Off The Ball Official Thread <Mod Note - Post #1, #533, #6651>

RoversCeltic

Not one English player would get on this Irish team us what BOD and otb were saying this year
.are they sheepish?

Tell me how

RoversCeltic wrote: »

Not one English player would get on this Irish team us what BOD and otb were saying this year
.are they sheepish?

BOD said it on OTB in February. Before the 6 nations. After Ireland had beaten the All Blacks, were #1 in the world and favourites for the 6N.

It's easy be wise looking back and saying that was nonsense but it wasn't near as unbelievable then as it seems now.

Scott Tenorman

Tell me how wrote: »

BOD said it on OTB in February. Before the 6 nations. After Ireland had beaten the All Blacks, were #1 in the world and favourites for the 6N.

It's easy be wise looking back and saying that was nonsense but it wasn't near as unbelievable then as it seems now.

Ireland were not #1 then

Dog Murphy

Tell me how wrote: »

BOD said it on OTB in February. Before the 6 nations. After Ireland had beaten the All Blacks, were #1 in the world and favourites for the 6N.

It's easy be wise looking back and saying that was nonsense but it wasn't near as unbelievable then as it seems now.

There has never been a time in the history of Rugby where not one English player wouldn't have been good enough to get into the Ireland team.


It was a nonsensical statement England won the 6 nations the 2 years before Ireland won the grand slam yet suddenly we were supposed to be in a completely different league than they were because of one excellent year.

ButtersSuki

Tell me how wrote: »

BOD said it on OTB in February. Before the 6 nations. After Ireland had beaten the All Blacks, were #1 in the world and favourites for the 6N.

It's easy be wise looking back and saying that was nonsense but it wasn't near as unbelievable then as it seems now.

To be fair I think he said Tuilagi would have taken one of the centre positions, but one from 15 is almost as daft and as arrogant a comment as no-one would make the team. I've always found it funny that we call out English sporting arrogance but never our own - you'll still hear Irish fans saying Murray and Sexton are the best half back pairing in world rugby; as well as being the best 9 and 10 in the world respectively. There's been precious little evidence of that for a long time....and I say this as a fan.

RoversCeltic

Tell me how wrote: »

BOD said it on OTB in February. Before the 6 nations. After Ireland had beaten the All Blacks, were #1 in the world and favourites for the 6N.

It's easy be wise looking back and saying that was nonsense but it wasn't near as unbelievable then as it seems now.

He is meant to be a knowledgeable rugby analysis, how could he come out with that guff

CatFromHue

The context is important here.

England only won 2 games in the 2018 6N and we beat them comfortably in Twickenham that season.

We then went on to win the Grand Slam and had a great end of year.

I personally would have Billy Vunipola in my team every day but I can see why BOD said what he said in Februrary.

dominatinMC

In fairness lads, I'm not BOD's biggest fan, but retrospective analysis of what he said at the time is a bit harsh. You can probably go back through the analysis of any pundit, and pick out some remarks which can be considered ridiculous now. Some on here were criticising BOD a while ago for not being vociferous/opinionated enough, he says something like this and he is slaughtered. Can't win!

BTW, I do not for a minute agree with what he said. All I'm saying is that I can understand why he said it, in the heat of the moment.

diusmr8a504cvk

Thumped by Wales, England (twice) and Japan as well as being embarrassed by New Zealand. Losing 5/14 games when you're supposed to be one of the top tier one nations is not good.

CatFromHue

Has anyone being saying it is?

Back after we beat New Zealand last November everyone was on a high.

Going into the RWC that high had all gone and we were just hoping for the best.

RoversCeltic

CatFromHue wrote: »

The context is important here.

England only won 2 games in the 2018 6N and we beat them comfortably in Twickenham that season.

We then went on to win the Grand Slam and had a great end of year.

I personally would have Billy Vunipola in my team every day but I can see why BOD said what he said in Februrary.

the context is important but it is so arrogant & evidently wrong

CatFromHue

After the year we had in 2018 it's not really that arrogant.

