gaaboard.com

After reading Ray Silke's column, I realised I've barely watched the Sunday game at all this year. I'm sure many others have given up on it too with that clown Spillane in the presenter's chair. The viewing figures must be on a downward spiral.

Surely the time has come for a change with the Sunday game. The presenter is terrible, a transition year student, taught by Trevor Welsh would do a better job. Some of the analysts are just pointless. What informed opinion have you ever heard McStay, Davis, Spillane, Lyons give? Compare them to Brolly, O'Rourke, and Tohill and the aforementioned quartet are a joke.

Colm O'Rourke, Joe Brolly, and Anthony Tohill are the only ones that should be kept on, and maybe ó Cinneide as a presenter who'd do a good job with his RnaG presenting background, as Ray says. There are some awful bullshitters in there now, and some lads who are just too afraid of upsetting anyone in their county or should I say constituency for O'Mahoney. It's just deteriorated ever since Spillane's puke football comment.
People in RTE must realise what people want is knowledgeable analysts who aren't afraid of upsetting their own county, or controversial for the sake of it. Or am I on my own? It's about as good as ITV sports coverage now, Tommy Lyons our Terry Venables.

I'd like to see someone like Paul Bealin if he was out of a job involved. I'm sure there's loads more football men that could do a hell of a lot better than the crowd in there now. RTÉ could afford to poach Daire O'Brien(presenter of the Hub) from Setanta too as anchor. It's shocking to think that you'd get more informed debate about a match on here than from the mugs on the Sunday Game.
Any other analysts worth getting in for the Sunday Game? 

Quote
Ray Silke The Way It Is
Best TV moment of the weekend
On Tuesday afternoon I threw the video cassette into the recorder to re-live the last frantic ten minutes of Saturday's ASll-Ireland quarter-final of the Galway versus Kilkenny clash.

It did not make pretty viewing from a Galway perspective and watching the All-Ireland champions smash home 2-4 without reply did little to lighten my mood.

However, I let the tape run on to catch the analysis with Michael Lyster, Cyril Farrell and Tomás Mulcahy and got a good laugh for my troubles.

Near the end Lyster asks Farrell: "Will Ger Loughnane stay on with Galway next year?"

Quick as a flash and with typical Rebel wit, Mulcahy pounces on the loose ball and peeling with laughter retorted; "Sure, that depends on how much they pay him".

Farrell, trying hard to hide his obvious annoyance, rebukes the uncouth and unsubstantiated remark:

"That has nothing to do with it, not down our side anyway".

The camera panned to Lyster who was rocking rather uncomfortably in the presenter's chair with a - what did you say that for look on his face.

It was a good laugh and made for some lively and spontaneous TV.

Time to ditch Spillane and Lyons from the Sunday Game:

Were you watching the Sunday Game last Sunday night?

The carry-on of Pat Spillane and Tommy Lyons was absolutely pathetic and cringe inducing.

Since Spillane introduced the term "Puke-Football" to GAA lexicon, he should be able to recognise that this was "Puke-TV".

They were like two national school boys fighting over a few sweets and the sooner both are shown the exit from the show the better for it, and us.

To start off, Lyons looked like he had fallen into a massive jar of false tan and his face had that peculiar sheen normally reserved for Tom Jones. Anthony Tohill must have arrived at the make-up room, seen Lyons, and made a bolt straight for the couch.

Lyons and Spillane started their pettiness from the get-go:

Spillane: "You went for Laois to beat Derry, Tommy". Hee hee, hee hee.

Lyon's: "You've called a few wrong in your own day too Pat."

A few minutes later after watching Donegal's annual capitulation to any team in particular, they were off again.

Spillane: "You said that Donegal would win the All-Ireland earlier in the season Tommy, what have you to say now?"

A clearly agitated Tommy replied in a – I'd love to box those big Kerry ears of you tone - "You are getting predictable now Pat".

The only thing that is predictable now on that show is that Lyons and Spillane will have a cat fight whenever they are in each other's company, and it makes for nauseating viewing.

Lyons has no real credibility in football circles and his recent rant about how the Dublin players were driven to their stupid antics in front of the Hill by thrash talking from the Laois players highlighted a complete lack of objectivity and understanding of the point being addressed.

And he also had a real cut at Spillane and Kerry that night too. It was turgid stuff.

The fact that he is often paired with the quite excellent Anthony Tohill only highlights his many inadequacies.

Tohill is eloquent, thoughtful and always has his research done.

He is in my estimation the best football pundit on the Sunday Game at this stage. Both he and the smooth talking Dara Ó Cinnéide have both been very positive recent additions to GAA coverage on RTÉ.

