Off The Ball : Newstalk 7pm - 10pm

JonathanAnon

I've started listening to this over the last few weeks, and I have to say.. the lads crack me up. They read out all the abusive texts that come in and abuse the hell out of each other. Like being in the pub talking sport with a few of the lads. Anybody else listen to it?

Have to say I'm a big sports fan though, can imagine anyone who had a passing interest in sport listening to a three hour sports show.

dh0661

Hubby reckons that they haven't a clue about rugby and hates their "posh boy" accents.

super_furry

Haven't a clue about football either.

GSF

dh0661 wrote: »

Hubby reckons that they haven't a clue about rugby and hates their "posh boy" accents.

their accents are posh? :eek:Not by Dublin standards!!!!!!!!:D

GalwayGunner

Yeah its a great show. Lads are good fun to listen to - even when they're talking about some of the most obscure sports!

I really love the Stan remix quote they have - "can you not feel it?!"

saltie

super_furry wrote: »

Haven't a clue about football either.

ridiculous quote, trollingesque and pointless. I dont understand why people just say these one sentence remarks without any backup. To get this response i spose.

Aaaanyway I think they`re great to listen to when your in the car, very entertaining. I wouldnt be going straight home to listen to them at the same time.

goingpostal

They have some very good podcasts on their website, Gilesie talking footer, the football show and Murphs country pages. I listen to them at work during the day. Good craic, they don't take it all too serious, and every now and then they hit comedy gold.

barneygumble

I would listen to the show regularly.

I think their rugby coverage is generally pretty decent. Compare it to the Right Hook (David Corkery FFS!) and The Last Word (Neil Francis, ho ho) and it is generally superior once they let their correspondents (Thornley and Lenihan) do the talking.

I like Graham Hunter; he manages to talk intelligently and coherently about football without churning out all the usual cliches.

They often come up with interesting left-field items related to "minority" sports and/or related to sporting events from the past. One such item this week was the story about Magic Johnson and his public declaration that he had contracted HIV.

A bit less of the student humour would be a blessing, but that is a small complaint in the context of an otherwise consistently good show.

Utopia Parkway

dh0661 wrote: »

Hubby reckons that they haven't a clue about rugby and hates their "posh boy" accents.

Your hubby must lead a sheltered life if he thinks those are posh accents.:D

JonathanAnon

I love the way they take the piss out of Ken. Even the intro music they have for him .. And the time people started texting in about his dead cat was just pure comedy gold.

Skid

I think it's a great show, always interesting. The presenters all know their sport and they get some very impressive experts on the show - they then ask intelligent questions and let the guests answer them.

It's also done with a good sense of humour, nicely paced and they cover a good mix of sports on the show.

Arthur Daley

The best show on radio.

el diablo

Yep, it's a good show. i listen to it a few times per week. Can't listen to it when Gerry O'Sullivan is presenting though. He gives me the irrits.

am i bovvered

Its a great show, I work evenings and the time flies listening to the crack .... like being in the pub.

Badabing

It's a great show at times they can be up their own arss at times tho. Sport@7 on RTE is very good aswell but it should be on for at least an hour. OTB dropped 2,000 listeners in the last book so they need to keep their high standards.

JonathanAnon

am i bovvered wrote: »

Its a great show, I work evenings and the time flies listening to the crack .... like being in the pub.

lol. that's exactly what I think. Get a few cans and sit back. Maybe this is the public house for the next generation?

I find the RTE Sports shows are too formal, nothing like what real sports conversations are like. The Sunday Sports show is a little less formal, but any of the weekday shows are very formal.. And always the same old people that I dont like - Des Cahill and all his stupid jokes, Pat "Ju Know" Spillane, Joe Brolly :mad:.... nobody I have any interest in listening to. And the RTE shows are just a half hour here and there.

Diabhal Beag

From Monday to Thursday its good but Ger Gilroy pisses me off in that I'm trying to be funny but I fail. I don't listen on Friday just because of him.

Love the culchie paper reviews. Best segment on radio.

Feeky Magee

Best sports show on Irish radio, hands down. Oisin Langan is a ledgebag, and I love the way Ken just doesn't seem to care that he's on the radio, I get the picture of him in a rocking chair, smoking a pipe, occasionally leaning forward to mutter some sarky wit.

If anyone on the weekend sport on RTE tried to crack a joke, they'd probably die of shock. Although to be fair, they do have that cursing wan to compensate.

FlutterinBantam

Load of rubbish actually, bunch of staccato speaking presenters indulging in schoolboy "wit" punctuated by some dude, Early who comes across like he is semi drugged or something.

Could take it for a short time, but not, definitely not,more that 20 minutes.


No way.

Feeky Magee

As they say "semi-drugged radio presenters are the best radio presenters".

