The Sunday Game

[Jinxy]

I thought the Gooch did well the other night.
He's never going to say anything too controversial but at least he was sensible & articulate.

[Croí na hÉireann]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

[seafoid]

Yep. I think Seafoid has asked what RTE could do that would make the SG better and I can see where he is coming from but I think a lot of simple things could improve their shows. Eugene Magee was interviewed on Newstalk discussing Offaly football's problems and he did, as he usually does, some amount of waffling and stuttering Stanley type of delivery. Pat Spillane is another who uses a thousands words when one hundred would suffice. I think getting panelists who can dissect a game and get to the point quickly would help for a start and a midweek show with a more in-depth analysis of the games would be a big help. For me, it isn't necessarily about the format but the content of that format which is often neither informative or entertaining. 

EDIT: Sorry Seafoid posted the above before I saw you had joined the discussion.

I agree about the content being the problem. You walk away thinking you didn't learn anything much from the programme.

[seafoid]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

Longford could have its own dedicated  channel on Saorview with Albert Reynolds nostalgia and the football.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq_tPH_ZBhs

[Jinxy]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

The analysis of the Tyrone kickouts after Morgan went off was a perfect example of how to use available footage to illustrate a simple but important piece of data.
You can say 'Tyrone lost the next 4 kickouts' or you can demonstrate how and why they lost the next 4 kickouts.

[Croí na hÉireann]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

The analysis of the Tyrone kickouts after Morgan went off was a perfect example of how to use available footage to illustrate a simple but important piece of data.
You can say 'Tyrone lost the next 4 kickouts' or you can demonstrate how and why they lost the next 4 kickouts.

Precisely. And Whelan showing Fanning of Louth moving back to sweep in front of the full back line was another example I was thinking of.

[Zulu]

Haven't seen the SG yet but that sounds exactly like the type of thing they should have been doing all along. The Sky effect I wonder? That type of thing is interesting, informative and a whole deal better than simply giving out about too much hand passing etc. 

[muppet]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

The analysis of the Tyrone kickouts after Morgan went off was a perfect example of how to use available footage to illustrate a simple but important piece of data.
You can say 'Tyrone lost the next 4 kickouts' or you can demonstrate how and why they lost the next 4 kickouts.

Precisely. And Whelan showing Fanning of Louth moving back to sweep in front of the full back line was another example I was thinking of.

Michael Duignan springs to mind as a good exponent of proper real time analysis.

[AZOffaly]

Yeah, I thought the Sunday game was good there. Whelan was articulate, and while it wasn't anything overly complex, a lot of the time it isn't! The clips of the Tyrone half backs visibly shrinking into themselves and allowing the Down half forwards stream towards the breaking ball areas was as clear as you can get, and very interesting. Interesting because it was shot from behind the goals on a different camera, not one used during the game. Those cameras behind the goals often pick up action and movement that you don't get from the standard broadcast camera positions.

Also the defensive wall employed by Roscommon (I think) designed to encourage Leitrim into running into a trap (almost like a basketball press) 40 metres out was cleverly shown.

[Shamrock Shore]

Longford could have its own dedicated  channel on Saorview with Albert Reynolds nostalgia and the football.

Albert is from Roscommon!

They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

LOL

[Rossfan]

Also the defensive wall employed by Roscommon (I think) designed to encourage Leitrim into running into a trap (almost like a basketball press) 40 metres out was cleverly shown.

Now if only we can learn to defend on our side of the half way line we'll be grand.

[johnneycool]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

The analysis of the Tyrone kickouts after Morgan went off was a perfect example of how to use available footage to illustrate a simple but important piece of data.
You can say 'Tyrone lost the next 4 kickouts' or you can demonstrate how and why they lost the next 4 kickouts.

Precisely. And Whelan showing Fanning of Louth moving back to sweep in front of the full back line was another example I was thinking of.

Michael Duignan springs to mind as a good exponent of proper real time analysis.

You seldom get that from the panels at half time during the actual games, they more or less pick out the highlights and talk over them, maybe the odd bit where some team or other will need to buck up to get back in the game etc, normally pretty generic stuff.

Maybe they don't have the time with all the ads etc, etc, don't know.

