Second Captains

Cienciano

Ken is definitely smug, but plenty of self deprecating humour to counter act it too. I mean, 10 minutes about him being locked in the jacks, the whole Giles "I wouldn't necessarily agree with anything Ken Early says" thing.
As long as you take the píss out of yourself, you can be smug about things too, a nice balance is needed.
I can't remember Ger Gilroy much (on OTB with Ken before Eoin) but I don't think he did much of the self deprecating humour much. Has that changed?

Ciaran_B

I think they balance the smugness with some of the self-deprecating audio beds - "A Belgian waffle!" or "is it fair to say anyone could have managed that team?" etc

Arghus

100% agreed on the opinion that the bouts of smugness are made bearable with dashes of humour. SC are extremely witty and unafraid to make themselves look stupid if it makes for good content.

The Off The Ball lads, on the other hand, have no real sense of humour, except in a contrived and semi-false way. I think that's why I always find them so boring and dull, even if I can tell they're doing their best and are producing fairly good radio; I still find myself yawning through a lot of it. The presenters sound to me like four or five variations on the same theme, with the same opinions and varying but not all that markedly different degrees of on-air slickness. They're not bad, but they are boring.

jones

I actually don't mind the OTB lads most of the time but that crappy quiz thing Jesus it's so bad. Cringeworthy stuff

dulpit

I think the main difference between the 2 shows is the producers. Say what you will, but Ger Gilroy & (in particular) Joe Molloy can present. But the overall tone of the show can be a bit sketchy, whereas SC have the constants of Mark & Simon...

Arghus

dulpit wrote: »

I think the main difference between the 2 shows is the producers. Say what you will, but Ger Gilroy & (in particular) Joe Molloy can present. But the overall tone of the show can be a bit sketchy, whereas SC have the constants of Mark & Simon...

Joe can undoubtedly do a competent professional job but he's fundamentally dull and uninteresting.

Ol' Donie

I was thinking to myself this morning as I caught 5 minutes of OTB am.

I wonder is there just too much of it? I mean, they now have morning, evening (except they cut it to 2 hours the week of the bleedin World Cup semis & final!) and the entire weekend as well as the various podcasts they do.

I could be completely wrong here, when the SC lads were there it was 4-5 evenings a week. That's it. So, you wanted to catch all of it. You wouldn't have a hope of consuming everything they pour out these days. Even if you wanted to. Surely all this has diluted the quality of output?

To be honest, both OTB & SC have a smugness, but a lot of them seem to be fairly jaded and cynical about sport by now.

Baggly

Ol' Donie wrote: »

I was thinking to myself this morning as I caught 5 minutes of OTB am.

I wonder is there just too much of it? I mean, they now have morning, evening (except they cut it to 2 hours the week of the bleedin World Cup semis & final!) and the entire weekend as well as the various podcasts they do.

I could be completely wrong here, when the SC lads were there it was 4-5 evenings a week. That's it. So, you wanted to catch all of it. You wouldn't have a hope of consuming everything they pour out these days. Even if you wanted to. Surely all this has diluted the quality of output?

To be honest, both OTB & SC have a smugness, but a lot of them seem to be fairly jaded and cynical about sport by now.

Just like you with sports podcasts.

You have changed Donie. I remember a time you stood defiantly in front of your phone, podcast player open, breast bared, and dared them to give you as much content as they could.

What happened, pal?

Arghus

A US Murph prediction of a Croatia win means you should put your house on England to win tomorrow night.

The man is the worst predictor of sporting outcomes in sports broadcasting.

Ol' Donie

Pter wrote: »

Just like you with sports podcasts.

You have changed Donie. I remember a time you stood defiantly in front of your phone, podcast player open, breast bared, and dared them to give you as much content as they could.

What happened, pal?

I got greedy. So greedy.

It's started off with Second Captains. Then Football Weekly. Then the Arsecast. Pretty soon I had 14 subscriptions on the go.

This past month, I've spent more time listening to podcasts than sleeping.

I just got soooo greedy.

I guess I just couldn't cope.

Ol' Donie

Arghus wrote: »

A US Murph prediction of a Croatia win means you should put your house on England to win tomorrow night.

