Off the ball show

profitius

Does anyone regulary listen to Newstalks 'off the ball' sports show?

I used to listen to if often enough but the amount of time they talk about rugby is pathetic despite its growing popularity in Ireland. They're all big soccer fans and not surprisingly theres little else but soccer on it and the odd human rights story which they're obsessed with too.

The reason I'm making a thread about it is because before the Ireland, NZ Maori game last week somebody was briefly talking about it when the host (Niall McDevitt??) said this classic "I'm all rugby'd out at this stage". Any chance they could ever get soccer'd out? :rolleyes:

thomond2006

They had a half an hour segment on rugby every Wednesday during the main season, not sure if it's still on now.

I agree though, their rugby coverage is very limited. Shame because their soccer/GAA coverage is very good IMO.

duckysauce

its a great show half an hour each wednesday night for rugby, and interviews on mondays after big matches , they do cover football a bit too much , but it is still more popular than rugby

duckysauce

thomond2006 wrote: »

They had a half an hour segment on rugby every Wednesday during the main season, not sure if it's still on now.

I agree though, their rugby coverage is very limited. Shame because their soccer/GAA coverage is very good IMO.

yeah it was on last nite thornley and williams were on

myflipflops

profitius wrote: »

Ireland, NZ Maori game last week somebody was briefly talking about it when the host (Niall McDevitt??) said this classic "I'm all rugby'd out at this stage". Any chance they could ever get soccer'd out? :rolleyes:

Eoin McDevitt.

He's actually a massive rugby fan. A big Leinster fan and a regular at RDS, I've spotted him at a couple of away games too.

I doubt he was saying he was 'rugby'd out' in terms of being sick of the sport himself, maybe just a statement that there is overkill going on recently.

From a fan perspective, I think the amount of rugby is brilliant but from an Ireland perspective, I reckon there is a bit too much.

Edit: Also, Shane Horgans borther is (or at least was) a producer on the show. They are big into rugby and cover it well. They just have to cater for the majority of their audience which unfortunately, means 75% soccer.

Zzippy

OP, I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a soccer World Cup going on at the moment... rugby's always going to take a back seat when that's on

I love the show, being interested in many sports, and find they cover rugby well enough during the season

profitius

Zzippy wrote: »

OP, I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a soccer World Cup going on at the moment... rugby's always going to take a back seat when that's on

It doesn't matter if theres a world cup on. Its not like they wouldn't be talking about soccer if it wasn't.

Is he not just echoing what has been said by so many people recently, the season is too long etc?

I think they could maybe give rugby an hour, one evening a week, could cover a bit of AIL and action abroad or include a few more interviews. They have had a French journalist on the odd time. Maybe they could have him on for a while every week or two to keep people up to date with the Top 14 as everyone knows whats going on in the ML and its easy enough find information on the Guinness Premiership but we hear relatively little on what is at present the best league in Europe.

There's other areas I'd like to see them extend. League of Ireland is always extremely short, for example.

I think they have a world cup hour on newstalk from 1-2 so there shouldn't be excessive world cup coverage really. However, ultimately its a commercial station and will put on what will get the greatest listenership.

duckysauce

profitius wrote: »

It doesn't matter if theres a world cup on. Its not like they wouldn't be talking about soccer if it wasn't.

there were people moaning when the six nations was on that they were covering too much rugby, so its hard to get a happy medium.

profitius

duckysauce wrote: »

there were people moaning when the six nations was on that they were covering too much rugby, so its hard to get a happy medium.

All I can say is I hope it wasn't soccer fans complaining!

Borders2 wrote:

Is he not just echoing what has been said by so many people recently, the season is too long etc?

I think they could maybe give rugby an hour, one evening a week, could cover a bit of AIL and action abroad or include a few more interviews. They have had a French journalist on the odd time. Maybe they could have him on for a while every week or two to keep people up to date with the Top 14 as everyone knows whats going on in the ML and its easy enough find information on the Guinness Premiership but we hear relatively little on what is at present the best league in Europe.

There's other areas I'd like to see them extend. League of Ireland is always extremely short, for example.

I think they have a world cup hour on newstalk from 1-2 so there shouldn't be excessive world cup coverage really. However, ultimately its a commercial station and will put on what will get the greatest listenership.