[seafoid]

The Sunday Game seem to be changing direction. There was slightly more analysis there than usual on the night time highlights show I thought and on the live afternoon edition they seem to be moving towards splitting up the 3 Nualas. Similar to the way the school teacher has to move the biggest dossers in the classroom to the four corners. They should never increase coverage of any Longford game though, too much at the minute if anything.

The analysis of the Tyrone kickouts after Morgan went off was a perfect example of how to use available footage to illustrate a simple but important piece of data.
You can say 'Tyrone lost the next 4 kickouts' or you can demonstrate how and why they lost the next 4 kickouts.

Precisely. And Whelan showing Fanning of Louth moving back to sweep in front of the full back line was another example I was thinking of.

Michael Duignan springs to mind as a good exponent of proper real time analysis.

You seldom get that from the panels at half time during the actual games, they more or less pick out the highlights and talk over them, maybe the odd bit where some team or other will need to buck up to get back in the game etc, normally pretty generic stuff.

Maybe they don't have the time with all the ads etc, etc, don't know.

They don't have time to sit down and pick up what really matters either. I was watching the 3 musketeers with Bill Herlihy on the second day of the Champions League Semis and they focused on the first match, 24 hours later, and it was actually very  informative  because they had analysed the plays and could say exactly why Guardiola's tactics didn't work with examples from when he was at Barcelona etc.

And you need time to do that. Talking fluff is more the default when it's live. 

[Jinxy]

Yeah, I thought the Sunday game was good there. Whelan was articulate, and while it wasn't anything overly complex, a lot of the time it isn't! The clips of the Tyrone half backs visibly shrinking into themselves and allowing the Down half forwards stream towards the breaking ball areas was as clear as you can get, and very interesting. Interesting because it was shot from behind the goals on a different camera, not one used during the game. Those cameras behind the goals often pick up action and movement that you don't get from the standard broadcast camera positions.

Also the defensive wall employed by Roscommon (I think) designed to encourage Leitrim into running into a trap (almost like a basketball press) 40 metres out was cleverly shown.

I hope they do the same for Cluxton at some stage.
Seeing the movement out the field from the keepers perspective is much more informative than the side-on view.

[Qwerty28]

Longford chairman Brendan Gilmore has hit out at the Sunday Game's coverage of the county's Leinster championship win, claiming the discussion unfairly centred on Offaly.

Analysis of the game ran for less than a minute of Sunday evening's programme and Gilmore was disappointed the Longford players were not afforded the credit they deserved.

Pundits Kevin McStay and Ciarán Whelan were charged with assessing the first-round clash, but the discussion was focused completely on Offaly's Leinster woes of recent years.

Gilmore referenced last year's controversial qualifier encounter against Wexford which was the focus of much debate on the Sunday Game.

He added: "Now when we do win, there is very little discussion on it. Hopefully in three weeks' time if we do win again, the coverage will concentrate a little more on Longford."

Gilmore accepted Offaly carry greater weight in football circles, but said weaker counties should not be discriminated against in terms of the level of coverage they receive.

"I was disappointed with the coverage," he fumed.

"This was big win for both players and management. There was a lot of pressure there and it was a much needed championship win. I was involved in our last championship win over Offaly and that was back in 1965 so that tells you how much we needed to win this. Everyone in Longford then was looking forward to sitting down and watching the Sunday Game on Sunday night to see what the pundits had to say about Longford, to see how the game was analysed.

"Fair play to Ciarán Whelan who congratulated Longford on the win and focused on Longford despite the fact that he was asked to comment on Offaly. I was looking forward to see who the lads thought played well, what areas they believed we were strongest in. There was none of that.

"We deserve fair coverage and I don't think our lads got that. I was disappointed that the rest of the pundits didn't even comment on Longford's win."

Longford midfielder Michael Quinn insists progress will not have been achieved unless the scalp of Wexford is taken on the second weekend of June.

"[Sunday's] win is not really worth anything if you can't follow it up with another game. Consistency is a huge problem that we need to work on. Once you get the work-rate, the consistency will come.

"We know we have three tough weeks ahead of us but it's a good position to be in and we're looking forward to it.

"There's no love lost between the two of us but we know what they're capable of. At the end of the day, we played in our last league game against them that led to us being relegated so we're out for revenge."

Meanwhile Offaly secretary Tommy Byrne said they will await referee Martin Higgins' report before deciding on whether or not to appeal David Hanlon's red card.

The full-back was dismissed after 66 minutes of Sunday's contest.



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, May 20, 2014