Worst sports commentators on tv

Nathan251

I have been watching some of the europa league games today.

Setanta Ireland are ok, that guy Des whatever (commentator) seems to know his stuff and Lou Macari is ok as a pundit. Also in the studio Dempsey is decent and Pat Dolan is provocative and offers non-typical opinions. Most people hate him but I think he's good as pundits go.

But take a look at TV3, an absolute joke.

Matt Cooper is wooden and seems to have a pre-prepared set of questions and doesn't really interact with the guests, a bit like a schoolteacher testing the kids.

Tony Cas is just another cockney spoofer and Keown is ok.

But their commentator Trevor Welch is terrible, he can't even identify players, often he'll identify a player wrongly so imagine Kuyt has the ball and he says "It's Torres on the ball" and then Kuyt passes it to Torres, well Trevor has a problem now. He's already said Torres and Torres can hardly pass it to himself so Trevor will then mysteriously go quiet for the time while Torres is on the ball (probably silently raging that he's screwed up yet again) It really is hilarious if Torres holds onto the ball for ages. It happens a lot. He is also very obviously a Man U fan like George Hamilton and as ever with the worst commentators, their bias is easily noted. Jeff Kenna is horrendous as a pundit too and Lawro seems to think he is a comedian, he is, a deeply unfunny slightly strange one.

RTE offer something different, Bill O Herlihy is a great great host, you really miss Bill when Peter Collins is the host, Peter doesn't set the agenda at all and is just eager to please Giles and Dunphy and goes along with whatever they say, afraid to challenge them..and again he is obviously a Man U fan.

Dunphy is good entertainment but nobody with any sense takes him seriously, he gets his facts wrong so often it's unreal, he's pantomime.

Giles is decent but overly negative/critical while Ronnie Whelan/Ray Houghton or whatever lapdog joins the two heavyweights is again too intimidated by them and merely seeks to placate.

RTE commentators are a mixed bag. George Hamilton is too opinionated and seems to not realise that a commentator should describe the action instead of throwing his views out there, he seems to want to be a pundit.

Daragh Moloney is alright.

That's it, I won't mention the 3e coverage but if Gary Kelly is the most articulate of your pundits then you can guess how embarrassing it is.

your views? You go along with everything I've said I hope

zuutroy

George Hamilton rules. The voice of a sporting generation, and fck the haters!

Namlub

If it's Trevor Welch that says 'Real Madrid' instead of "Ray-al', and 'Jewventus', then him.

alipackers

I dont know who it was and I really hope I heard wrong due to celebrations, excitement etc, but when Babel scored for Liverpool yesterday when they went 1-0 up I could have sworn the commentator on RTE said

"What a great goal, thats the goal of the game"

At 1-0 I would have imagined that it was the goal of the game!

flyswatter

Anyone know why Ken Doherty was presenting the 3e coverage of the Everton match today? Never saw him as a presenter.

elshambo

zuutroy wrote: »

George Hamilton rules. The voice of a sporting generation, and fck the haters!

If "danger here" had cost you as much money with his poxy 10 minute victory speech hexes as he has cost me you wouldnt say that:rolleyes:

zuutroy

elshambo wrote: »

If "danger here" had cost you as much money with his poxy 10 minute victory speech hexes as he has cost me you wouldnt say that:rolleyes:

adds to his lore obv!

Sorry

Trevor Welch:

"Prospects here for <insert team>"
"Blah blah blah... THEATRE OF DREAMS"
"We're live tonight in Deportivo"

Utopia Parkway

Trevor Welch is godawful. Like some fella dragged off his barstool and given a microphone.

el diablo

Fat Dolan is awful and can't hide his love for Arseanal. :mad:
Dunphy has lost the plot and talks a lot of rubbish.

And Tommy Smyth on ESPN is just an embarrassment...:rolleyes:

K4t

Jimmy Magee on the Premiership....Oh dear!

Had to laugh the other day on the Premiership when Nani went for goal when he had a better option in passing and the commentator said bluntly, "There's Nani giving the ball away again, selfish as usual."

Jim Beglan stands out as being the best commentator around. Not in the slightest bit biased and a great, objective observer of the game.

Liam Byrne

The guys on Setanta and Sky who somehow manage to pronounce names like "Jose Maria Olazabal" perfectly, and yet can't manage not to mangle "Tomás [O'Leary]" "Donnacha O'Callaghan", "Ken Doherty", etc.