They spend hours a week talking about the private lives of soccer players. Ken Early should be writing for a womens magazine.

duckysauce

no general sports fans , dont realy get why you are giving out that the host said he was rugbyed out, the whole friggin irish team are rugbyed out too , and the poxy national station doesnt even have a sports show to compare to this , appart from the usual sat/sun reports.


They spend hours a week talking about the private lives of soccer players. Ken Early should be writing for a womens magazine.



think he is very passionate about his job / sport , same as alot of people here

profitius

duckysauce wrote: »

no general sports fans , dont realy get why you are giving out that the host said he was rugbyed out, the whole friggin irish team are rugbyed out too , and the poxy national station doesnt even have a sports show to compare to this , appart from the usual sat/sun reports

I'm saying that rugby gets very little time on air. When he said he was rugby'd out I mentioned that the soccer season is never ending but they don't seem to get "soccer'd out".

duckysauce

they like soceer more so, get onto rte to get more airtime for rugby

subfreq

Only problem I have with the show is that when they do the rugby segment they seem terrified to even slightly suggest that selections or tactics have been drifting over the last 12 months. They are pretty honest about other sporting codes but I ge the feeling that they don't want to question Kidney after winning the grand slam.

I am not asking for Kidney to be rinsed but just some balanced analysis.

bamboozle

i think by far this is the best sports show on tv or radio in Ireland by a country mile, they do plenty on rugby but soccer does take center stage but i think half the reason for this is that as the show is on weeknights there are always some soccer matches on mid week in the evenings which provide a good material for discussion, champions league, international soccer qualifiers, irish league.

To be honest i'm a huge rugby fan who is also currently all rugby'd out at the moment!


if anyone has the misfortune of listening to Des Cahill and his bunch of GAA obsessed fellow 'sports' reporters on RTE then you'll realised how poor RTE's sports coverage is.
i honestly think if we won the world cup in Rugby the following morning Cahill would start off his sports segment with GAA, then mention Man United then squeeze in a bit of rugby at the end.

JustinDee

I think they broadcast plenty of rugby stuff. Not really a fan of their pundits but its something to go 'oh ffs' to when driving the car.
They've even had Mike Rylance on his book about what happened to rugby league in France during the Vichy years.
They're also fairly funny.

Best moment for me was actually when Brian Kerr was live by phone from the Faroe Islands and his battery was running out. He lost contact his end but was still on air saying 'ah sh*te'

chupacabra

They give enough coverage to rugby. I listen to Off the Ball more for the banter and "dog chat". They always have good interviews with players and their wednesday night rugby slot is great. You can almost smell the grease dripping off thornleys head and into the phone as he spends 15 minutes telling us what we already know :pac:

anonymous_joe

It's a good show, but we're a football mad nation and it caters to that.

profitius

anonymous_joe wrote: »

It's a good show, but we're a football mad nation and it caters to that.

Thats very debatable. Most of the country would be GAA fans and alot of GAA fans are also fans of rugby. Thats why Munster have so many fans.

Look at Cork City soccer club. It was the only professional club in Cork but still went bust. (Cork is the second biggest city in the republic.) Thats how popular soccer is in some places.

Bamboozle wrote:

if anyone has the misfortune of listening to Des Cahill and his bunch of GAA obsessed fellow 'sports' reporters on RTE then you'll realised how poor RTE's sports coverage is.
i honestly think if we won the world cup in Rugby the following morning Cahill would start off his sports segment with GAA, then mention Man United then squeeze in a bit of rugby at the end.

GAA sports are Irish with Irish players and Irish coaches so I don't mind GAA coverage. Also, the GAA season doesn't last too long.

anonymous_joe

profitius wrote: »

Thats very debatable. Most of the country would be GAA fans and alot of GAA fans are also fans of rugby. Thats why Munster have so many fans.

Look at Cork City soccer club. It was the only professional club in Cork but still went bust. (Cork is the second biggest city in the republic.) Thats how popular soccer is in some places.

Bad management doesn't equate to a lack of support.

profitius

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Bad management doesn't equate to a lack of support.

