Pat Spillane..

M three

Usually avoid him but watched the rte gaa highlights yesterday. What exactly is wrong with spillane? He made a snide remark to his co presenter, the recently retired Mayo player Keith Higgins i think, about the 2012 final which they lost to donegal. Cantwell pulled him up on it.

Later in the same show Cantwell made an observation about Kerry's team selection last year and spillane's response was thats in the past!

Is spillane the biggest ars*hole on rte and why dont they get rid of him?

The_Kew_Tour

He is a pain at best of times. He should have got his p45 over a decade ago.

Adds nothing but snide remarks.

M three

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814829#Comment_118814829

Totally. Doesnt offer anything of value. Totally ignorant of the game today and is proud of that for some weird reason.

How on earth is he employed by rte?

Coillte_Bhoy

Completely past his sell by date, and O'Rourke too, RTE badly need to freshen up their coverage and unearth new commentators too, Ger Canning is brutal

mcgragger

Eamonn Fitz is good. He knows his stuff

bucketybuck

Switched over to the Tyrone game on Saturday, heard the Fitzmaurice drone and switched right back to the rugby again. How in the **** did that man get past a soundtest?

I doubt even RTE themselves could tell you why Spillane is still there, they should have done a proper clear out when finally jettisoning Brolly.

Strumms

Pat hasn’t played inter-county football for 30 years, Colm O’Rourke 26 years.

be better for the coverage and analysis if they’d both be ushered aside and have a completely younger and more adept contributors in their positions… he’s a hard listen when he gets on a rant. But he’s not a good analyst. A smart arse who used to play football and was successful at it, actually a brutal pundit though..

Get rid of Cantwell too please!!!!!!!

Rossie11

It was Colm Boyle who was on. In Spillane's defence I think he was trying to be funny but knew he was wrong immediately

and said "Sorry I shouldn't have said that, I apologise Colm".

Agree though he should be gone a few years now at this stage

Mysterypunter

He can’t handle it when Kerry lose either, completely melted a few times, especially when they lost the semi final to Tyrone last season

jimwallace197

However long its been since Spillane played intercounty, at least he can back it up with the amount of All Irelands he's won, on top of this, he was one of the best players of his generation. What has a Mayo player ever achieved? Id rather have pundits who've been there & done it rather than pretenders. He wants the game to be played in a certain way, he's a purist & theres nothing wrong with that considering some of the hand passing nonsense that passes for top level Gaelic football these days.

Even in the skysports coverage of the premier league, they still have Souness & Keane to a lesser degree who havent played professional football for 30 years & nearly 20 years respectively.

lalababa

He's not the worst....be careful what you wish for etc. Hes a bit of craic aswell (a bit mad) and is prone to a silly rant or two. You'd tend to watch him getting red in the face whilst someone else is talking. An out in out pure kerry extroverted eejit.

quidel7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814829#Comment_118814829

The wettings he has gotten this year might hasten his retirement.

quidel7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814880#Comment_118814880

The commentary of Ger and Marty is past its sell by date. Would consider it more professional if they used players proper names and not waffle on about how they got their nicknames. Some new recruits wouldn’t do any harm.

zetecescort

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118814895#Comment_118814895

he might but he'd send you to sleep

jimwallace197

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815327#Comment_118815327

Would fully agree with the sentiment of be careful what you wish for. Take RTE coverage of Irish international football for example, we used to have Dunphy, Giles & Brady, now we have Sadlier, Duff, K.Cunningham etc. I know which team id prefer & the vast majority of the public too.

Get Brolly back too, was disgraceful how he was removed, wasnt afraid to say what he thought. Won player of the year too previously. Get rid of these over promoted sanitized pundits. Pundits with pedigree behind them & a backbone make it all the more interesting. Of course the usual diehards wont like it but thats life.

thesultan

Spillane better than Cavenagh who starts to shout when anyone questions Tyrone.

shockframe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815949#Comment_118815949

Dunphy, Giles and Brady was a good pairing with the BBC/ITV alternative but descended into farce at the very end.

The problem now with Football is that the Spillane, O'Rourke, Brolly era ended long ago and there is endless sources now than in say 2009. Also the soccer pundits didn't actively harm the reputation of their sport. The Football one has had more influence.

Sure the Football analysis elsewhere can be bland on occasion but the sport badly needs a bit of balance to what goes on on RTE and whats then taken as gospel on social media.

jimdemp

He was showing the new guy who is boss. He was banging his chest showing everyone who is the Alpha male.

Billy Ocean

https://twitter.com/JustinMcNu1ty/status/1505675788292665349?t=X1Xw2c-xt6uTx6ps0RB8HQ&s=19

Asdfgh2020

His rant to Sean Kavanagh last year about Tyrone being ‘cuter hoors’ than Kerry re the deferring of the semi final was the last straw…….last night I also noted on two occasions cantwell directed a question to Colm Boyle but ‘pit’ decided to jump in and answer it…….such is his self importance….😡😡😡

billyhead

Ciaran Whelan is a good pundit. Dessie Dolan was too. What happened to him. Did he not have the time anymore?

quidel7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118816502#Comment_118816502

Oisin McConville, Ciaran Whelan and Tomas O’Se were the three I’d enjoy listening to mainly. Doubt with Tomas being involved with Offaly he will be heard this season.

SecretsOfEarth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118816502#Comment_118816502

Agree that Whelan is fairly good, but Dessie Dolan is absolutely dreadful imo. His co-commentary is among the worst.

quidel7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118816697#Comment_118816697

Whelan yes Dessie no

Staleturnips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118815845#Comment_118815845

There are many, many things to cringe about with Ger & Marty but you've absolutely hit the nail on the head with their obsession of using nicknames.

They have some annoying way of using players nicknames as if they are unique to Irish culture, in particular GAA culture and that the nickname refers to some profound quality attributed to the respective player.

They'll also try to shoehorn in some additional cringeworthy horseshite, like that players father and grandfather had the same nickname bestowed upon them.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118816794#Comment_118816794

Marty’s favourites……

1. Good hands - usually referring to a catch or these days in hurling a hand/throw pass.
2. He/she shortens the grip
3. he/she gives the sliotar an ‘all mighty belt’
4. well gathered - which is a good catch I think
5. and of course the constant references to player nick-names and their origin

tastyt

Jesus Marty and his nicknames

“ here come the Bonnar Maher , go on the Bonnar “

” into Bubbles , oh that’s magic from Bubbles “

and back in the day it was always cha this and cha that .

And Canning is a worse commentator if that’s possible

corny

The rugby punditry has gone the same way on RTE. In an all out effort to seem cool Heaslip finds it hard to string basic sentences together and Ferris doesn't have an opinion, he just says what he thinks his bosses want to hear. A cheerleader of sorts. Eddie O'Sullivan will eventually slip up and get himself cancelled.

Quinlan is the same on Virgin media. An almighty talent for speaking without actually saying anything. It's really impressive to be honest.

I hate Spillane but it is a case of careful what you wish for. RTE will eventually get the gender balance they want so you'll have fewer individuals on show who actually know what's it like to play the game at the level you're watching. Also, the analysts will be so stultified by trying to not cause offence they'll say nothing. Zero authenticity in the broadcast.

Jesus it's terrifying to be pining for the likes of George Hook, Eamon Dunphy and Joe Brolly!

homewardbound11

The list for best pundits on my opinion

oisin mconville

ciaran whelan

Thomas O’Shea

colm cooper

Colm Boyle . ( very good on the radio but too few appearances on tv really )

after that I’d draw the line

Gael85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118816502#Comment_118816502

Dolan is selector with Westmeath. Thank god for that.