I'm sure I heard that somewhere...

JonathanAnon

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

From Monday to Thursday its good but Ger Gilroy pisses me off in that I'm trying to be funny but I fail. I don't listen on Friday just because of him. Love the culchie paper reviews. Best segment on radio.

Hey did I ever tell ye the time I was doing IT work in Newstalk and had to remove the One Night In Paris video (in ten 80MB parts) from Ger Gilroy's computer so that I could install Belarc Advisor, a program for telling you the spec of a PC.

I was gonna text in a ask him about it, prob a good chance they would respond to it, what would you think?

Aidric

saltie wrote: »

ridiculous quote, trollingesque and pointless. I dont understand why people just say these one sentence remarks without any backup. To get this response i spose.

Bonus points for use of the word trollingesque.

el diablo wrote: »

Yep, it's a good show. i listen to it a few times per week. Can't listen to it when Gerry O'Sullivan is presenting though. He gives me the irrits.

Agreed on O Sullivan. The worst diction I've ever come across on radio. He sounds like he's chomping on a spoon of sour cream.

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Load of rubbish actually, bunch of staccato speaking presenters indulging in schoolboy "wit" punctuated by some dude, Early who comes across like he is semi drugged or something.

Could take it for a short time, but not, definitely not,more that 20 minutes.


No way.

Bit ott. The humour is banter like and representative of the sort of conversation you'd have with your mates. That's not to say they don't cover and research their output well.
I can see why it might not be to everyones taste but I like it.

FlutterinBantam

Don't like the format, simple as that.

What Mascherano might or might not have for breakfast doesn't interest me, but in fairness there's a audience out there who think it is, obviously.

Accents do my head in, espesially the dude with the lisp.

"John Giles" is treated like some minor deity and Early must have the most boring delivery ever to pollute any airwaves.

Still horses for courses I suppose.

Dub13

Arthur Daley wrote: »

The best show on radio.

Yes I would agree.

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

From Monday to Thursday its good but Ger Gilroy pisses me off in that I'm trying to be funny but I fail. I don't listen on Friday just because of him.

Did they ever say why they went Monday to Thursday...?Friday used to be the best night of the week on that show.

andrew90

Great show, a bit to much to have to listen to Giles for an hour on Thursday, like the bit after where they read questions we can ask about Giles now he is gone

Deise Tom

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I've started listening to this over the last few weeks, and I have to say.. the lads crack me up. They read out all the abusive texts that come in and abuse the hell out of each other. Like being in the pub talking sport with a few of the lads. Anybody else listen to it?

Have to say I'm a big sports fan though, can imagine anyone who had a passing interest in sport listening to a three hour sports show.

That Ken Early is fair boring.

connundrum

andrew90 wrote: »

Great show, a bit to much to have to listen to Giles for an hour on Thursday, like the bit after where they read questions we can ask about Giles now he is gone

I agree that Giles for an hour is a bit much, especially when it is followed by an hour-long football show. In fairness though, I think that the airwaves are a bit saturdated with Gilesy at the minute. He's on Newstalk nearly every day (morning, lunch of OTB) as well as being on RTE for every game and The Premiership, followed by his newspaper stuff. Fair play to the man for having nearly the entire football commentary sector cornered off for himself, but it does get a bit tiresome.

Apart from that, I do think that regular OTB should reinstate Friday nights as I thought it was well worth a listen.

The show is great as it is allowed time to delve into the unknown i.e. the amount of great books I've read thanks to the review section, the increased knowledge (although most times useless knowledge) I've gained via Don McClean, and the different angle I see football from thanks to Graham Hunter's contribution makes me a one stop shop of opinion down the pub of a weekend.

I've been hooked on the show since a few months after it started, and plan on being a fan until it ends/sells out to RTE.

Ciaran B

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as I laughed at last nights show. Every time they played the audio from the FIFA press conference with the journos and Blatter laughing their asses of at our ‘humble request’ to go to the World Cup I completely lost it. The way it then went straight into Ken Earlys commentary from the Ireland/France match was too much for me.

Love this show.

JonathanAnon

Ciaran B wrote: »

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as I laughed at last nights show. Every time they played the audio from the FIFA press conference with the journos and Blatter laughing their asses of at our ‘humble request’ to go to the World Cup I completely lost it. The way it then went straight into Ken Earlys commentary from the Ireland/France match was too much for me.

Yeah that was class. that plus the Roy Keane bit, where they have edited in Tom Dunne in place of the journailst who's phone went off. And playing the references that Joe Duffy made to the show. But that Ken Earley intro music is the funniest thing... Eoin says they keep extending it, and that it will be a minute long by the end of the week. lol

Hey, are they doing something on Roy Keane tonight?

deadhead13

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Hey, are they doing something on Roy Keane tonight?