It was bad management that decided to turn the club professional when there wasn't the fan base for it. Which comes back to my point that soccer isn't that important in certain parts of the country.

myflipflops

profitius wrote: »

Look at Cork City soccer club. It was the only professional club in Cork but still went bust. (Cork is the second biggest city in the republic.) Thats how popular soccer is in some places.
.

It's an example of how popular DOMESTIC soccer is in some places. Unfortunately, Irish people are a lot more likely to follow the Premier League than the Airtricity League.

Domestic Irish soccer can't be used as any kind of measure of the sports popularity.

profitius wrote: »

Which comes back to my point that soccer isn't that important in certain parts of the country.

What parts of the country? It's widely followed nearly everywhere in my opinion.


**I'm not a big soccer fan at all by the way.

profitius

myflipflops wrote: »

It's an example of how popular DOMESTIC soccer is in some places. Unfortunately, Irish people are a lot more likely to follow the Premier League than the Airtricity League.

Domestic Irish soccer can't be used as any kind of measure of the sports popularity.


What parts of the country? It's widely followed nearly everywhere in my opinion.


**I'm not a big soccer fan at all by the way.

I mentioned those points because somebody said Ireland is a football mad nation. I have an interest in soccer myself as well as other sports but I think theres too much soccer on.

The off the ball show is 3 hours long. 2 hours discussing mainly soccer and then they have the football show for the last hour.

myflipflops

profitius wrote: »

I mentioned those points because somebody said Ireland is a football mad nation. I have an interest in soccer myself as well as other sports but I think theres too much soccer on.

The off the ball show is 3 hours long. 2 hours discussing mainly soccer and then they have the football show for the last hour.

Your point being that the show is more focused on soccer than it needs to be to accomodate the tastes of the average Irish sports fan?

If so, I probably agree.

pajoguy

This show is great when your driving as the time flies. Hope they never give up on it cause its my saving grace for my 3/4 hour journey home from training/matches 3-4 evenings a week. Alot of soccer in fairness but they do cover alot of the main leagues so its bound to take up a bit of time.

duckysauce

profitius wrote: »

I mentioned those points because somebody said Ireland is a football mad nation. I have an interest in soccer myself as well as other sports but I think theres too much soccer on.

The off the ball show is 3 hours long. 2 hours discussing mainly soccer and then they have the football show for the last hour.

its not mainly soccer they do loads of sports , boxing , basketball alot of gaa first 2 hours are not just about soccer , maybe lately with the event in south africa going on they talk a bit more about soccer.

profitius

myflipflops wrote: »

Your point being that the show is more focused on soccer than it needs to be to accomodate the tastes of the average Irish sports fan?

If so, I probably agree.

Yeah thats my main point. If there was less soccer there'd be more room for other sports including rugby.

Judgement Day

I don't know, it's probably my age as I find the show has a bit too much chemistry for my liking - in common with a lot of Newstalk shows (Clare Byrne and Ivan Yates) - the lads are in love with the sound of their own voices. For me the most entertaining part of the show are the intros - you know 'the muppets in the press box say he deserves another chance, he does on his bollocks..' etc.

Any hot tips for the All Blacks match - I'm thinking All Black try scorers as there's not much else to be had?

duckysauce

profitius wrote: »

Does anyone regulary listen to Newstalks 'off the ball' sports show?

I used to listen to if often enough but the amount of time they talk about rugby is pathetic despite its growing popularity in Ireland. They're all big soccer fans and not surprisingly theres little else but soccer on it and the odd human rights story which they're obsessed with too.

The reason I'm making a thread about it is because before the Ireland, NZ Maori game last week somebody was briefly talking about it when the host (Niall McDevitt??) said this classic "I'm all rugby'd out at this stage". Any chance they could ever get soccer'd out? :rolleyes:

you must not really listen that often if you dont know the hosts name , Matt Cooper made the same comment today about being rugbyed out :eek: omg

irishh_bob

profitius wrote: »

Does anyone regulary listen to Newstalks 'off the ball' sports show?

I used to listen to if often enough but the amount of time they talk about rugby is pathetic despite its growing popularity in Ireland. They're all big soccer fans and not surprisingly theres little else but soccer on it and the odd human rights story which they're obsessed with too.

