Battle of the Pundits TV3 vs RTE

finisklin

Have to say that watching TV3 coverage and panel over the last few Sundays the analysis has been pretty good. Mike Finnerty commentry has been on the ball, fairly reasonable and balanced. The other good thing about him is that he is not Ger Canning!

TV3's panel of Peter Canavan, David Brady and Senan Connell are not as tired looking and have the cut of having recently played the game unlike the RTE dinosaur's of Pat Spillane, Colm O'Rourke and the tired Joe Brolly.

Brady always has a spark about his comments and has a good rapport with Matt Cooper. I liked the way they finished the Mayo/Cork analysis when Cooper asked each of the panellists in one word who would win the Dublin and Tyrone game. Brady answered by spelling out the letters D-U-B-L-I-N. Definitely more in touch with the GAA yoof of today than RTE's jurassic park assembly of pundits.

Though hard to beat RTE radio 1 for the best radio coverage and Brian Carty is a worthy replacement for Micheal.

Claonadh1

Have to agree with you there on TV3. Their coverage has been pretty good although I find Senan Connell hard to listen to.

As for Brian Carthy, I can't stand his commentary style to be honest.

Mongarra

Would agree with most of finisklin's comments but Brian Carthy, definitely not. Talks through his nose (not his fault but annoying) and could not agree that he is worthy replacement for Micheál.

Marty Morris is just a pain and Des cahill, while entertaining, has become a bit of a legend in his own mind.

Can't stand Joe Brolly but don't understand why there was such a furore over his Cork comments. Mayo showed he was right. Cyril Farrell is great crack with his understated comments. For example when a guy is poleaxed he might say something like "well maybe he got a bit of a slap there alright".

Samich

the hurling alalysists on rte are brilliant, ger canning is annoying, best pairing for me is darragh maloney and kevin mcstay, mcstay has to be my favourite of the lot.

plasmaguy

Mongarra wrote: »

Would agree with most of finisklin's comments but Brian Carthy, definitely not. Talks through his nose (not his fault but annoying) and could not agree that he is worthy replacement for Micheál.

Marty Morris is just a pain and Des cahill, while entertaining, has become a bit of a legend in his own mind.

Can't stand Joe Brolly but don't understand why there was such a furore over his Cork comments. Mayo showed he was right. Cyril Farrell is great crack with his understated comments. For example when a guy is poleaxed he might say something like "well maybe he got a bit of a slap there alright".

Haha, yeh Farrell and the hurling lads are good craic alright, as is Michael Lyster in fairness.

Brady and Canavan do have their finger on the pulse of the game.

As for the RTE football panel, yeh it just looks like they are going through the motions and picking up a paycheque sometimes. And have they ever got a prediction right?

They always pick Kerry to beat Tyrone don't they. And get most of the other big predictions wrong.

mossyc123

TV3 need to get rid of Matt Cooper for the next season and replace him with one of the Newstalk lads (McDevitt or Gilroy)

They are decent presenters but most importantly knowledgeable and passionate about sport.

Cooper is ok, but more a politics/current affairs broadcaster then sports presenter.

Brady and Canavan are decent pundits, not a fan of the co-commentator Earley though.

RTE need to give Darragh Maloney all the big games, he's the best commentator by a long way.

Des Cahill and Micheal Lyster are the best presenters and the pundits are all pretty ok.

RTE wins overall IMO.

TV3 could and probably will get better in the next few years... they just need to get rid of the Dub-centric focus on the football coverage, shorten the ad breaks and stop running competitions with ridiculously easy questions and pathetic prizes!

keane2097

Peter Canavan is a fantastic analyst IMO, a very obvious deep thinker about the game.

Brady on the other hand gets on my nerves with his analysis typically being pretty simplistic and lacking depth.

finisklin

RTE has the edge on hurling....fair point. Brady is passionate about the game and his analysis isn't as profound as Canavan's. His humour works and there is a bit of devilment about how he comes across which makes his points engaging.

Cooper is a rounded, professional presenter. He has developed his craft in current affairs and I don't think that's a bad thing. The newstalk lads have the gra, more natural in their musings of the game but not sure if they have what it takes to get the most out of the panel or the game for that matter. Maybe a stepping stone for them might be a GAA magazine style show for TV3 to wet their feet for this medium?