If I hear Toe-mas O'Leary, Dunnerka O'Callaggggggan and Ken Docker-tea ever again I'll scream!

irishultra

That is because Sky and Setanta are British channels and the Irish names you mentioned as foreign names to British people and are harder to pronounce than a name like the Spanishesque one you mentioned are.


I like Con Murphy, Ronnie Whelan(He's not everyones cup of tea tho), Fat Pat and Damien Richardson. Des Curran is good as well.

Ruu_Old

el diablo wrote: »

Fat Dolan is awful and can't hide his love for Arseanal. :mad:
Dunphy has lost the plot and talks a lot of rubbish.

And Tommy Smyth on ESPN is just an embarrassment...:rolleyes:

Into the back of the old onion bag!:eek:

Shane10

zuutroy wrote: »

George Hamilton rules. The voice of a sporting generation, and fck the haters!

absolutely, couldnt have said it better.
welch on tv3 is cat, tommy martin...oh dear embarrassing. keown as a pundit is really good. likeable bloke aswell.

Mossy Monk

Trevor Welsh (TV3) - ****
Ger Canning (RTÉ) - ****
Chris Waddle (ESPN) - ****
Andy Gray (Sky) - ****
Jon Champion (ITV) - ****

Every channel has them

el diablo

Ruu wrote: »

Into the back of the old onion bag!:eek:

Yeah, that's him. There's tons of sites on the internet campaigning to get rid of him.

Is he still on ESPN or has he been retired?

Liam Byrne

irishultra wrote: »

That is because Sky and Setanta are British channels and the Irish names you mentioned as foreign names to British people and are harder to pronounce than a name like the Spanishesque one you mentioned are.

I don't agree; if they can manage to remember that there's no actual "Z" sound in "Olathabal" then they can surely remember that there's no "k" in Doherty and no hard "g" in "Callaghan", and where they get "Dunner" out of "Donna" (especially considering there's already a name "Donna" that they can get right, which means there's no excuse whatsoever for saying "Dunnerka").

Birneybau

Clive Tyldsley (sp?) on ITV is just atrocious...
He does'nt even seem to mask his inherent xenophobia and belief that English teams and indeed the English National Team are the greatest in the world.The man gives me Tourettes whenever he is on the box.

CNUT,CNUT,CNUT

keefg

Jonathan Legard, F1 commentator for BBC.

Test For Echo

keefg wrote: »

Jonathan Legard, F1 commentator for BBC.

Drives (pun intended) me absolutely nuts. Didn't like him at the start of the season but I can't stand him at all now. I particularly dislike the way he says "yester..........daaaay". Please, please, get rid of him for next year.

/rant

andrew90

Jim Mc Grath of BBC racing is useless, a bit slow on the uptake, seems to be watching a different race than he,s commentating on

ElNino

alipackers wrote: »

I dont know who it was and I really hope I heard wrong due to celebrations, excitement etc, but when Babel scored for Liverpool yesterday when they went 1-0 up I could have sworn the commentator on RTE said

"What a great goal, thats the goal of the game"

At 1-0 I would have imagined that it was the goal of the game!

He actually said 'thats the goal of the night'

theneilmobile

Nightmare team

~In the Studio~
Hosting: hmmm, dunno, from the few minutes i've seen of Ken Doherty i'll nominate him

Analysis:
Alan Shearer -- Well its not really analysis with Alan but you know what i mean
Tony Cascarino -- Clinched it for me when Man U were playing some random sh*t team away from home and Tony says, 'One things for certian, it'll be a great game'. No tony, it wont, it never is

~In the stadium~
Jimmy Magee -- Senile old man who doesn't even know where he is, never mind what he's commentating on, always about 2 minutes behind the action and usually talking about something else when a goal is scored
Mark Lawrenson -- Smarmy pri*k with his sh*t jokes

Oh god and Tommy Smyth, thankfully I dont have ESPN but the one time I did hear him I couldn't believe it, seriously, robbie keane scored a goal where it hit his ear and tommy's comments were 'ear robbie, im over ear' or something to that effect.

And ill not have a bad word said against Ray Houghton, miles better (or 1.609344 kilometers better) than Ronnie Whelan

SlickRic

no contest.

Ray 'he should've done that' Houghton.

The Undisputed King of Hindsight.

razorblunt

Jamie Redknapp
Ray Houghton for sure!

HorseRadish

Jamie Redknapp for sure,where else can you hear such morsels as "Torres is the difference between the sun and the clouds" or "The ball literally EXPLODED off his foot,Richard!"