No, that was a promo for todays Tom Dunne show.

JonathanAnon

deadhead13 wrote: »

No, that was a promo for todays Tom Dunne show.

thanks. Was there anything on about keane or was it just a promo for the show. I thought they said they were having a discussion or something. I could take down the podcast.

deadhead13

JonathanAnon wrote: »

thanks. Was there anything on about keane or was it just a promo for the show. I thought they said they were having a discussion or something. I could take down the podcast.

I didn't hear it but I'm fairly sure they did something on Keane today. What it was, I don't know. Newstalk now have a playback feature on their website. Today's Tom Dunne will be broken into 3 hourly segments. But again, I don't know what segment the Keane bit will be in.

dekbhoy

Love the song on it at the end about maradonna, anyone know the name of it .

deadhead13

dekbhoy wrote: »

Love the song on it at the end about maradonna, anyone know the name of it .

Maradona es mi amigo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NeXTRucSGg

JonathanAnon

I know it's a bit cruel to say, but the guy's lisp gets to me after a while. Not sure what his name is. Was getting really hard to listen to last nite. Was brilliant other than that.

I love Earley's pontificating, it's only time before Pat kenny's man has a go at him as well.

JonathanAnon

ah man the Ken Earley intro had me in tears again tonight..

Deise Tom

I like Newstalk, but why when they are covering sporting events is their comentry so far behind the scenes on the TV. The night Ireland played France in Paris, i put on the RTE Pictures and Ken Early doing the comentry. It felt that he was about ten seconds behind the pictures. I turned over to Radio 1 and Gabriel Egan was about three seconds ahead of the pictures. To often it appears that Newstalk are sitting in their studio with the TV on and telling us what has just happened and have sound effects on in the background to make us think they are at a particular venue. Someone said to me it Newstalk was the Eurosport of Radio.

mrsdewinter

I'm not a sports fan, but I found myself tuning in out of boredom last Monday night - and couldn't believe how much I enjoyed the show. They had an item on the most embarrassing moments in Irish sport, and it was refreshing to hear them slag off whichever Irish rugby international took part in some Wavin ad without trying to mollify the rugby clique. It just wouldn't happen on RTE - which, I note, seem to be going after the same semi-laddish atmosphere on Radion One's latest evening sports show.

Imhof Tank

Deise Tom wrote: »

I like Newstalk, but why when they are covering sporting events is their comentry so far behind the scenes on the TV. The night Ireland played France in Paris, i put on the RTE Pictures and Ken Early doing the comentry. It felt that he was about ten seconds behind the pictures. I turned over to Radio 1 and Gabriel Egan was about three seconds ahead of the pictures. To often it appears that Newstalk are sitting in their studio with the TV on and telling us what has just happened and have sound effects on in the background to make us think they are at a particular venue. Someone said to me it Newstalk was the Eurosport of Radio.

Well, its a technical thing isnt it?


And I know you refer to Newstalk in general, but you definitely never heard sound effects on in the background to make us think they are at a particular venue on OTB.

themont85

Deise Tom wrote: »

I like Newstalk, but why when they are covering sporting events is their comentry so far behind the scenes on the TV. The night Ireland played France in Paris, i put on the RTE Pictures and Ken Early doing the comentry. It felt that he was about ten seconds behind the pictures. I turned over to Radio 1 and Gabriel Egan was about three seconds ahead of the pictures. To often it appears that Newstalk are sitting in their studio with the TV on and telling us what has just happened and have sound effects on in the background to make us think they are at a particular venue. Someone said to me it Newstalk was the Eurosport of Radio.

They didn't have the rights for commentary of the game, so Early was only allowed to 'report' from the game. Thats why it is slow broadcasting, I'd imagine that NT is broadcast at a 10 or so second delay with the amount of speakers they have. I think NT stretch what is actually allowed in reporting at times (I honestly dont know what the rules are but they do branch into commentary at times i find) and they can stay with Early for a couple of minutes where naturally he starts commentating a little.

And yeah, sitting in their studio telling us what is happening of the TV is exactly what they are doing most of the time! The analagy with Eurosport is brilliant actually, albeit that Eurosport own the actual right to their games and are just doing it on the cheap!

Its annoying how radio and TV are rarely in sync, I like the BBC and the red button option of 5 live for comms over the pictures.

JonathanAnon

Just listening to it there. Have to say it's not a patch on Off The Ball. I dont like Andrew O'Conner and his smart arse remarks. Not as impressive a partnership as McDevitt and Early.

I think the fact that Off The Ball read out all of the most critical texts makes the show a lot more relaxed and inclusive. Dont think this would ever happen at a stuffed shirt organistion like RTE.

FlutterinBantam

Maybe not, but in terms of production values, information,and presentation RTE wins hands down.