Des Cahill best presenter is way off the mark.....he tries too hard and this subtlety is lost on him. His natural instinct is to be one of the lads and to have that bit of craic or phrase that gets a laugh, IMHO. For me it doesn't work.

Mike Finnerty solid presenter and I love his choice of words which paint action pictures.....building from the back, freight train etc.

I think that RTE's approach needs some fresh, young blood and definitely not female! I don't mean this in a negative way but the three girls of Cantwell, Hurley and Evan (Can't spell her second name) are easy on the eye/sound well on radio but lack that depth of experience/insight into football or hurling. Over time they will grow more on me and are fine for the car.

The elder statesmen need to be revised and there has to be plenty of recently retired GAA players dying for a break in commentary, punditry. Key thing is that they don't have to be from the big counties - Kerry, Dublin or Cork etc. The counties that have knocked on the door which hasn't opened must have players that can relate to the majority of fans across the GAA world whose counties have won little. Just a thought.....

Best bit of Kevin McStay is on nob nation - priceless. He reminds me of Enda Colleran and the low accurate kick, high over the bar accent. Priceless......

Slightly off topic but just some more opinion BTW.

CiaranMT

It was my first time seeing the TV3 covrage this season but they've got a very good set-up going. Was very impressed by Brady in particular.

Syferus

David Brady's as mad as a box of Michael Jackson's hats but overall TV3's pool of analysts and general approach to analyzing games is fresher and more informative than RTE's. Can't say I don't try to listen out for what Spillane or Brolly say, even if I know it'll just make me shout at the box.

flahavaj

I really like the TV3 analysis. Their use of statistics shows up RTE's coverage fairly badly. The RTE hurling lads are good for a bit of craic but TV3 have thrown down the gaumtlet to RTE this season.

CWone

Really like Lyster but also like Senan Connell. It's good to have a choice at last:rolleyes:

Carthy303

mossyc123 wrote: »

TV3 need to get rid of Matt Cooper for the next season and replace him with one of the Newstalk lads (McDevitt or Gilroy)

They are decent presenters but most importantly knowledgeable and passionate about sport.

Cooper is ok, but more a politics/current affairs broadcaster then sports presenter.

Brady and Canavan are decent pundits, not a fan of the co-commentator Earley though.

RTE need to give Darragh Maloney all the big games, he's the best commentator by a long way.

Des Cahill and Micheal Lyster are the best presenters and the pundits are all pretty ok.

RTE wins overall IMO.

TV3 could and probably will get better in the next few years... they just need to get rid of the Dub-centric focus on the football coverage, shorten the ad breaks and stop running competitions with ridiculously easy questions and pathetic prizes!

About time somebody brought this up.He hasn't a clue and always sounds like hes reading what he says off a page!

Can't say I agree that tv3 is better than RTE.Matt Cooper is completely clueless when it comes to GAA and is completely the wrong man for the job.Peter Canavan is the only one of the pundits I'd have any time for.I do like Nicky English as a co-commentator in the hurling though.I think hes the one advantage they have over RTE when you compare him with the likes of Duignan.Now RTE's coverage isn't flawless either.As it's been pointed out already, Cahill likes to make it all about himself.He won't stand for any criticism of Dublin footballers either. Brolly and Spillane are just getting petty with their in-fighting at this stage, always aiming swipes at one another.At the end of the day, both stations could do with making major improvements.

Minister Boyce

Syferus wrote: »

David Brady's as mad as a box of Michael Jackson's hats but overall TV3's pool of analysts and general approach to analyzing games is fresher and more informative than RTE's. Can't say I don't try to listen out for what Spillane or Brolly say, even if I know it'll just make me shout at the box.

David Brady?? Simply Useless - Whats wrong with Darragh O'Se? More AI Medals than any of the pundits (bar spillane) put together.

flahavaj

Minister Boyce wrote: »

David Brady?? Simply Useless - Whats wrong with Darragh O'Se? More AI Medals than any of the pundits (bar spillane) put together.

The number of medals they have is pretty irrelevant surely?

Syferus

Carthy303 wrote: »

About time somebody brought this up.He hasn't a clue and always sounds like hes reading what he says off a page!

Never found anything wrong with himself, feels like people always have a tendency to proclaim someone terrible or great when it comes to punditry, though. The truth is almost always something in the middle.

Minister Boyce

flahavaj wrote: »

The number of medals they have is pretty irrelevant surely?