It is hard not to be impressed too with the passion, honesty and animated chat that Anthony Daly brings to the hurling analysis even if he finds it impossible to keep his feelings for his former manager in check.

Indeed it is time for a good shake up with the Sunday game. Some of the boys who are on the show are pure stale and have been there way too long.

When you hear a Cork pundit informing you that in his opinion Padraig Joyce and Ja Fallon were the Galway contenders for the Man-of-the-Match award after this year's Connacht final, you'd have to wonder what game he was watching.

The show badly needs some new faces and for 2008 the first two who should be given the high road are Spillane and Lyons.

The Kerry man should at the very least be removed from the presenters chair where he wants to answer all his own questions, and seems incapable of developing any point thrown up by the panellists.

The obvious replacement for Spillane in the presenter's chair is Ó Cinnéide. He is intelligent, good looking, soft spoken, charming and is prepared to listen to others which is always a plus for the presenter.

RTÉ should make that change at least next year, because I know many people and the number seems to be growing who don't watch The Sunday Game on Sunday nights anymore as they can't bear to listen to Spillane.

And based on what was on offer last Sunday night, I wouldn't disagree with them.

I'd agree with nearly everything Silke (you?) has to say. O'Cinneide is a lot more polished that Spillane and would make a much better presenter. Tommy Lyons is a complete ass, and bluffs his way through the programme blabbering on saying nothing.
But Ray Silke wouldn't be much of an addition either, in case that's the gig he's looking for with this article!

QuoteI'd agree with nearly everything Silke (you?) has to say

You've been outed DJ. ;D

He calls it correctly in this article, well done Ray (DJ ?  ;))

Has Pat been reading these posts?  On sunday he was allowing pundits to answer, in the footballl section anyway.

Not even funny any more, reached the stage when its the game only I watch, no build up or after match analysis when hes on.

Also have to agree with everything Ray Silke says, he makes some very good points, been missing a lot of Sunday Games for this very reason.

Remember the days when your county won and you were in the pub later and the Sunday Game was on, and you'd actually be disappointed that you couldn't hear what they were saying about the game? Time for a bit of spring cleaning.

P Spillane then The Brollacks then T Davis are the 3 worst on it.

In fairness, Big Ant'ny was a wee bit wooden in his early days, but for sure has come on leaps an bounds. As Silke mentioned, appears to have his research well laid out an knows what he's talkin about, although that Gombeen Spillane cuts across him (as he does to most) in an infuriating, cringeworthy way. When Spillane started out, he was wooden too, but unlike Anthony, he hasn't improved a bit. I cant think of another word other than cringeworthy.

Was it not some sort of strike by himself an O'Rourke that resulted in the ejection of the ultra professional (imo) totally impartial (also imo) and extremely eloquent Lyster, in favour of that clown?

The show has suffered for it and furthermore, to hear him talking Hurling brings cringeworthy (there's that word again) to unprecedented levels.

Jerome Quinn is almost as bad, with his totally partisan, predictable lines of discussion, but not quite.

Old Silkey might not want to be chucking so many stones from within glazed structures. He is the most annoying co-commentator/presenter. His writing isn't much better either, he repeats himself as near as much in text as in speech.

What I'm saying is that he just keeps saying the same thing without shedding any extra light on the subject.

There's a lot of words but they are out of proportion to the nub of the information he is trying to impart.

Silke isn't very good at making the point just once as he continues to labour it in any number of re-phrasings.

and so on...

He's also given to undermining superlatives. An example would be "Dara O'Se is absolutely running this game, to a certain extent"

Bring in a real pro. like Donnacha O Duling[ probably spelt wrongly] to anchor the show

great article by Silke.
It had me laughing out loud in here.
I fully agree with what he says. I think he is a comical genius - though he has plenty of good material to satarise!

Also think that it would be a good idea to try O'Cinnede as anchor.

I too am a lapsed devotee of the 'sunday game'.
In recent years the trip that has been aired has turned me off watching, so I try to get to see it for the hurling/football highlights, but am never paying any attention to the analysts.

Time to get it back to being the unmissable institution it once was...

Big Anthony is no stranger to the fake tan himself - though that seems to run in the family...

Changing the theme tune and removing Lyster were the beginning of the end for the Sunday Game evening programme. Smacked of some turd with a clipboard who was big into "progress" and "modern ideas". It wasn't broke but they tried to "fix" it and they've made a hames of it.

RTE seriously need to lift their game in regard to GAA coverage.

I think O'Cinneide will be the long term choice as host, as the only qualified journo amounst footballers he has been well groomed during his time with Radio Na G.