Right,Jamie!

moe_sizlak

Nathan251 wrote: »

I have been watching some of the europa league games today.

Setanta Ireland are ok, that guy Des whatever (commentator) seems to know his stuff and Lou Macari is ok as a pundit. Also in the studio Dempsey is decent and Pat Dolan is provocative and offers non-typical opinions. Most people hate him but I think he's good as pundits go.

But take a look at TV3, an absolute joke.

Matt Cooper is wooden and seems to have a pre-prepared set of questions and doesn't really interact with the guests, a bit like a schoolteacher testing the kids.

Tony Cas is just another cockney spoofer and Keown is ok.

But their commentator Trevor Welch is terrible, he can't even identify players, often he'll identify a player wrongly so imagine Kuyt has the ball and he says "It's Torres on the ball" and then Kuyt passes it to Torres, well Trevor has a problem now. He's already said Torres and Torres can hardly pass it to himself so Trevor will then mysteriously go quiet for the time while Torres is on the ball (probably silently raging that he's screwed up yet again) It really is hilarious if Torres holds onto the ball for ages. It happens a lot. He is also very obviously a Man U fan like George Hamilton and as ever with the worst commentators, their bias is easily noted. Jeff Kenna is horrendous as a pundit too and Lawro seems to think he is a comedian, he is, a deeply unfunny slightly strange one.

RTE offer something different, Bill O Herlihy is a great great host, you really miss Bill when Peter Collins is the host, Peter doesn't set the agenda at all and is just eager to please Giles and Dunphy and goes along with whatever they say, afraid to challenge them..and again he is obviously a Man U fan.

Dunphy is good entertainment but nobody with any sense takes him seriously, he gets his facts wrong so often it's unreal, he's pantomime.

Giles is decent but overly negative/critical while Ronnie Whelan/Ray Houghton or whatever lapdog joins the two heavyweights is again too intimidated by them and merely seeks to placate.

RTE commentators are a mixed bag. George Hamilton is too opinionated and seems to not realise that a commentator should describe the action instead of throwing his views out there, he seems to want to be a pundit.

Daragh Moloney is alright.

That's it, I won't mention the 3e coverage but if Gary Kelly is the most articulate of your pundits then you can guess how embarrassing it is.

your views? You go along with everything I've said I hope

bill o herrlihy,s style is that of likeable harmless gob****e , some like that style , some dont , personally i find the man an embarrassment , i think darragh maloney is an excellent commentator and an ok presenter , dont like and have never liked george hamilton

itac

irishultra wrote: »

I like Con Murphy..... and Damien Richardson.

With you on this one...they either say what's going on in the game, or stay schtum, which is a refreshing change. I love reading their random blogs on the MNS, "Rico"'s is great craic, if only for the dictionary revision he seems to include on it every week...!

Heard a great one years ago on Channel 5 in the UK, when Middlesborough were in the UEFA cup, Viduka got the ball in his own half, dribbled up the field past a couple of the opposition and scored. The commentary was as follows:
"Viduka...the big Australian has the ball. Nice country Australia. The wife and I went there on our honeymoon and...ohhh he's got a goal:D!"

Back on topic of worst commentators....tbh, I think they're on rotation between sky & bbc....despite being a Toon fan, I think Shearer's first few match commentaries/analysis were just painful to listen to...and Redknapp's ones weren't far behind!

Agricola

Ive been saying it for years - Trevor Welsh wins this award. I had alittle cry when I heard that TV3 had once again clawed back one night's champions league coverage.
TV3 have come on along way since the days of Packie Bonner and John Toshack (Dear God) but its still missing something vital. Matt Cooper is too wooden. Hes over prepared, if thats possible and doesnt interact with Keown or Cascarino. Its just alot of set questions that they must bang out between ad-breaks.
But Trevor is the King of bad commentators. He always behind the play, doesnt identify players well, especially if a player takes a shot at goal, you'll often see him waiting for the camera man to zoom in on the player before he'll risk naming a name! He doles out cliche after cliche after cliche. Never has any meaningful insight on the game.