The reason I'm making a thread about it is because before the Ireland, NZ Maori game last week somebody was briefly talking about it when the host (Niall McDevitt??) said this classic "I'm all rugby'd out at this stage". Any chance they could ever get soccer'd out? :rolleyes:

the ( real ) world cup is on right now , surely its understandable that the show primarily focuses on soccer , rugby recieves a disproportionate level of media coverage in this country for its level of popularity

irishh_bob

myflipflops wrote: »

It's an example of how popular DOMESTIC soccer is in some places. Unfortunately, Irish people are a lot more likely to follow the Premier League than the Airtricity League.

Domestic Irish soccer can't be used as any kind of measure of the sports popularity.




What parts of the country? It's widely followed nearly everywhere in my opinion.


**I'm not a big soccer fan at all by the way.

outside the main citys , GAA is all powerfull in this country , it is much more than a sport , its a national movement , while soccer is twice as popular as rugby in ireland , GAA is four times as popular as both put together

wonton

irishh_bob wrote: »

outside the main citys , GAA is all powerfull in this country , it is much more than a sport , its a national movement , while soccer is twice as popular as rugby in ireland , GAA is four times as popular as both put together

what!? rugby has 152,000 players in ireland, and i think soccer 250,000.

so rugby + soccer = 402,000

402,000 times 4 =1,608,000


so we have about a million and a half gaa players?

wonton

irishh_bob wrote: »

the ( real ) world cup is on right now , surely its understandable that the show primarily focuses on soccer , rugby recieves a disproportionate level of media coverage in this country for its level of popularity

thats bull crap, rugby has a huge about of players and its number of a fans are increasing HUGELY, i know someone who coachs soccer teams as his job and he has said he has been noticing the increase of rugby for years at thinks it will overtake soccer playerwise at list in about 10 years, and spectater wise soon after

crisco10

wonton wrote: »

what!? rugby has 152,000 players in ireland, and i think soccer 250,000.

so rugby + soccer = 402,000

402,000 times 4 =1,608,000


so we have about a million and a half gaa players?

I remember seeing a stat that there were over million Gaelic Footballers and about 3/4 million hurlers. so knocking out the overlap, you can imagine there are about 1.5 million players or so. Everybody plays GAA outside the cities until a fair age. Unreal numbers. I must try and find that source...

wonton

was it the book of amazingly wrong statistics?

that would mean something like 1 in 3 people play gaa.

irishh_bob

wonton wrote: »

what!? rugby has 152,000 players in ireland, and i think soccer 250,000.

so rugby + soccer = 402,000

402,000 times 4 =1,608,000


so we have about a million and a half gaa players?

how many registered players thier are does not define a sports popularity , GAA is the cornerstone and the lifeblood of rural ireland

ps , i perfer soccer to gaa btw

irishh_bob

wonton wrote: »

thats bull crap, rugby has a huge about of players and its number of a fans are increasing HUGELY, i know someone who coachs soccer teams as his job and he has said he has been noticing the increase of rugby for years at thinks it will overtake soccer playerwise at list in about 10 years, and spectater wise soon after

i sincerley hope not

wonton

irishh_bob wrote: »

i sincerley hope not

i do, but lets no go there

anonymous_joe

crisco10 wrote: »

I remember seeing a stat that there were over million Gaelic Footballers and about 3/4 million hurlers. so knocking out the overlap, you can imagine there are about 1.5 million players or so. Everybody plays GAA outside the cities until a fair age. Unreal numbers. I must try and find that source...

A million GAA players? My arse there are.

Several flaws anyway.

Exclusivity is a crock of shíte, a mate of mine plays rugby and football.

Hurling's played in about two counties, so you can discount that, while most people who play GAA also play football.

Football's most popular in Dublin, but I've never met many who liked one of the three sports and none of the others.

crisco10

anonymous_joe wrote: »

A million GAA players? My arse there are.

Several flaws anyway.

Exclusivity is a crock of shíte, a mate of mine plays rugby and football.

Hurling's played in about two counties, so you can discount that, while most people who play GAA also play football.

Football's most popular in Dublin, but I've never met many who liked one of the three sports and none of the others.