He is a nice lad and is fairly diplomatic and gives a good balanced view of what he sees in a game , even if its Kerry playing.

I just want to record that I've also more or less stopped watching that unwatchable tripe. If I want to see highlights of a game I've missed I'll turn it on sometimes. Even then I know I won't get highlights, just scores - and not all of those. And for every minute of action I'll get two minutes of Tommy Lyons gabbling about "gain lines" and Spillane neighing and whinnying his way to unexplored depths of prattery.

If enough of us draw their attention to the fact that we're not watching, maybe they'll notice. Though I wouldn't bet on it. I contacted them in September 2005 to tell them that I was turning off in my droves (well, that most people I knew no longer found it required viewing and that I assumed their audience figures must reflect that). I asked them for their average audience figures over the previous four years to test my hypothesis. I just got a load of flim-flam, evasion and all sorts of figures except the useful ones they clearly didn't want to give me.

So I reached the conclusion that they know it's crap but they don't care. If anyone feels like trying again, I have a contact email, assuming it's still current. But don't expect much.

Good article by Silke - but here's an important consideration - those who can write well may not necssarily speak well - do you know what I mean ?

That's right, orangeman. Silke's article is good and his points accurate, but he's been a total flop as a pundit himself anytime I've heard him on the last word - cliched, predictable and uninteresting.

But you don't have to be a priest to know a bad sermon when you hear one. For example, I know I'd be totally rank as a presenter or a pundit. That doesn't disqualify me from commenting that Spillane and Lyons are equally bad.

What about Brolly as a presenter ? Would he be just too contreversial ?

Brolly is just another spillane -  so no

Quote from: Kerry Mike on August 03, 2007, 09:49:23 AM
I think O'Cinneide will be the long term choice as host, as the only qualified journo amounst footballers he has been well groomed during his time with Radio Na G.

He is a nice lad and is fairly diplomatic and gives a good balanced view of what he sees in a game , even if its Kerry playing.

To be honest I think he's perfectly suited to the presenters role, so long as he doesn't try and be presenter and analyst like Spillane does. It would be good to have someone who will ask the right questions and knows a lot about the sport. I think he is a tad too nice to the Kerry boys for him to become a quality analyst, anchor would definitely be more up his street. There doesn't seem to be much ego about him. Spillane on the other hand, always has to get the last word in on a topic, after not listening to his guests.

Silke is right in what he says, but it does sound an awful lot like his angling for a job there. He's a sound man, but I don't think he's up to it. Fair play to him though, he's not afraid to let rip at a few of his team mates from '98. At least Silke is putting it out there that The Sunday Game is dying with the quality of presentation and analysis they have. Most people watching The Sunday Game have played, or still play at some level, and the least RTE could do is respect their knowledge of the game and give hard analysis. Instead we have pointless fluff like Lyons on about gainlines.

I think everybody knows that Spillane is useless at presenting, from Silke to the Leinster chairman (I think?). I can't for the life of me figure out why nothing has been done about it. Is it actually an old pals act in there? O'Rourke and Brolly won't work as analysts if Spillane doesn't get a presenting job. Maybe they're afraid that they won't get enough "airtime" if Spillane is just a regular analyst like them. Tommy Lyons, in typical snake-oil salesman fashion I'd say, bullshitted himself into the analsyts chair. He's not taken seriously be anyone at this stage.

First ones out the door, in my opinion should be Spillane, Lyons, McStay, and Davis. Martin "They're scoring too many points against us Tommy" Carney isn't much use either. I think there's a hell of a lot of ex players who wouldn't mind a crack at it, and most if not all would do a better job. All Tony Davis ever seems to come out with is "What <insert county> really need to do is start winning possession". Pointless.

Christ Brolly as a presenter would be as bad as Spillane.

The Sunday Game has gone from vital for many GAA fans, to stale and pointless. The biggest annoyance is how easily it can be fixed. No doubt there's some guy in charge of The Sunday Game who used to direct The Clinic or something, and hasn't a clue where they are going wrong or why people have stopped watching. If people rattle off a few emails to them it can't hurt.

Email: thesundaygame@rte.ie

Davis has to be 1st out the door
I mean, who keeps their job when they have to read the names from a sheet
How the fcuk he is keeping his job is a mystery

It's like working in a car showroom, a customer coming in and you not knowing the name of the f**king cars ???

How much does Spillane get paid for his role as presenter per year......would it be in around the 200K mark?