He's wrong, as I mentioned about Vunipola, but not massively on what things looked like at the time.

Who else, at the time, would you have picked from their team?

RoversCeltic

CatFromHue wrote: »

After the year we had in 2018 it's not really that arrogant.

He's wrong, as I mentioned about Vunipola, but not massively on what things looked like at the time.

Who else, at the time, would you have picked from their team?

Man city won the EPL last season, not one Liverpool player would get on the Man City team

that's the guff that he said

RugbyLover123

Think that’s harsh.

I remember BOD saying that and going through the England 1-15 myself and saying to it would only be Billy V and Tuilagi who would get in the Ireland team for me. Both were injured at the time so that’s why he didn’t include them.

This was said when Leinster & Ireland had dominated all before them that year and England (and Saracens!) were in nowhere near the form they are now!

Tell me how

Last week Danny Mills did a combined Man Utd/Liverpool 11 which had no Man Utd players.
Very few could argue with it then, but they drew yesterday and if he was to do it today, you can bet it wouldn't be 11-0 in one teams favour.

Hindsight is 20-20

Dog Murphy

Tell me how wrote: »

Last week Danny Mills did a combined Man Utd/Liverpool 11 which had no Man Utd players.
Very few could argue with it then, but they drew yesterday and if he was to do it today, you can bet it wouldn't be 11-0 in one teams favour.

Hindsight is 20-20

There is a clear gap between Liverpool and Man Utd over the last 3 or 4 years, England and ourselves have been pretty level over the last few years in Rugby so stating we were that much better than them wasn't really accurate.

If you name a Liverpool v Man Utd 1-11 today it would still be 100% Liverpool players on the team.There is a clear and obvious gap in standard between those 2 teams over a decent period of time.

In the last decade or more the Irish rugby media have always had a sad obsession with putting down English rugby despite us not being any better than them ourselves.Constant whining about the supposed unfair advantage Saracens have, complaining about the style of rugby England played over the years and the style that was played in the English premiership (despite it being a far superior competition to the Pro 12) and I am sure there are plenty of other examples I can't think of off the top of my head.

CatFromHue

RoversCeltic wrote: »

Man city won the EPL last season, not one Liverpool player would get on the Man City team

that's the guff that he said

Not really as there was only a point between them at the end of last season and it was a win, to city, and a draw in the games they played.

In the rugby Ireland had a far better season than England did. In the 2018 6N England only won 2 games, Ireland 5. Then there was the tour win in Australia, winning and winning all the Autumn Internationals, incl beating NZ, to factor in too.

I think BOD is wrong, as I'd always have Billy V in my team, but I can see why he said it.

Aidric

Why is Cliona Foley so often on the paper review? She ruins every single one of them; constantly interrupting the host and her fellow guests, answering questions with her own agenda and ranting to an unhealthy scale. She is an absolute melt.

On the Heaslip topic she was like a dog with a bone. She kept repeating the same point whilst qualifying it by saying she wasn't accusing him of anything while the obvious inference was that she was doing exactly that.

Historybluff

Aidric wrote: »

Why is Cliona Foley so often on the paper review? She ruins every single one of them; constantly interrupting the host and her fellow guests, answering questions with her own agenda and ranting to an unhealthy scale. She is an absolute melt.

On the Heaslip topic she was like a dog with a bone. She kept repeating the same point whilst qualifying it by saying she wasn't accusing him of anything while the obvious inference was that she was doing exactly that.

Why is she on so often? There's a few reasons I'd say. Firstly, she's a woman, and OTB believe in positive discrimination. Secondly, she's a journalist who's probably familiar with other journalists' work. Third, she already presents a podcast for OTB - Off the Bench, the women's sports podcast. Fourth, she's able to talk. Overall, she's reliable, seems to know her stuff. I agree with you though about the Heaslip issue: she did bang on about it rather a lot, repeating the same point ad nauseam. The presenter should have moved along the discussion there, rather than allowing her to repeat herself so much.