I suspect what I read was that GAA club members as opposed to players. There are over 1 million members seems to be all google returns on a quick search.
E.g. http://www.president.ie/index.php?section=5&speech=790&lang=eng

Regardsless, thats a heck of a lot of numbers.

And yes exclusivity is nowhere in Irish sport, a lot of rugby players i know play GAA during the summer etc.

Ciaran-Irl

How do AIL attendances stand up against Airtricity attendances does anyone know?

JustinDee

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

How do AIL attendances stand up against Airtricity attendances does anyone know?

From being at various clubs with my job during the season, I'd say not the best.

Ciaran-Irl

JustinDee wrote: »

From being at various clubs with my job during the season, I'd say not the best.

Sorry, didn't phrase that question very well. I have a good idea about AIL attendances, I just don't have the first clue about Airtricity league games. Do they get many? Is it in the hundreds even?

anonymous_joe

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

Sorry, didn't phrase that question very well. I have a good idea about AIL attendances, I just don't have the first clue about Airtricity league games. Do they get many? Is it in the hundreds even?

Airtricity as in LoI?

They'd have similar attendances to a Welsh ML side.

JustinDee

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Airtricity as in LoI?

They'd have similar attendances to a Welsh ML side.

So better than the AIB League then.

LightningBolt

Two to three thousand for the big dublin teams and a few of the country sides. Throw in a derby and you're taking four thousand plus.

Edit: Definitely better than AIL attendances, no where near provincial attendances even if all Airtricity games were combined.

danthefan

I love Off The Ball I have to say, would always listen to it if I can.

sock puppet

irishh_bob wrote: »

outside the main citys , GAA is all powerfull in this country , it is much more than a sport , its a national movement , while soccer is twice as popular as rugby in ireland , GAA is four times as popular as both put together

I think you're totally off the mark there. Certainly in my experience it's nothing like a "national movement" in rural areas. Everywhere is different. Most of us wanted to play soccer as kids, followed by gaelic football. There are plenty of kids who want to play rugby and soccer but the problem is that a lot of schools either don't have teachers coaching these games, or the coaching is of a lower standard to what they offer in gaelic games.

thehighground

sock puppet wrote: »

I think you're totally off the mark there. Certainly in my experience it's nothing like a "national movement" in rural areas. Everywhere is different. Most of us wanted to play soccer as kids, followed by gaelic football. There are plenty of kids who want to play rugby and soccer but the problem is that a lot of schools either don't have teachers coaching these games, or the coaching is of a lower standard to what they offer in gaelic games.

Every parish in Ireland has a GAA club and most of them have a decent enough clubhouse to go with it. If soccer and rugby are more popular than GAA, surely there would be more teachers who would be willing to coach it in schools?

Have a look here at what the GAA do. They have a whole website devoted to training and education, and as far as I know provide free coaching to schools which most school principles are delighted to avail of as it saves them money to pay for other stuff. As far as I know, Dublin has about 30 fulltime development officers/coaches.

http://www.gaa.ie/coaching-and-games-development/schools/primary-schools/

anonymous_joe

thehighground wrote: »

Every parish in Ireland has a GAA club and most of them have a decent enough clubhouse to go with it. If soccer and rugby are more popular than GAA, surely there would be more teachers who would be willing to coach it in schools?

Have a look here at what the GAA do. They have a whole website devoted to training and education, and as far as I know provide free coaching to schools which most school principles are delighted to avail of as it saves them money to pay for other stuff. As far as I know, Dublin has about 30 fulltime development officers/coaches.

http://www.gaa.ie/coaching-and-games-development/schools/primary-schools/

Going from my own personal experience, I went to a rugby school. Every kid, when given the chance, played football, including the lads who went on to play for the Leinster Academy side.

I've friends down the country who went to Gah schools who'd say something similar.

And in fairness, GAA is very important from a community perspective, gives small towns something to rally around.

thehighground

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Going from my own personal experience, I went to a rugby school. Every kid, when given the chance, played football, including the lads who went on to play for the Leinster Academy side.

I've friends down the country who went to Gah schools who'd say something similar.

And in fairness, GAA is very important from a community perspective, gives small towns something to rally around.

When you say 'football' which one do you mean - soccer or gaelic?