The Game (RTE One)

Say Your Number

Three part documentary on Hurling just started on RTE One.

What to make of that? I was looking forward to it a lot as it was well flagged up and there was a lot of hype.

The production values were high and there was clearly a huge amount of work put into it, but I found it was a bit all over the place. It kept jumping around and I am not sure exactly what it is the story they were trying to tell. I get they knitted the history of the game and all that into it at different stages but I am not sure it worked.

Some of the interviews seemed a bit overwrought and, again, they seemed to jump all over the place, focusing on certain topics and then jumping off in a different direction. The vignettes with Tommy Walsh in Tullaroan and Seán Óg were lovely but again there was no depth and they were off to something else too quickly.

I didn't really feel engaged in it at any point at all. Maybe they tried to tackle far too much and should have narrowed the focus. Thoughts?

NIMAN

The full cupboard of clichés was used, that's for sure.

castletownman

As RTE products go, I thought it was one of the best documentaries they have ever done. Felt that the Cuchulainn piece was a bit too twee, as were the quotes from the guests that accompanied it, but in general was very well put together.

The archival footage was superb and I always love watching old-school video clips of matches back in the day, with narration in the background. Learned a couple of factoid I never heard before, and the segment on the 1931 All Ireland was probably the highlight for me.

Sports documentaries in this part of the world tend to err on the side of retelling the story without much extra substance, but this stood out as unique. Okay it was a bit jumpy between the modern day and the foundations of the game, but I am already looking forward to episode two, which is a rare achievement for RTE

Say Your Number

Enjoyed it overall, Paul Rouse was an excellent contributor, could listen to him all day.

liam7831

What a load of rubbish

Utopia Parkway

Really enjoyed it. You could tell it was a labour of love for the makers. It did jump about the place a bit but I don't think they intended to make a chronological history of hurling so history segments were mixed in with talking head bits about what hurling means to certain individuals and other stuff like the Sean Og segment. The Sean Og stuff I think most people would have heard before so that was probably the least interesting element of the whole thing.

cena

Any ice hockey going to be shown.

patob

Say Your Number wrote: »

Enjoyed it overall, Paul Rouse was an excellent contributor, could listen to him all day.

No mention of the Cricketing strongholds in Kilkenny and Tipp that converted to Hurling. Thought Rouse would have mentioned that.

Thought episode two last night was much better than the first one, which I was really disappointed with. They had far fewer of the talking heads spouting cliches about the club and the parish last night and the focus was simply on the development of the game through a few different eras while also telling the stories of the icons of the game. Some outstanding archive material.

There were still a few random meanders way off the core story being told, but not to the same, distracting level as episode one, when it really struggled for a focus.

The tone, in my opinion, is still a bit self congratulatory and reverential but that seems to be the narrative when it comes to hurling these days.

Thoughts?

LoughNeagh2017

Did anyone notice the beach from Home & Away on it, probably 15 years before it started.

I thought it was cringy, I don't live in a hurling stronghold mind you. Do you ever notice how the most culturally Irish Gaelic areas of the island are not hurling strongholds? Donegal, Mayo, Kerry.

They say it's to do with the quality of the land. Hurling is played where the land is better as it was all ground hurling back in the day and that was very hard on poor land.

Say Your Number

Jimmy Doyle was an interviewer's nightmare.

Utopia Parkway

LoughNeagh2017 wrote: »

Did anyone notice the beach from Home & Away on it, probably 15 years before it started.

I thought it was cringy, I don't live in a hurling stronghold mind you. Do you ever notice how the most culturally Irish Gaelic areas of the island are not hurling strongholds? Donegal, Mayo, Kerry.

Galway are All Ireland champions though and have the biggest gaeltacht in the country. That said the gaeltacht itself is a football area not a hurling one.

Say Your Number

Thought it was an excellent series overall, would probably be better in a cinema where all those slow motion shots and big sound effects would really jump out at you.

Didn't know they played Camogie with a shortened pitch and smaller goals in the eighties, one of the best things about it has been the archive footage, seeing at least a bit of Christy Ring and the Rackards and early Camogie where they seemed to be wearing school pinafores, Shefflin taking about putting his helmet up in the attic was poignant moment, hope they bring it out on DVD.

LoughNeagh2017

Deleted User wrote: »

They say it's to do with the quality of the land. Hurling is played where the land is better as it was all ground hurling back in the day and that was very hard on poor land.

It didn't seem to work like that in Derry where I live, the hurling areas are in the mountains and the lowland areas are football areas. Same with Antrim I think.

castletownman

Absolutely loved it. The archival footage was brilliantly used. Some of the footage of say Clare's breakthrough and Connolly's speech were goosebump-inducing. I actually got emotional during the latter as stood behind Connolly was my uncle and my godfather, the latter whom we only laid to rest a couple of months ago