nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

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

radharc

Thought a thread specifically for OTB might be worthwhile here seeing as other single show threads seem to provoke good debate.

While clearly miles ahead of its opposition, anyone else feel the show might be coasting on its success for the past while? In previous years I would be dying to hear what the lads thought of any big sporting issue but not as bothered these days even though still a big fan of the show. It can be hilarious listening but the in-jokes etc do grate after a while. Probably a symptom of having no real competition imo.

Favourite Guests: US Murph, David Brady, Richard Sadlier, Daithi Regan, Roddy Collins, Donn McClean

Least Favourite: Johnny Giles, Conor Deegan, Graham Hunter (can be v good but have to be in the mood to listen to the Ken/Hunter sniping)

Mod warning in post 6651.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Dots1982

Your man Garry Doyle on it sounded like a right classic Irish sports journalist alright from what I heard. Irish sports journalism was brilliant, just beyond compare. He didn’t investigate sports administration stories because they didn’t “interest” him (serious work ethic there ).

Irish sports journos are happy to be extremely critical of everything apart from other journalists. That’s always what you have to remember when consuming their produce.

deisedude

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Dancing around the SOB issue

Won’t name him. Legal advice apparently.

Other publications have named him so not really sure why they can't from a legal standpoint

Beechwoodspark

deisedude wrote: »

Other publications have named him so not really sure why they can't from a legal standpoint

They read out a text saying how hypocritical and inconsistent they are when dealing with rugby scandals

They tried their best to sound genuinely outraged at the suggestion.

Tell me how

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

They read out a text saying how hypocritical and inconsistent they are when dealing with rugby scandals

They tried their best to sound genuinely outraged at the suggestion.

At least they read it out.

Dots1982

Pauliedragon wrote: »

I don't listen every week but the last time I heard him (maybe 6 weeks ago ish) he kept changing the subject as if he was the host saying things like "we won't talk about now" etc. He tried to make it his own show then towards the end he utters "this is f*****g b******t" about something. Mightn't have gone down too well.

Didn’t hear that. He’s very limited in his sports knowledge. The main sports of ireland are GAA, soccer and rugby and he’s clueless on all three. I’d listen to him but it’s like listening to Joe brolly. You listen to it more to disagree with it and see how long it is before he goes on some weird angry self indulgent rant.

Pauliedragon

Tell me how wrote: »

Has Paul been on it lately?
I haven't been listening religiously but I haven't noticed him mentioned.

I don't listen every week but the last time I heard him was maybe 6 weeks ago and he was constantly butting in changing the subject as if he was the host saying things like "we wont talk about now". Get your own show idiot. Towards the end too I can't remember what the topic was but he just blurts out "this is fcuking b******t". Probably didn't go down too well.

CatFromHue

They've a regular turnover of guests who do the paper review so I wouldn't read anything into Kimmage not being on it in awhile.

That slot really is dependent on what's in the news each week so can be good and can be bad.

I'm not if lengthening the slot has done much for it either. I think it was a bit better when it was just the hour.

NIMAN

The rugby guys are the nations heroes and sweethearts, didn't you know?

You not seen all their wedding plans etc plastered all over the Irish media the last 5 years?

We can't be putting out stories that make them look bad.

monstermag

Are OTB serious about covering women's sport or are they all spin and bluster. Two weeks into the women's world Cup and they've barely covered it. One half hour segment with Pat Nevin is as about as much as I've heard since the tournament began and 15mins tonight covering the controversial England v Cameron game and in that conversation it was clear Joe has very little knowledge of any of the teams participating. You'd imagine a sports broadcaster would brush up on their knowledge of the women's game if they were truly committed to promoting the game. Tokenism springs to mind. Maybe I'm way off the mark, they may have covered it in depth at some stage and I've just missed it.
Personally I've quite enjoyed the tournament and from what I've seen I'd give England a very good chance of winning it outright, perish the thought.

rino87

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

I made the mistake of listening to the paper review yesterday when I was driving to Croke Park.
I decided to give it a chance.
The word 'piece' must have been said what felt like 100 times, in about a half hour period.
It seemed to be just a lot of backslapping between/about contemporary journalists that they liked and/or agreed with.
One fella called a guy a 'world class' journalist twice.