I was disappointed by the other guest: Denis Hurley, the former Munster rugby player. He said very little. Admittedly, Foley did talk a lot, perhaps giving him little room to speak. But even when he did speak, he said little of interest. Nothing he said cast light on the reasons for the Irish rugby team's collapse on Saturday, for example.

Dowend

Andy Lee is brilliant. Really enjoying listening to him.

Unlike others (BOD, Quinlan, Kilbane etc.), he is able to talk sense about a range of sports by calling on his experience as an ex-professional sportsman, but doesn't toe the party line and avoids stating the obvious. I also think he's excellent at talking about the mental side of top-level sports, drawing on his own experiences. Can see him going on to be a very successful coach.

Aidric

Aidric wrote: »

Why is Cliona Foley so often on the paper review? She ruins every single one of them; constantly interrupting the host and her fellow guests, answering questions with her own agenda and ranting to an unhealthy scale. She is an absolute melt.

On the Heaslip topic she was like a dog with a bone. She kept repeating the same point whilst qualifying it by saying she wasn't accusing him of anything while the obvious inference was that she was doing exactly that.

Like lots of people who work in the media and has a platform, it's pretty clear she has a huge ego and can't wait to share her thoughts on everything to the point that she interrupts the other guest in this slot and talks over them all the time. It doesn't make for good radio.

generalgerry

Richie to Damien Delaney last night (in reference to a single fan being thrown out for racism): "And do you think that with the right wing element in the UK, with BREXIT and Nigel Farage, that the problem has gotten worse"

These sort of nonsense really annoys me about OTB. Stop trying to shoehorn in politics in to the sports show, and stop trying to put your own opinions in the mouths of the guests.

It's just one nutcase that got thrown out, you would swear it was the whole Stretford End the way the media are focusing on this incident.

irishguitarlad

I listened to a half hour of them just there and had to turn it off. Just contstantly harping on about rugby and then when they did mention soccer it was just Ger talking through gritted teeth about it. I generally find otb's soccer content woeful anyways, they never discuss European League's and when they do they get on that insufferable bore Graham Hunter who probably masturbates to the sound of his own voice and who just goes on and on about his beloved Barcelona constantly. Also, why in jaysus do they dedicate time to the NFL? I know I might have mentioned it before on here but surely basketball would make more sense? They could talk about the Irish league(would give it much needed publicity), Eurobasket and NBA, could even get Donaghy to do it.

Dog Murphy

irishguitarlad wrote: »

I listened to a half hour of them just there and had to turn it off. Just contstantly harping on about rugby and then when they did mention soccer it was just Ger talking through gritted teeth about it. I generally find otb's soccer content woeful anyways, they never discuss European League's and when they do they get on that insufferable bore Graham Hunter who probably masturbates to the sound of his own voice and who just goes on and on about his beloved Barcelona constantly. Also, why in jaysus do they dedicate time to the NFL? I know I might have mentioned it before on here but surely basketball would make more sense? They could talk about the Irish league(would give it much needed publicity), Eurobasket and NBA, could even get Donaghy to do it.

Not many people follow basketball in Ireland compared to the NFL,the Basketball forum here is dead zone compared to the American Football forum, and there certainly would be almost no demand to cover the Euroleague Basketball it is never promoted on any Irish or UK TV station and I've never read about it on any Irish newspaper.I'd say almost nobody follows Euroleague basketball in Ireland.

ButtersSuki

Dog Murphy wrote: »

Not many people follow basketball in Ireland compared to the NFL,the Basketball forum here is dead zone compared to the American Football forum, and there certainly would be almost no demand to cover the Euroleague Basketball it is never promoted on any Irish or UK TV station and I've never read about it on any Irish newspaper.I'd say almost nobody follows Euroleague basketball in Ireland.

Ahem! I've been to countless Euroleague Games and multiple Final Fours.........but yeah, I know what you mean, sadly.

