Thornley

GerM

JustinDee wrote: »

You mean Pat Geraghty?

The very same.

Foxtrol

Aidric wrote: »

Lol @ all the wannabe journalists on this thread. Mr Thornley is Ireland's foremost rugby journalist and has achieved that status on the back of excellent writing on the subject, not through writing pleasing pieces.

Gerry??

If you read through the thread you’ll see the issue people have is that over the last few years his standards have dropped and he has started to write pleasing pieces, pleasing the Irish management team not the general public.

Robbo

Any truth in the rumour that the reason Kidney has GT in his thrall is that his most treasured leather jacket is being held hostage in a vault, deep in the IRFU's hollowed out volcano?

Trojan

From the wikipedia page on Journalism:

Wikipedia wrote:

Journalists who believe they are being fair or objective may give biased accounts—by reporting selectively, trusting too much to anecdote, or giving a partial explanation of actions. Even in routine reporting, bias can creep into a story through a reporter's choice of facts to summarize, or through failure to check enough sources, hear and report dissenting voices, or seek fresh perspectives.

That pretty much summarises his position for me.

irishbucsfan

Haha Thornley gets the team completely wrong!

Tomtom364

Thornly -- Actual

15. R Kearney -- R Kearney
14. A Trimble -- F McFadden
13. B O’Driscoll -- B O'Driscoll
12. G D’Arcy -- K Earls
11. K Earls -- S Zebo
10. J Sexton -- J Sexton
9. C Murray -- C Murray

1. C Healy -- C Healy
2. R Best -- R Best
3. D Fitzpatrick -- D Fitzpatrick
4. D O’Callaghan -- D Tuohy
5. D Ryan -- D Ryan
6. S O’Brien -- P O'Mahony
7. P O’Mahony -- S O'Brien
8. J Heaslip. -- J Heaslip

Replacements:
16. S Cronin -- S Cronin
17. R Loughney -- R Loughney
18. D Tuohy -- D O'Callaghan
19. C Henry -- K McLaughlin
20. E Reddan -- E Reddan
21. R O’Gara -- R O'Gara
22. F McFadden -- D Cave

irishbucsfan

Thornley needs to give it a rest with his constant criticising of the team and it's management.

fitz

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Thornley needs to give it a rest with his constant criticising of the team and it's management.

I'm really looking forward to seeing if his hitherto absent criticism of Kidney begins to materialise in correspondence with him not getting the team spot on.
Would be quite telling.

Thornley has no inside track, he just does same as we do here - expect the absolute expected from DK

irishbucsfan

He just watches training and sees the team! Just as we can devise the team from inpho's photos. Maybe he wasn't given that opportunity this time around

GerM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

He just watches training and sees the team! Just as we can devise the team from inpho's photos. Maybe he wasn't given that opportunity this time around

I was trying to do the same via Inpho but there was no discernible pattern in training. A lot of mixing and matching. Different players wearing different bibs etc. I'd say GT just took the most likely guess when there was nothing to be gained from watching training.

JustinDee

GerM wrote: »

I assume it's the current media manager who does most articles and has been part of the organisation for a decade. He has published a number of partisan articles which have been extremely one eyed.

EDIT: What Dan said. He's the former Leinster media manager, jumped ship about a decade ago.

Asked around re. that web article. It is a copy/paste from an article penned by Tony Ward.

irishbucsfan

JustinDee wrote: »

GerM wrote: »

I assume it's the current media manager who does most articles and has been part of the organisation for a decade. He has published a number of partisan articles which have been extremely one eyed.

EDIT: What Dan said. He's the former Leinster media manager, jumped ship about a decade ago.

Asked around re. that web article. It is a copy/paste from an article penned by Tony Ward.

Doesn't it directly reference a Tony Ward article in the 3rd person?

Tim Robbins

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Doesn't it directly reference a Tony Ward article in the 3rd person?

Thornly is very PC. He'll never say a player was brutal. And he never gets too technical.