'Off the ball' is like a group of spotty faced immature teenagers churning out the same auld grit against their adversities.

Early is a joke, and the rest of them can barely put a coherent sentence together.

May appeal to the 'Big brother' Top gear' 'X factor' brand of 'humour' and 'Seen & Done' merchants.


Certainly not for this baby.

raven136

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Maybe not, but in terms of production values, information,and presentation RTE wins hands down.

'Off the ball' is like a group of spotty faced immature teenagers churning out the same auld grit against their adversities.

Early is a joke, and the rest of them can barely put a coherent sentence together.

May appeal to the 'Big brother' Top gear' 'X factor' brand of 'humour' and 'Seen & Done' merchants.


Certainly not for this baby.

Or appeals to others who dont worry bout production values and enjoy hearing sports from pundits and contributors that havent been working at rte for the past 20 years with the same old bull**** every time.
When did rte last cater to an audience that wanted to hear about horse racing,american football,soccer,rugby and hurling in the space of 2 odd hours?

Dont know many listeners that tune in for the comedy tbh.

FlutterinBantam

That's what I said, appeals to the 'Big Brother ' and 'X Factor' brigade.

Not a fan of either I'm afraid.

Sútalún

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

That's what I said, appeals to the 'Big Brother ' and 'X Factor' brigade.

Not a fan of either I'm afraid.

Eh...neither do I. But I love Off the Ball. Don't see the relation to be honest.

FlutterinBantam

I suppose both 'genre' appeal to the masses who like contrived situations and don't mind a 4WD being driven through the normal mores of speech and grammar.

Both are slightly vacuous, some entertainment value perhaps, but totally lacking in esoteric values and journalistic merit and dumbed down topics.


More like a conversation between a bunch of half drunk teenagers down at the 'club'.

Not for me, but hey, they have a following and that's fine with me too.

Dub13

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

I suppose both 'genre' appeal to the masses who like contrived situations and don't mind a 4WD being driven through the normal mores of speech and grammar.

Its a sports show FFS,I would say 95% of the off the ball listener's don't care about speech and grammar.

Now if the bad speech and grammar was on prime time or something a bit more serious it would be a different matter.But its not,the lads have managed to get across a feel of mates talking about sport.Do you think it would have the same feel to it if they were pronouncing all their P's & Q's correctly..?

FlutterinBantam

Dub13 wrote: »

Its a sports show FFS,I would say 95% of the off the ball listener's don't care about speech and grammar.

Now if the bad speech and grammar was on prime time or something a bit more serious it would be a different matter.But its not,the lads have managed to get across a feel of mates talking about sport.Do you think it would have the same feel to it if they were pronouncing all their P's & Q's correctly..?

I would certainly agree with the first paragraph of your post.

Now I disagree with the other stuff, I'm listening to Jaqui Hurley on RTE calling Worcester 'Worster' instead of 'Wooster' not once but twice.

Needless to say she is not longer on my radio.It's all about education and class,and bad grammar points out the skoobie like a frikken lighthouse.
It's national radio !!

Not for this poster.

JonathanAnon

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Now I disagree with the other stuff, I'm listening to Jaqui Hurley on RTE calling Worcester 'Worster' instead of 'Wooster' not once but twice.Needless to say she is not longer on my radio.It's all about education and class,and bad grammar points out the skoobie like a frikken lighthouse.It's national radio !!

I dont think there is any more professionalism abuot the Sunday Sports show either. They ALWAYS mess up the intro, and should just abandon it at this stage. Jacqui doesnt seem to be well enough versed in the sports she is reporting and commenting on.

The lad reporting on the match yesterday for RTE was also calling them "Worcester", so she probably took the (wrong) lead from him.

delaad

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

I would certainly agree with the first paragraph of your post.

Now I disagree with the other stuff, I'm listening to Jaqui Hurley on RTE calling Worcester 'Worster' instead of 'Wooster' not once but twice.

Needless to say she is not longer on my radio.It's all about education and class,and bad grammar points out the skoobie like a frikken lighthouse.
It's national radio !!

Not for this poster.

Ah yes! the famous Bertie Wooster Cathedral.

Cats111

Flutterinbantam,

I'm amazed at how highly you regard yourself - and how often you feel the need to repeat your opinions, ad nauseum, on this topic. You've posted here numerous times about your dislike of Off the Ball and your problems with their 'speech impediments', 'bad grammar', 'top gear' or 'x factor' style humour etc etc - I could go on.

I could also pick holes in everything you've seen fit to criticise but life's too short. You're clearly not a sports fan.


Everyone gets it - you don't like the show. (Even though you've clearly listened to it enough times to have a long, long list of complaints).

Here's a mad idea that you might get your head around; switch the channel.

Seriously, give it a try.