Contrast this to G Hamilton who is always on top of things, knows and can pronounce the names of the most obscure players, and anticipates the play. He also can drop the script from time to time and speak about past matches, or players that have some baring on the current match. Not something that Trevor will ever do. Its easy see the Hamilton is real football fan and is actually doing a job hes loves while Trevor is just a news anchor who pretends to follow "Man Yoo" and has just been lucky to score a commentry job because his employers are too cheap or shortsighted to put a real commentator in the role.

manutd

I cannot stand TV3, likely i have Sky Sports to watch.

moe_sizlak

Agricola wrote: »

Ive been saying it for years - Trevor Welsh wins this award. I had alittle cry when I heard that TV3 had once again clawed back one night's champions league coverage.
TV3 have come on along way since the days of Packie Bonner and John Toshack (Dear God) but its still missing something vital. Matt Cooper is too wooden. Hes over prepared, if thats possible and doesnt interact with Keown or Cascarino. Its just alot of set questions that they must bang out between ad-breaks.
But Trevor is the King of bad commentators. He always behind the play, doesnt identify players well, especially if a player takes a shot at goal, you'll often see him waiting for the camera man to zoom in on the player before he'll risk naming a name! He doles out cliche after cliche after cliche. Never has any meaningful insight on the game.

Contrast this to G Hamilton who is always on top of things, knows and can pronounce the names of the most obscure players, and anticipates the play. He also can drop the script from time to time and speak about past matches, or players that have some baring on the current match. Not something that Trevor will ever do. Its easy see the Hamilton is real football fan and is actually doing a job hes loves while Trevor is just a news anchor who pretends to follow "Man Yoo" and has just been lucky to score a commentry job because his employers are too cheap or shortsighted to put a real commentator in the role.

matt cooper presenting soccer is akin to mark little presenting gaelic football , cooper is a politcal journalist , he is not suited , he has been spread too thin despite his many talents

i cant stand robbie earle on itv soccer , incredibly boring and far too nice
john giles while a professor of football is an incredibly dour and humourless man , i know he is a legend but the wise old uncle thing has gone on a bit too long , dunphy is beyond taking serious at this stage and souness is clearly in it for the pay cheque

DEVEREUX

K4t wrote: »

Jim Beglan stands out as being the best commentator around. Not in the slightest bit biased and a great, objective observer of the game.

God i hate Jim Beglin with an awful passion.

gcgirl

I cannot keep a straight face when Ryle Nugent says '' its a ruck''!

bazwaldo

SlickRic wrote: »

no contest.

Ray 'he should've done that' Houghton.

The Undisputed King of Hindsight.

"That was awful. All he needed to do was beat 10 players, chip it up, and overhead kick into the top corner passed the keeper". I can't stand Houghton as a commentator. You would swear he was Pele!

And Andy Gray is such a nob. So biased its unreal.

All British commentary tbh isn't great. All afraid to complain too much.

George Hamilton and Jim Beglin are good, and Trevor Stevens is decent enough. Giles is good most of the time and Dunphy spouts crap most of the time for effect. Souness is useless.

Mossy Monk

bazwaldo wrote: »

Souness is useless.

Souness is the only one who speaks sense all the time.

L31mr0d

It's odd this thread has gone on without posting the bar of sports reporting awfulness... and "boom goes the dynamite"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45DRy7M1no

Jezzington

irishultra wrote: »

That is because Sky and Setanta are British channels and the Irish names you mentioned as foreign names to British people and are harder to pronounce than a name like the Spanishesque one you mentioned are.

I have to disagree. It's not exactly rocket science trying to pronounce Ken Doherty's name correctly, or ditto Tomas O'Leary. They have no problem pronouncing the most complicated Basque names etc, yet when it comes to a straightforward Irish name, the perfectly on-cue mental block kicks in. I think it's just an unwillingless to accept that an Irish differenciation exists to their norm. After all, have you ever heard an Irish commentator going miles out of their way to say Gary "Ca-hill" instead of Gary "Kay-hill"? Not a chance.

They even do it with Pete "Dockerty" Doherty, and he's one of their "own".

Jezzington

Birneybau wrote: »

Clive Tyldsley (sp?) on ITV is just atrocious...
He does'nt even seem to mask his inherent xenophobia and belief that English teams and indeed the English National Team are the greatest in the world.The man gives me Tourettes whenever he is on the box.

CNUT,CNUT,CNUT

Amen to that Such an insular narrow minded Premiership loving twat. I'd say he was fighting back the tears when Lyon scuppered Liverpool's chances the other night.

Green Giant

Birneybau wrote: »

Clive Tyldsley (sp?) on ITV is just atrocious...
He does'nt even seem to mask his inherent xenophobia and belief that English teams and indeed the English National Team are the greatest in the world.The man gives me Tourettes whenever he is on the box.