Quote from: full back on August 03, 2007, 11:20:55 AM
David has to be 1st out the door
I mean, who keeps their job when they have to read the names from a sheet
How the fcuk he is keeping his job is a mystery

Couldn't for the life of me figure out who David was (David Spillane? No! David Tohill? No! David Lyons? No!...) until I read the next line.. "read the names from a sheet" ah, Tony Davis, complete plank...

Sorry about that Croi - duly amended

No worries, just thought it funny that I was having difficulty figuring out who David was until I read the next line...

My list to be expelled from TSG is, in order: Lyons, Spillane out of the anchor chair, Flynn and Davis. Someone needs to tell Brolly and O'Rourke to cut back on the schoolboy bitching. Farrell and Mulcahy were at it to a lesser extent last Sun, give it a rest lads.

Out of curiosity - how much do all the people get paid for being on the show ? Does anyone hve that information ? Maybe it's voluntary ?

You know how you normally get De Dubs, that lifeblood of the GAA and all that we hold dear, jumping all over you if you express an un-Dublin thought, like maybe they could turn up on time for their own games? Why aren't they defending poor Tommy? Why isn't someone in sky and navy blue diving over the hand-grenades being tossed at their former Duce? Ah me - how quickly they forget....

So how about this for the SG team
Anchor - O Cinneide,
Football analists: Robbie O Malley, Anthony Tohill,
Hurling: Anthony Daly, Donal O Grady, Larry Murphy (trust me, knows his stuff)
Out: Davis, Lyons, Spillane, Flynn, McStay.

Get Adrian Logan in - UTV don't use him for GAA - just the odd rugby match.

Agree with that silke fella even if he hates Mayo and takes a swing at us when he gets a chance.
Spillane. about as fake as they come, though delightful to watch when kerry lose.
Lyons. like a schoolteacher on tea break, not much good at this aspect of sport
Davis. like a lad afraid of getting a slap so says what they want to hear.
Tohil, genuine article and could easily be a presenter if he was trained a bit, deep thinker
Ocinneide,  likewise.You believe what he is saying because he is not biased even with kerry
paul curran.   too wooden, visibly upset when dublin lose.


Grainne ni seoige,  ok,ok but even if she says nothing at all I think she is needed.

Never thought I would say this but silke is 100% correct  - Spillane just isnt a presenter, he cuts people off and mocks them if they dont agree with his thoughts. Why not try Darragh Maloney - I like him as a commentator but he is also a good presenter.

Then the analysts – well Davis, Lyons and Brolly are terrible. I would keep o'Rourke, McStay, Tohill. O'Cinneide is the best of the lot in all fairness – no problem talking and knows his stuff. Time to introduce new talent – what about Peter Canavan, Dermot Early, Martin McHugh, Jack O'se????? Or maybe Joanne and Evanne could be promoted from the sideline - spice the job up ;)

MArtin McHugh????? Catch a grip he's a bigoted wee hoor who thinks he's like some king of legend manager because Cavan won the Ulster cship with a dodgy point against a poor Derry team! He should be sacked from BBC as well!

Paul Curran, I knew there was a name missing from my P45 list. Martin McHugh? Jaysus, we're trying to improve the quality of analists here...

For me Martin Carney is the worst of the lot and to see his 'expert' analysis on the Mayo game was laughable, how did they lose with that flow of knowledge coming from on high. John O'Mahony may start next year with a new analyst. The muppet is even on the last word. I mute the sound when he does the co-commentator role, for that matter McStay is only sligthly better he contradicts himself at every turn.
Agree that the Sunday game is not what it was but last week's bitch fight between Tommy Lyons and Pat was a new all time low especially Lyons going for Monaghan because that is what he expected Pat wanted. Sad, Tommy just plain sad. Never understood why they got rid of Jacko.

Now that Big Joe has retired, would he be a suitable candidate ?

This criticism of the sunday game,its presenter and its content is growing . I wonder will RTE take any notice probalby not . I agree a new calmer more professional presenter or maybe some training for the incumbent is needed . With regards the the other analysts I think every one has their favourites but I would like Peter Canavan or Big Joe involved .

I think the key criterion here, in being an anchor, is the ability to listen, simply that. Ó'Cinnéide: excellent, Spillane: woeful. Not sure about Big Joe, may not be telegenic enough for the lumpen masses.

Quote "Changing the theme tune and removing Lyster were the beginning of the end for the Sunday Game evening programme."

Michael Lyster is totally unbiased. It took me years to realise that he was a Galway man. He asks the questions and lets the analyst answer. Maybe he didn't want to be the anchorman anymore? I can't see anyone any better than him.

Jacko?? - great great footballer - clueless analyst

Too many Ulster men if Tohill AND Joe were to be there.

For all joe's strengths he wouldn't be articulate enough to be on the telly