Return of the Franno !

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121816961#Comment_121816961

Many good journalists have no caps, dont think Thornley even played rugby at a high level

FrannoFan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121817751#Comment_121817751

Thornley is your "good journalist" example!? Was soccer pundit who was in the building when van esbeck retired. Irish times opened a lot of doors and by dint of being around so long he has a lot of contacts.

*To be fair writes well but not a pundit so maybe hastey with the journalist criticism. Wouldn't rank him as a rugby analyst but yes as journalist

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121821422#Comment_121821422

Pretty sure Thornley started off on tennis. Fairly irrelevant to his career as a journalist. I think he's a bit staid but access is his lifeblood and he has to maintain it so you get what you get. He'll say something maybe a tiny bit controversial if said access isn't required, see later stages of EOS' tenure.

Dubinusa

Con Houlihan was my favorite.

Ben Bailey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121821789#Comment_121821789

Fogra

phog

Ned van Esbeck was top notch too.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121821422#Comment_121821422

Was much better than van Esbeck, my point was slagging Birch for having 9 caps, when many with opinions, including here, have zero.

Paul Smeenus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121821422#Comment_121821422

He's an awful writer. He has a bunch of his own patented cliches that he trots out in article after article. Every piece of writing is a tired recycling of them. A lot of fans could it and write a spoof Thornley piece without having to think twice because his pieces are a morass of purple prose.

sprucemoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121822590#Comment_121822590

'the ebb and flow of psychic energy'

my favourite of his was talking about dan carter after the second lions test in 2005 - 'he pisses ice cubes, if he was any more relaxed he'd be asleep'

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824392#Comment_121824392

Top Quatorze, a callow bench and a whiff of cordite in the air some more of his stock phrases. I've always kinda liked Thornley.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824459#Comment_121824459

I found his rampaging against the refs as an explanation for poor results under Kidney rather tiresome. That soured him on me somewhat I have to say (if it was a one-off fine, but he kept banging on about reffing decisions going against us not reflecting our "true" record). No idea if he did similar under later bad stretches cause I stopped reading him when I left Ireland.

But sod it, in general he is just a bit of fun to read. I wouldn't be looking to him for any real insight.

Dubinusa

Early 80's, I used to work in the Harp, O'Connell bridge house and Con Houlihan was a lunchtime regular in "the Club Bar". I got to know him and he was an outstanding person. Fantastic sports writer and the nicest person. I couldn't believe it when I found out he passed away.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121826004#Comment_121826004

agree, one of the best

Buer

Thornley's role as IRFU sycophant has long undermined his writing. It's hard to take some of his stuff seriously when he clearly refuses to consider other viewpoints that may not pander to the party line.

Not so prevalent anymore but he was a major IRFU mouthpiece for the pitfalls of leaving the IRFU umbrella and used shout the dangers of going to the T14 from the rooftops. And his claims became accepted wisdom amongst many because he was repeating them so often without any actual facts to support them.

His latest embarrassing crusade has been in relation to alcohol at games. All well and good making the point but still harping on about it at every opportunity is tiresome.

I think it's easy to take shots at all journalists though (fun too). There are a few guys (Kinsella, Cian Treacy, Ruaidhrí O'Connor, Jackman) who are churning out content at a very frequent level and they all have inaccuracies or biases that come to the surface which will put noses out of joint. Generally, the former players tend to have a significantly reduced knowledge of the current game in terms awareness of what's happening in the game. People like D'Arcy, Wood, Quinlan and Fiona Hayes are all brutal for it. Jackman genuinely does know more about what's happening in the game but some of his takes are bewildering at times and, for someone that coached professionally in the recent past, his analysis is patchy at best. The pinching of analysis by a French coach on Twitter last year and getting called out was fairly cringeworthy.

But we all still read, some to be informed, some to be deliberately outraged.

Mr Disco

I don’t think Franno would have enjoyed Marcus’ winning drop goal

phog

A blast for the past

https://twitter.com/JudgeDyl/status/1766765239012303263?t=Bo4dr0A8uHsFQtd1z6siew&s=19