CNUT,CNUT,CNUT

I could have punched him the other night during Lyon-Liverpool. He spent the last 20 minutes of the game going through every permutation possible - "If Liverpool were to draw here and then Fiorentina win tonight and beat Lyon in three weeks time, Liverpool would be out..." and then spent the seven minutes between Babel's goal and the equaliser telling us how the group would look very different if result X, Y and Z transpired.

Concentrate on the bloody match you're covering at the time and leave the maths to UEFA

Kirby

I quite like George Hamilton and Jim Beglin. Hamilton clearly likes his job, you can tell by the way he gets into it. And Beglin is refreshing in the way that he calls it how he see's it. A dodgy decision happens and even if it goes in our favour in an Ireland game, he will still call it how it is......usually followed by a "But we'll take it!"

Besides, it's not a real Ireland away game until George says "Danger here!"

Dunnie1982

bazwaldo wrote: »

George Hamilton and Jim Beglin are good, and Trevor Stevens is decent enough. Giles is good most of the time and Dunphy spouts crap most of the time for effect. Souness is useless.

I hate Hamilton & Beglin with a passion. Although Trevor Walsh and Jamie Redknapp are easily the worst on tv. I also dislike Andy Gray, John Motson (He used to be very good but not in last 10 years or so) and Robbie Earle. The best are probably Martin Tyler, Graeme Souness (only on RTE, not allowed to be himself on sky), Adrian Chiles and Alan Smith.

shockframe

i dont think matt cooper is all that bad.thought he has been very good in the gaa coverage on tv3.tbh i always had him down as a rugby man so was surprised when he was good at presenting gaa.

the worst i would say are
GAA
Ger canning - gets about 20 names wrong during a match.
Dara O'cinneide/Joe Brolly/
Pete Finnerty/Tomas Mulcahy/Declan Ruth

Soccer
Clive Tylsdley/George Hamilton
Redknapp/Lawrenson/Paul Walsh/Giles(Does he know there are leagues outside of england)/townsend/trevor stevens

briany

All I thought when I read the topic title was "No-one had better say anything bad about George Hamilton" whoever said he's the voice of a sporting generation was bang on the money, he is the man.

Kevski

Declan Quigley and David Kennedy, the F1 commentators on setanta. Quigley rarely gets his facts right and Kennedy constantly waffles on about his racing career but fails to mention that he is statistically the most unsuccessful driver in the history of F1.

One incident a few years back really sums it all up...

A wing mirror fell off one of the McLaren's during qualifying. Quigley's response: "Oh no, it looks like a piston has flown out of one of the McLarens and landed on the track! That can't be good David!"

Havermeyer

Is it just me or does Des Curran finish every sentence abruptly, if you know what I mean?!

"....and now it's Gerrard on the BALL...............played out wide to KUYT.............but misplaces his pass and goes out for a THROW IN....." etc.

I wasn't over fond of him when he first started, but he did grow on me. He does seem to know his stuff.

pipeliner

does anyone remember the gaa commentators for the ulster championships in the late 80's early ninetys? "he takes a shi't it's a goal!!

No? I must be old

PeteEd

flyswatter wrote: »

Anyone know why Ken Doherty was presenting the 3e coverage of the Everton match today? Never saw him as a presenter.

only cause he can't play snooker anymore

but sort of with this thread, anyone seen the fat yank on ITV's football coverage?
looks like he should be eating a chillidog at a Nicks game instead of disscussing this soccerball game?
Where have all the proper pundits gone, oh yeah 3e

Jezzington

Who the hell are the "Jabby" and "Pie-all" that Houghton keeps refering to...?

threebeards

K4t wrote: »

Jim Beglan stands out as being the best commentator around. Not in the slightest bit biased and a great, objective observer of the game.

The sound of his voice makes me develop suicidal tendencies

Jimmy Iovine

The worst has to be Jamie Redknapp and his amazing insightful opinions. What did he ever do to warrant being made the number one pundit on Sky Sports.

Him and everyone else on Sky were so far stuck up Ronaldo's tanned arse it wasn't funny. The chap could do no wrong. At least the lads on Rte realise that there is actually a team playing and it's not just one man.

Eamon and Johnny say some silly things at times but I worry for the viewing audience when they leave for good. Hopefully the punditry doesn't sink to the level of Sky and BBC but we can only hope