I’m not sure if Apres Match is even still a thing anymore, but, when they were in their pomp, the triumvirate of Risteard Cooper, Gary Cooke and Barry Murphy were part of the staple diet of RTE’s coverage of any major soccer tournament. Indeed, if the old remember box is working, they even strayed into rugby on occasion, taking off Tom McGuirk and Brent Pope and George Hook.
The reason for all of the aforementioned being their fodder? Because the pundits – and not forgetting the late, great Bill O’Herlihy – were every bit as beloved as any action that was going on between the white lines. The same could of course be applied with justification regarding the now former equivalent GAA big three who ran parallel to Giles, Dunphy and Brady (below) – Colm O’Rourke, Joe Brolly and Pat Spillane.
Their weekly sparring sessions being refereed by the also dearly departed Michael Lyster. And the other thing linking the three teams of pundits is the fact that, in all cases, those who have taken over in their wake are not fit to carry the multicoloured Bic biros which are often on hand for those on punditry duty!
And a lot of the problem – and this seemingly now applies across a lot of RTE’S sports coverage – is down to the monotone moaner in the anchor chair for increasingly far too much of it, Joanne Cantwell.
Thinking about all of the above recently recalled the hilarious Apres Match Live which ran for at least one stint in what is now the 3 Arena around 20 odd years ago. One of the central tenets of which for satirical reasons – and not far off reality – was the almost sycophantic relationship between Eamon Dunphy and Johnny Giles.
To the point where, in one part of the skit, the pair are whimsically depicted as sharing the same bed and at a particular stage therein Eamon is obviously feeling the cold because he wistfully turns to his sidekick and whines “Gilesy, you’re hogging the duvet”. The man who quite literally had to have the last word was obviously feeling the cold!
If the man who once played midfield for Milwall was still struggling for shut eye Joanne would surely put a body to sleep. I’m not sure if its just that she’s clueless, hence asking the ridiculous, almost insulting questions or if it actually is condescending ignorance.
My views on Donal Og Cusack can often flip and flop, but I will say, one couldn’t but admire the Cloyne cul baire for the way he bites back at the anchor’s often asinine assertions.
You do wonder how the Brains Trust in RTE arrived at the decision to give Ms Cantwell the most sought after job in Irish sports broadcasting.
Now, you will doubtless be told that Evanne Ni Chuilinn couldn’t be considered because of her venture into politics. But for one thing, I believe The Sunday Game ‘gig’ became available before the Kilkenny lady was appointed to the Seanad by Fine Gael. And for a second thing, I do not believe that she – or anybody for that matter – should have had to give up her RTE role as it was only the Div. 2 House of the Oireachtas to which she was appointed.
Having said that, it’s worth pointing out in the interest of fairness that, in both soccer and GAA – being the most pertinent cases presently – the standard of pundit anchors – whomever they may be – have to work with is pure dross compared to those whom the likes of Lyster and O’Herlihy and Tom McGuirk had as sidekicks.
However, if Evanne was out of the running from the get go, how Joanne could get the nod ahead of Jacqui Hurley or Marie Crowe or Damien Lawlor or, yes, I’m going there, Marty Morrissey, is baffling.
When a German, a novice like Kevin Doyle and a decent baller but no world beater (Damien Delaney) are the best that you can find you’re setting the bar fairly low. By the way, reference to Didi Hamann is not meant as a slight at him in any way – on the contrary I love listening to him and, like Jack Charlton before him, isn’t he nearly an honourary Irishman at this stage!
Though the manner in which the likes of Giles, Dunphy, Brady, O’Rourke, Spillane, Brolly, Hook, Pope and McGuirk were defenestrated by the national broadcaster is nothing other than ageism. Especially as, particularly in the case of the soccer pundits, those who replaced them wouldn’t be fit to hold a highlighter marker to the stalwarts who went before them.
That said, in fairness to the striker turned horse breeder, Wexford’s Doyle wasn’t afraid to call Cantwell out on some of her bull plop in early stages of the currently ongoing World Cup. Whether there will be any improvement in the quality of fare televisual viewers will have to wait and see.