.

moe_sizlak

i love george hook , i listen to the newstalk commentary on the radio just so i can hear hooky , watch it on tv 3
when ireland are playing awfull , the only one to tell it like it is , is hooky

Gingervitis

Williams and Francis are doing a passable imitation of Hook and Pope at de mo:-)

razorblunt

Matt Williams took Francis to task there well on him, "were better than them and they're better than us...it's rubbish" good man Matt, there was also a beauty on TV3:

Jim Glennon: "Thats was waffle (after BOD's interview"
Matt Cooper: "Well being part of Fianna Fail you'd know all about waffle in front of cameras"

Gingervitis

Funny, I never thought that I'd see Williams defending EOS, given his column in the IT...

lockon...

meathman 007 wrote:

the coverage of this world cup in ireland is a complete joke imo - in sure there is a lot of people especially is rural areas that dont pick up utv and dont have setanta - so they miss out on pretty much all the group games as a result - really missing rtes coverage, hook does talk a lot of garbage, but it does make good entertainment

I have only the bog channels. This post was a saviour.

FlutterinBantam

Tv3 coverage is absolute rubbish. Cooper is a wooden as a coffin and the panel of Glennon/Costello/Henderson are poor.

Add to that the ads are tonked at us at every spare moment.

Commentary is also poor,with the co commentator tonight being an absolute plonker.

philstar

setanta are the best of the bunch so far,

but i can't make out the presenter Paul Dempsey's accent is it irish, english, welsh, scottish??

Fallschirmjager

well watching matt is even more painful then listening to him on radio....it the mental equivalent of being savaged by a dead sheep...

Gingervitis

philstar wrote:

setanta are the best of the bunch so far

Ya, imo Neil Francis - George Hook, only far more supercilious and annoying

Matt Williams - Brent Pope, except maybe more intelligent, i've a lot of respect for him.

razorblunt

Harsh enough, Williams holds back alot of criticism though he's probably afraid he'll get the whole Scotland debacle thrown back in his face!!

Must say I find Toland and Emmet Byrne very informed and articulate, no one line smart comments just pure in depth analysis

moe_sizlak

philstar wrote:

setanta are the best of the bunch so far,

but i can't make out the presenter Paul Dempsey's accent is it irish, english, welsh, scottish??

he,s english although seems to have become an irish man for this tournament
judging by his accent i reckon he,s from the west country in england , i.e cornwall , devon etc , south west england , unusual accent

as regards his presentation , pretty average , reading from a script all the time
oh and matt williams , the guy would see the positive side if georgia had beaten us by a 100 points last night

razorblunt

Dempsey is Irish I think, he was always saying "we" when he was covering the Irish games for Sky, maybe it's and Irish family or something, thought he was good last night though.

Dodge

moe_sizlak wrote:

he,s english although seems to have become an irish man for this tournament
judging by his accent i reckon he,s from the west country in england , i.e cornwall , devon etc , south west england , unusual accent

Born in Ireland, raised in Ireland. Went to college in UCD I think. 100% Irish and has always claimed so on his broadcasts with sky

Snickers Man

I get a much better picture on TV3 than I do with setanta because my cable provider is UPC and they SUCK!!!!!!. But back on topic: whoever was doing TV3's commentary for the Georgia Ireland match last night was so god awful as to be unlistenable to. I turned over to ITV to watch it.

As for the experts: i flicked around a bit after the final whistle and tried to listen to all of them.

Loved Matt Williams comment that Georgia only did to ireland what munster have done to everyone for the past 10 years.

Francis, although some people don't like his manner, is usually spot on in his analysis and his predictions.

He reckons we are out of the tournament even though he expects us to beat Argentina. his prognosis is that France will finish with 15 or 16 points, Argentina with 15 and Ireland with 14.

See how that pans out.

Snickers Man

philstar wrote:

Isn't that guy Gerry Thornley the irish times rugby corresponent (you hear him on the radio sometimes)....isn't he ...the quintessential D4 Head
his accent wrecks my head "roight roight the dort dort"

Would you prefer Jackie Healy-Rae?

EdgarAllenPoo

Snickers Man wrote:

Would you prefer Jackie Healy-Rae?

Only if he knows his rugby.

Does Thornley also think it's fashionable to dress like an unshaven greasy hobo or is that just him?

johnnyboy4711

watched all matches on this so far.
no complaints great pundits and great commentators!
j

spiderbeast

Just watching the Rugby on Setanta there. the coverage is really good but there's one thing I need to get off my chest.

Anyone else notice the way Paul Dempsey (the presenter) glances at the camera when asking a question to the panelists?

It's something which he got from SkySports and which Sky got from American tv.

philstar

yes, and i hate it ...its so cheesy and so sky

as if he's trying to connect with the "viewer":rolleyes:

but having said that i think setanta are the best of the bunch when it comes to world cup coverage.

bye the way his accent is weird can't make it out

zAbbo

Is that the guy who looks like Statto from Fantasy Football, and has a real mammys boy cows lick on him ?

He's a bit boring, and annoying tbh.

Maaaate Waaaaliams is the best on the panel

well its alot better than the tv3 coverage:(. makes me sleepy

AbusesToilets

Paul Dempseys eye brows are brilliant,it's like they have a life of their own.Everytime he starts talking off they go,up and down and all around.
I agree that the panel they have assembled is very good,the three of them give well reasoned comments based off of years of experience.It's a nice change form the McGuirk,Hook and Pope triumverate

Snickers Man

GDM wrote:

Only if he knows his rugby.

Does Thornley also think it's fashionable to dress like an unshaven greasy hobo or is that just him?

You didn't criticise Thornley's knowledge of rugby. On the contrary, you said he makes good points. You and philstar criticised his accent. I don't know which part of the country you two come from but believe me, Thornley's accent is not the worst. It's not even a Dort accent. It's just middle-class Dublin.

What do you need to know about him? His full name is Gervase Taylor Thornley. (He keeps that quiet, but wouldn't you?) His late father, David Thornley was a Labour TD and he (Gerry) has been a sports writer with the Times for as long as I can remember.

He doesn't have a forensic knowledge of the intricacies of every aspect of rugby but very few people do. And being a former international is no guarantee of a) having such knowledge or b) being able to communicate it. Think Gerry Guscott for an example of the former or Stuart Barnes for an example of the latter.

Like any good journalist, Thornley is knowledgeable about the broad reach of his subject without being, or even styling himself, an absolute guru. He is also well able to write about it in, I think, a readable and sympathetic style.

And no, I don't know the man personally but there are people with far worse accents (anywhere south of Bray) and far less knowledge of rugby pontificating in our media.

raven136

i think coverage overall has been decent but whats annoying is the pining for rte.the coverage then was also only decent,hook hasnt said anything intelligent about the game in years,he thinks he is dunphy now.Mcgurk is arrogant and patronising but pope and o shea were good.

Neil francis if he stopped smirking would be good and himself,laim tolan and dempsey have the best chemistry of them all.
Cheika has been a great addition but wallace isnt as good comapred to his sky or last word commentary.

The best commentators are the ones on loan from sky to itv

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

philstar

raven136 wrote:

Neil francis if he stopped smirking would be good

ya why is he always smirking, its like he's playing with himself or something to that effect.