Fair enough point. However that still does not change the fact that Brady seems to be hell bent of making sensationalist/smart arse type statements all the time to try and out-do Liam Hayes. Does not cut the mustard for me i'm afraid.

barbarians

Prefer TV3 myself.

Cannot stand Joe Brolly. The odd time you'd listen to something he has to say you'd be bored to tears by the end of it because he talks so slowly.

Marty Morissey and Ger Canning are annoying too.

The hurling panel is fine I think while Pat Spillane and Tony Davis aren't too bad either although Spillane's repeated bemoaning of players not foot passing the ball has become tiresome.

I love TV3's plethora of statistics and they have a very fresh and good panel of analysis. Also, one of the TV3 commentators has some hilarious one-liners!

Much prefer TV3 anyway.

StupidLikeAFox

Has to be TV3, I really like their use of technology. The graphics are great as you get to see where the guys are getting their scores and some good stats but they dont overdo it either

The TV3 guys prob shade it on the analysis too. They generally talk sense about the game at hand, sometimes Spillane and Brolly can get sidetracked and start talking about the great teams of years gone by or other teams in the championship or something. Although I do think Tony Davis is quite good

Kojak

Its hard to say which is better tbh, each has their good and bad points.

TG4 have to be commended for getting commentators who get excited/interested in the game they are commentating on. Its more like listening to a fan describe the match (as long as you understand irish) than just the same auld catch phrases.

davegrohl48

I prefer TV3 as well but I see peoples problem with Matt Cooper. David Brady finally brings some passion to the analysts chair. Yes he can be fairly simplistic, but in fairness it was him highlighted the handpasses ratio in the Roscommon Mayo game. RTE rarely uses stats except to complain about how many frees were in a half or how many wides were in a half.
Brady speaks like he means what he's saying.
We've all had just too much of the RTE analysis which boils down to "But would this team be good enough to beat some of the top teams like Kerry and Tyrone?" Any team that doesn't measure up to that yardstick is dissected as being a poor football team.
"Well Pat what went wrong for team x there?"
- Ah stupidity, naievety, belittle, belittle, ...
That was a response from Spillane last year. Think it was for Dublin against Cork. A game they lost in the closing minutes. But he has used that type of analysis before where a team losing a tight game is suddenly well short of being a good team and put in a poor performance overall.
N don't get me started on RTE's belief that there was some golden era when people put the ball over the bar from 45m all the time, All Ireland gold on TG4 soon put that myth to bed.

Peace

RTE have an excellent line up with the exception of Morrisey - i find him to be a plank. Also Brolly is simply annoying and thats why RTE have him on again and agin as he doesn't know when to shut his mouth.

Kevin McStay is excellent.

finisklin

Though in fairness to Pat Spillane he did coin the phrase "Puke Football" in relation to Tyrone ability to stifle the game.

Not sure if this is a complement or not. :rolleyes:

keane2097

finisklin wrote: »

Though in fairness to Pat Spillane he did coin the phrase "Puke Football" in relation to Tyrone ability to stifle the game.

Not sure if this is a complement or not. :rolleyes:

Meh, he was upset about Kerry's inabilty to cope with Tyrone's tactics and lashed out.

I think most people in the South West have come to respect the tactic more over the years, including Spillane who I don't remember using the term very often in recent times.

In fairness to Tyrone, while they are occasionally dour and negative in their approach, they also play tremendous stuff in an attacking sense when they're on form, so you've got to admire their versatility.

finisklin

Depends which side of the fence your sitting on....the Kerry side or the Tyrone side.

elefant

I quite like both sets of analysts to be honest. They all know their stuff, aren't afraid to say what they think and all have a different way of giving their opinion.

The big differences I see in the tv3 RTé 'battle' are:
-The RTé HD is great.
-The RTé Marty Morrisey is painful. {Also, he should be given a kick up the arse everytime he says calls Donaghy 'Star'.}

finisklin

Who is the Alan Hansen of GAA punditry?

nordydan

Brolly all the way, the rest are just making up the numbers!!

The_Raker

I think Tony Davis is boring predictable and never ever enlightening on any aspect of a match

InchicoreDude

Brady is a top analyst; the best of the lot of them on TV or radio at the moment. Not afraid to make a point. And loves to encourage teams to "get stuck in", just like he did himself as a player.

Shane732

Colm O' Rourke is the best analyst IMO.

PhosphoricAcid

My favourite anaylst is Tony Davies, David Brady or McStay.