The man is the worst predictor of sporting outcomes in sports broadcasting.

US Murph memorably called it that "Tipp stops Kilkenny at the door" when the drive for five was on.

Cienciano

Did everyones podcast play ok today? Seems to be a problem with mine

corwill

'Waved off a couple of ashen faced Germans...'

Arghus

Arghus wrote: »

A US Murph prediction of a Croatia win means you should put your house on England to win tomorrow night.

The man is the worst predictor of sporting outcomes in sports broadcasting.

What kind of idiot are you? Clearly you don't know the first thing about football.

Say Your Number

Won't be as much fun as Iceland a few years ago, but still tomorrow should be good.

Gbear

Say Your Number wrote: »

Won't be as much fun as Iceland a few years ago, but still tomorrow should be good.

I'm not sure how much fun you can make of a spirited bunch of young hard workers getting beaten by a more talented and experienced team.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Baggly

Gbear wrote:

I'm not sure how much fun you can make of a spirited bunch of young hard workers getting beaten by a more talented and experienced team.

Lots.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Gbear wrote: »

I'm not sure how much fun you can make of a spirited bunch of young hard workers getting beaten by a more talented and experienced team.

I can hear Ken's sneery voice from here. It's gonna be hilarious.

Ol' Donie

Gbear wrote: »

I'm not sure how much fun you can make of a spirited bunch of young hard workers getting beaten by a more talented and experienced team.

That covers an awful, awful lot of football matches. Do you not think football is fun?

splendid101

Gbear wrote: »

I'm not sure how much fun you can make of a spirited bunch of young hard workers getting beaten by a more talented and experienced team.

Well, it put a smile on my face.

Beersmith

Ken focusing on the England Belgium game was ridiculous today. Nonsense.

Ol' Donie

Beersmith wrote: »

Ken focusing on the England Belgium game was ridiculous today. Nonsense.

He seemed to be convinced it backfired because Kane lost form, while simultaneously saying they only got anywhere because of the easy side of the draw.

I dunno.

Baggly

This is one of the things that has been good about SC for the last month. Murph stood up to him and said he was talking balls. Also Eoin was interjecting too and Ken actually paused and asked him to repeat his point, which is showing he is actually willing to listen while he is on his crusade rant.

Much prefer when Ken has a foil to bounce off rather than going off on one.

He was very very harsh on the English team whilst somehow also being harsh on the Croatia team. To me, he made it sound like Croatia barely made it over the line, and the only reason they did was due to English incompetance, which wasnt my interpretation of that match at all.

dominatinMC

Pter wrote:

This is one of the things that has been good about SC for the last month. Murph stood up to him and said he was talking balls. Also Eoin was interjecting too and Ken actually paused and asked him to repeat his point, which is showing he is actually willing to listen while he is on his crusade rant.

Totally agree. Murph tends to get a Iot of criticism on here (maybe some justified at times), but I think he's been very good of late, particularly in opposition to some of Kens views.

dulux99

The narrative that England went out because they played a b-side in their last game is the biggest load of balls I've ever heard. France and Croatia also played second string sides in their final group game.

Baggly

dulux99 wrote: »

The narrative that England went out because they played a b-side in their last game is the biggest load of balls I've ever heard. France and Croatia also played second string sides in their final group game.

Also the narrative that Kane should have been fit and well rested, having been rested for that Belgium game is a load of bollox as well.

Beersmith

dulux99 wrote: »

The narrative that England went out because they played a b-side in their last game is the biggest load of balls I've ever heard. France and Croatia also played second string sides in their final group game.

Agree, the thing was it wasn't their last game, it had been 3 games ago. Belgium also rested their players ffs as it didn't matter. If someone had got injured or a match ban over a yellow he would call it idiotic.

Also Kane was never in good form this tournament.

Cienciano

Beersmith wrote: »

Also Kane was never in good form this tournament.

Unbelievable how shít kane has been. But when people look back on this world cup they'll just see Kane was probably top scorer with 6. 6 of the shíttest goals ever.
I hope lukaku gets a hat trick in the 3rd place playoff.

Baggly

6K posts in the thread lads. Well done....i guess?