For fellas who are supposed to be fond of wordage and vocabulary, wouldn't you think they would use a different word instead of 'piece' now and again?
What about 'item', 'article' etc?
It ended up annoying me and I turned it off.
My head needed some piece peace.
And others have said on here that the paper review is the best thing left on OTB?

I agree, the over use of the word "piece" in that hour has made me switch off more times than I care to remember no matter what the content. Once you hear it......

gormdubhgorm

RINO87 wrote: »

I agree, the over use of the word "piece" in that hour has made me switch off more times than I care to remember no matter what the content. Once you hear it......

Well I was starting to think it was just me, and that I was overreacting.

Maybe because they are from the same profession and it has become the accepted 'lexicon' in the culture.
Then when some casual (and out of touch?) person like me tunes in they do not know what to make of it.
I did not even know the lads they on in the discussion, besides Joe who was presenting.

Gentleman Off The Pitch

So and so wrote a fascinating piece in the Times yesterday

Tell me how

RINO87 wrote: »

I agree, the over use of the word "piece" in that hour has made me switch off more times than I care to remember no matter what the content. Once you hear it......

I listened to the first 30 minutes on podcast last night and have yet to hear it. Expecting a deluge in the rest of it if I get a chance to listen later.

Most of the first 30 minutes was given over to Garry Doyle lamenting the closure of the Irish Times. He made some good points but also thought he was off the mark in more of it.

diusmr8a504cvk

Not a Gaelic fan, but Eoin Sheahan's Gaelic power rankings reek of a Kerry man pissing on other counties from a height by telling them how bad they are.

Christy Browne

Brayan Chilly Shoplifter wrote: »

Not a Gaelic fan, but Eoin Sheahan's Gaelic power rankings reek of a Kerry man pissing on other counties from a height by telling them how bad they are.

I generally like Off The Ball when Joe or someone else is hosting but nothing makes me turn off faster than Eoin Sheehan with Ger ****ing Gilroy.

Two smug, sanctimonious eegits who clearly haven't an actual clue about sport and just regurgitate what they read in these "fascinating pieces" in the paper.

jeremyj1968

Christy Browne wrote: »

I generally like Off The Ball when Joe or someone else is hosting but nothing makes me turn off faster than Eoin Sheehan with Ger ****ing Gilroy.

It's a great idea for a show, but not with those two hosting. I find Sheehan's voice particularly hard to listen to in the morning.

Dots1982

I don’t mind Sheehan, Gilroy’s hard to warm to.

But i heard them say and agree with each other on Monday morning that James McCarthy was going to be hard to replace for Dublin and then say that it would be easier to replace Jack Mccaffrey I had to say I wouldn’t be placing much faith in their judgment.

McCarthy is a great defender and player but Mccaffrey is different gravy and is unlike any other wing back in the country in terms of speed and ability to break defenses.

jeremyj1968

Dots1982 wrote: »

McCarthy is a great defender and player but Mccaffrey is different gravy and is unlike any other wing back in the country in terms of speed and ability to break defenses.

I thought the assertion that they couldn't win without McCaffrey was particularly stupid, given that they DID win without McCaffrey in 2016 when he went to Africa! If they can win without Connolly, then I think it's safe to say that there is no player on the Dublin team that is not expendable.

Dots1982

jeremyj1968 wrote: »

I thought the assertion that they couldn't win without McCaffrey was particularly stupid, given that they DID win without McCaffrey in 2016 when he went to Africa! If they can win without Connolly, then I think it's safe to say that there is no player on the Dublin team that is not expendable.