Emmet Byrne, Reggie Corriigan are very good for the scrum. Stuart Barnes (don't laugh) is pretty good for backs.

LuckyLloyd

Podge_irl wrote: »

The contrast between Thornley's treatment of Kidney and EOS could hardly be more stark.

Well, the achievements of either as Ireland coach could hardly be more stark.

Fishooks12

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well, the achievements of either as Ireland coach could hardly be more stark.

EOS was actually much more successful in terms of win ratio

Riskymove

Fishooks12 wrote: »

EOS was actually much more successful in terms of win ratio

"much more"?

64% vs 60%

EOS has a better home percentage, DK has a better away

Tox56

Riskymove wrote: »

"much more"?

64% vs 60%

EOS has a better home percentage, DK has a better away

Given the way they were treated, you wouldn't have thought that.

molloyjh

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well, the achievements of either as Ireland coach could hardly be more stark.

Ah come off it. How long can he continue to dine out on the GS - the only single bit of success he has had with the side? The longer he's been coach the worse things have gotten. His overall record is worse than EOS with far greater depth available to him. Not to mention that during the EOS era both England and France were far better than they have been the last few years.

EOS had done very well with the side up until the 2007 RWC - remember the 2007 6Ns? That RWC campaign and the 2008 6Ns were failures which led to us being 8th in the rankings. And he got plenty of grief over that. DK did very well with the side in 2009, but since then has had 3 6Ns failures and 1 RWC failure and we're 8th in the rankings. That is demonstrably worse than EOS. Yet he's immune to any criticism at all.

TonyTonga

Kidney had a fantastic year, 3 years ago, and since then the team is on a downward spiral.

Whats his win loss ratio in the last 2 years, anyone?

Tox56

TonyTonga wrote: »

Kidney had a fantastic year, 3 years ago, and since then the team is on a downward spiral.

Whats his win loss ratio in the last 2 years, anyone?

Since the start of the 2010-11 season against Tier 1 teams:

Played 19, Won 8, Lost 11 and Drew 1.

3 of those wins were against Italy, take them out and obviously the record is:

Played 17, Won 5, Lost 11, Drew 1.

Podge_irl

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well, the achievements of either as Ireland coach could hardly be more stark.

Indeed, EOS never had such a poor run of results.

TonyTonga

Tox56 wrote: »

Since the start of the 2010-11 season against Tier 1 teams:

Played 19, Won 8, Lost 11 and Drew 1.

3 of those wins were against Italy, take them out and obviously the record is:

Played 17, Won 5, Lost 11, Drew 1.

jesus christ. Who were the 5 wins?

Tox56

TonyTonga wrote: »

jesus christ. Who were the 5 wins?

Scotland (x2), England, Australia and Argentina.

Podge_irl

Ha, sucks to be Australia.

TonyTonga

shocking. Absolutely shocking.

Riskymove

Podge_irl wrote: »

Indeed, EOS never had such a poor run of results.

over his last two years 06-08

against tier 1, EOS record is W14 L11

take out italy and it becomes

W10 L11

thomond2006

Tox56 wrote: »

Scotland (x2), England, Australia and Argentina.

Wow, that says a lot.

molloyjh

In this day and age we should be taking Scotland out as well as Italy in fairness...

Since 01st Jan 2010 our record stands as below. I've grouped the teams into 3 "tiers". 3 is the minnows, 2 is the teams we should expect to beat (Italy, Scotland & Argentina) and 1 is the rest (everyone from the Welsh and English to the Kiwis). The % is our win ratio.

Tier|P|W|L|D|%
1|18|4|13|1|22.22%
2|9|7|2|0|77.78
3|3|3|0|0|100%
Total|30|14|15|1|46.67%

The 4 wins in Tier 1 were 2 against England, 1 against Wales and 1 against Australia. It's clear from that why we're 8th.

Podge_irl

OFTEN, and unfairly, portrayed as an innately conservative selector with undue loyalty to certain players

Good man Gerry, keep fighting the good fight.