I'd imagine I'm the single biggest contributor by post count to both the Radio (almost 24,000 posts) and Basketball (over 3,700 ina very quiet Forum) Fora, but I wouldn't/couldn't listen to Donaghy if he covered it. Aside from the cliches and the general awkwardness I find with his style, I simply cannot listen to his accent as I find it incredibly tough on the ears.

I liked the US Sports segment they used to do with "US Murph" a few years back, but that's long gone adn I find on the rare occasion they comment on basketball now it comes from a place of very little knowledge of the game.

I'm a basketball fan, and I can completely understand why the NFL gets the lions share of the US Sports coverage here and in the UK.

Dog Murphy

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Ahem! I've been to countless Euroleague Games and multiple Final Fours.........but yeah, I know what you mean, sadly.

I'd imagine I'm the single biggest contributor by post count to both the Radio (almost 24,000 posts) and Basketball (over 3,700 ina very quiet Forum) Fora, but I wouldn't/couldn't listen to Donaghy if he covered it. Aside from the cliches and the general awkwardness I find with his style, I simply cannot listen to his accent as I find it incredibly tough on the ears.

I liked the US Sports segment they used to do with "US Murph" a few years back, but that's long gone adn I find on the rare occasion they comment on basketball now it comes from a place of very little knowledge of the game.

I'm a basketball fan, and I can completely understand why the NFL gets the lions share of the US Sports coverage here and in the UK.

NBA sufferers because of the inconsistent schedule and 95% of games being on in the middle of the night .It requires a bit of effort to follow living in Ireland.

NFL season is perfect and I would a imagine a big reason for it's popularity both in USA and abroad.The season is just the perfect length so it's never long enough to get fed up with and the games being on Sunday evening in the winter (prime TV viewing season) it's a lovely way to distract yourself from work the next day.

Tell me how

Think it's fair to say the OTB show and the people on it know the things which people say about them and aren't overly bothered given the way they're happy to have a light shone on it.

https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1187416461033254912

Ol' Donie

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Ahem! I've been to countless Euroleague Games and multiple Final Fours.........but yeah, I know what you mean, sadly.

I'd imagine I'm the single biggest contributor by post count to both the Radio (almost 24,000 posts) and Basketball (over 3,700 ina very quiet Forum) Fora, but I wouldn't/couldn't listen to Donaghy if he covered it. Aside from the cliches and the general awkwardness I find with his style, I simply cannot listen to his accent as I find it incredibly tough on the ears.

I liked the US Sports segment they used to do with "US Murph" a few years back, but that's long gone adn I find on the rare occasion they comment on basketball now it comes from a place of very little knowledge of the game.

I'm a basketball fan, and I can completely understand why the NFL gets the lions share of the US Sports coverage here and in the UK.

US Murph is a regular on Second Captains still.

Also, you can get the podcasts of his radio show from San Francisco quite easily. Great for a 49ers fan like me.

generalgerry

Tell me how wrote: »

Think it's fair to say the OTB show and the people on it know the things which people say about them and aren't overly bothered given the way they're happy to have a light shone on it.

I think that this is more Risteard's own friendly roasting of them, rather than him reading the texts that people send in and producing comedy based on what people think of them. Could you imagine what a sketch you could put together on them about their stance on gambling, that one would write itself. Or a serious p1ss take of Quinlan.

Risteard's sketch is far from biting. Though I was very impressed with him doing Sheahan.

Tell me how

generalgerry wrote: »

I think that this is more Risteard's own friendly roasting of them, rather than him reading the texts that people send in and producing comedy based on what people think of them. Could you imagine what a sketch you could put together on them about their stance on gambling, that one would write itself. Or a serious p1ss take of Quinlan.

Risteard's sketch is far from biting. Though I was very impressed with him doing Sheahan.

I think comedy routed in a humorous take on personal traits or idiosyncrasies is better than comedy based on hatred and bitterness.

Agree Sheahen was eerily good. Well put together as well to look like them talking to each other.