I don’t think they made any such assertion. But open to correction.

[Deleted User]

Tell me how wrote: »

I listened to the first 30 minutes on podcast last night and have yet to hear it. Expecting a deluge in the rest of it if I get a chance to listen later.

Most of the first 30 minutes was given over to Garry Doyle lamenting the closure of the Irish Times. He made some good points but also thought he was off the mark in more of it.

I thought Doyle came across poorly in the slot. Didn't like it when Joe put it to him that a sports reporter rather than a news reporter in Mark Tighe broke the FAI story. Joe and Timmy McCarthy also fairly demolished his argument about Rory McIlroy.

Way too much time blowing smoke up colleagues' asses and generally reinforced the suspicion that the media is a chummy fraternity who don't like the mirror being turned on them.

Utopia Parkway

Can't get enough Ger Gilroy in your life? Then this is the news for you. OTB are going 24 hours.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/radio/off-the-ball-launches-24-hour-radio-station-dedicated-to-sports-38258608.html

gormdubhgorm

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Can't get enough Ger Gilroy in your life? Then this is the news for you. OTB are going 24 hours.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/radio/off-the-ball-launches-24-hour-radio-station-dedicated-to-sports-38258608.html

Jayus, if there is a market for it let them off.
It sounds like is more a vehicle to a more consistent stream of advertising revenue in, rather than anything really innovative.

I assume it will be the same 'news'/programmes on constant repeat - similar to Sky News/Sky Sports News?

Dots1982

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Jayus, if there is a market for it let them off.
It sounds like is more a vehicle to a more consistent stream of advertising revenue in, rather than anything really innovative.

I assume it will be the same 'news'/programmes on constant repeat - similar to Sky News/Sky Sports News?

More like talksport or 5 live than SSN

gormdubhgorm

Dots1982 wrote: »

More like talksport or 5 live than SSN

Fair point I was going to say them as well.
But I would have thought that the talksport format in particular is dated?
They seem to struggle to fill airtime.

Dots1982

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Fair point I was going to say them as well.
But I would have thought that the talksport format in particular is dated?
They seem to struggle to fill airtime.

Don’t listen to them at all to be honest. It was more that this new station will have live commentaries.

Tell me how

Think the 24 hour move is a big step.
Expect like said above it's about catching as much advertisement as possible.
Interesting that although they're going to this format, I think I saw they're only going to 50 hours content/week.
That's not a huge amount more than what they're currently doing.

Expect to see a lot of people frustrated that they're tuning in and hearing the same content they heard earlier that day.

On the other hand, I'd imagine they'll fit in some sort of dial in during the week. Like Talksport as also said above.

I remember when The Title newspaper launched as a dedicated Sunday sports newspaper. It lasted only a few weeks before was subsumed into another paper.

Edit: just read press release, they say they'll be producing 40 hrs/week. That makes it sound more like an intferace to publish all podcasts they're currently producing in the form of a '24 hour radio'. Nightly show is staying on radio which reinforces that view I think.

redbuck

This is great news, hopefully it takes off.

Ol' Donie

A) Is it actually on the radio or is it internet radio?

Will it be OTB am, then hours of repeats, then OTB, then more repeats?

C) How much of it will be Golf Weekly?

D) I'll give it a whirl, could be good.

E) 40 hours of new content each week is about 24% of the time for a 24 hour station. In other words, it'll be 76% repeats.

Still Ill

Was a tough listen with John and Nathan talking about Rafa's previous jobs.
'What was the big club he was with? Valencia? See he never had the money like he would with a BIG club like Real Madrid or Barca.' He's done a great job everywhere he's been'

You'd think either of them might have a clue what they're talking about. Surely they knew beforehand. Could've at least glanced at wiki.

NIMAN

sugarman wrote: »

Thursday nights with John is getting a bit stale now anyway, same old stuff ..."When I was at Leeds" yada yada

Why thank you.

I've been saying that for about 2 years.