National Forum

Best / Worst TV/Radio Commentators?

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Agree totally on Mchugh and Dolan, painful to listen to

Darragh Moloney is probably the best at the minute, I like Mcstay as co commentator.

Surely nobody will ever top effin Eddie Moroney in the commentary booth though

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GeniusGerry (Kerry) - Posts: 1957 - 31/08/2020 18:56:44    2289993

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Galway has Sean Walsh on Hurling he is highly regarded and makes you feel you are at the match while listening to him so 10 out of 10

In football Galway have Ollie Turner he is not highly regarded. Ollie commentary is very pessimistic and he rambles along not following the game. 2 out of 10 for Ollie

heartbroken (Galway) - Posts: 356 - 31/08/2020 19:06:31    2289995

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Replying To KillingFields:  "best or worst?"
Worst. Best is maloney.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 17035 - 31/08/2020 21:07:22    2290012

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Daragh Moloney and Dave McIntyre are the best commentators by a distance.
Ger Canning was never much good but has given up on even trying in last 10 years. Brian Carthy is trying to be Micheall O'Muircheartaigh and failing miserably. Marty Morrissey has geniune enthusiasm and I don't mind him.
On the co commentator level, Tommy Carr was so negative it was untrue. Bernard Flynn seems to lack a fundamental understanding on Gaelic Football is played. And finally Martin Carney was given the boot for years of stating the bleeding obvious. Hurling has been much better served.
On a local level Sean McCaffrey and Alan Gunn are brilliant. They are biased when Monaghan are playing but not in a cartoon way. And they are excellent at club level. Lastly whoever was covering the Clontibret games on Facebook during the pandemic was excellent.

FootblockREF (Monaghan) - Posts: 471 - 01/09/2020 07:20:10    2290043

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worst..any of the tv ones who seem to forget its ok not to fill every second with the sound of their voice
best..effin eddie moroney

Maroonatic (Galway) - Posts: 947 - 01/09/2020 11:32:15    2290057

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i have to say i love listening to willie hegarty on shannonside doing the roscommon club and county games . jack nolan is also good on midlands radio with chris conway . at national level michael duigenan is far the best co commentator . darraagh maloney the best commentator

mickcunningham (Westmeath) - Posts: 1243 - 01/09/2020 13:13:48    2290072

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Replying To gilly1910:  "Daragh Moloney is excellent, however in the crazy Politically World that we now live in, it won't be long before we have women commentating on our games, and the studio is 50/50 men/women. Sorry but the Sunday Game for both the live show and the highlights program on a Sunday night are just not the same since they introduced women onto them."
I'm pretty sure there was at least one woman commentator or analyst on the Sunday Game (or maybe its predecessor show) back in the day (1980s?). I don't recall it being a big deal th the time, not sure why you feel it should be an issue now.

PolicemanFox (Monaghan) - Posts: 67 - 01/09/2020 14:21:00    2290084

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I always liked John Lynch when he was on shannonside, excellent commentator and the perfect radio voice. He's left shannonside and gone freelance, he does some reporting for RTE sports on games but he would definately be a welcome addition to their live commentary games.

Willie Hegarty on Shannonside is an absolute belter too, he's incredible and great fun to listen too

leitrim4sam (Leitrim) - Posts: 475 - 01/09/2020 15:04:24    2290089

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "Each to their own, it's all about opinions.

Not a fan of lifeless commentators and Co-commentators boring you with stats, you want to be made like you're there watching it as they describe the action.

Marty is great, gets animated during commentary, not afraid to act the fool. In an era, that seems to me, where too many in the media want to seem cool and interesting, Marty doesn't give a shite.

I like Dave McIntyre too, someone mentioned him earlier. Be it on TV or radio and other sports he's well researched and gets animated during commentary.

I know very little about hurling but love it. But for me a Sunday afternoon listening to Pauric Lodge and John Mullane doing live radio commentary of any game is magic. One giving great commentary, the other regularly losing the run of himself."
I personally can't stand Marty but I get what you mean about him, at least he's clearly enjoying himself doing the job, unlike Ger Canning who seems bored most of the time! Canning does my head in to be honest!

I haven't heard much of McIntyre on GAA but he's good on soccer on Virgin. Well researched and knowledgeable and animated when needs be.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13145 - 01/09/2020 15:23:15    2290092

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Kevin O Connor on wlr has a good voice. However he constantly gets the wrong player for the score, free, substitute etc. and has to be corrected by the co. commentator. What drive me nuts is talking about some trivia b.s. while the play continues and two points have been scored. Like some players auntie josie in America is listening and she is also cousin of the three Power's dad who are playing for Ballyduff. Sounds like a lot of negatives about him but he is a nice guy and has pluses also.
A radio commentary needs to have much more skill in describing what he sees and stay on subject. I remember going to games and then listening back to Michael O' Hehir (R.I.P.) and you would think you had been at a different game. He would have made a p-ss poor game good.

Canuck (Waterford) - Posts: 979 - 01/09/2020 16:00:40    2290095

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A mention for Garry MacDonnacha who combines work for Rte and TG4 and does a cross section of sports. Scored a couple of classy goals for Carraroe in their only county final win so he has a fair idea of what he's on about .Similarly Brian Tyers is easy on the ear .Agree about Daragh Moloney he at least sounds as if he has an interest in the game and also agree as regards Brian Carthy he's woeful. I suppose its all just opinions and you know what they say about them. Micheal o Muircheartaigh even at 90 would still wipe all their eyes though

UtahBlaine (Galway) - Posts: 38 - 01/09/2020 19:56:18    2290125

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Replying To PolicemanFox:  "I'm pretty sure there was at least one woman commentator or analyst on the Sunday Game (or maybe its predecessor show) back in the day (1980s?). I don't recall it being a big deal th the time, not sure why you feel it should be an issue now."
Liz Howard from Tipp analyzed games back in the early 80s, her signature quote was "great stuff there Sean Og " (O'Callaghain)

Galway4ever (Galway) - Posts: 134 - 01/09/2020 19:57:49    2290126

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Replying To jacktheDub:  "Daragh Maloney is excellent, I also like Kevin McStay as co-commentator.

Marty Morrissey and Dessie Dolan are rubbish.."
Dessie offers little -all he says is the obvious trying to please. The way RTE is going you will soon see women playing on the men's teams!!! to fulfill the 50%. Sean Og had a great voice giving out all the Sunday club results at 2300hrs

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2189 - 01/09/2020 21:37:47    2290133

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Replying To PolicemanFox:  "I'm pretty sure there was at least one woman commentator or analyst on the Sunday Game (or maybe its predecessor show) back in the day (1980s?). I don't recall it being a big deal th the time, not sure why you feel it should be an issue now."
Issue now it it's being done out of tokenism and not on actual alibity.

oneoff (UK) - Posts: 402 - 02/09/2020 12:01:31    2290179

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Agree with most people on here, Darragh Maloney is good if not the best, Ger Canning seems to be there for the pay cheque, marty very enthusiastic without being as good as Darragh. Not a fan of McIntyre, find him quite patronizing, bit of a know it all, maybe it's just me. With co commentators, like the fact McStay has been involved in the county set up quite recently and knows his stuff. Dolan offers zero, also find he's quite biased in games.
From Galway point of view , Ollie Turner is hard to listen to, even from watching the galway streams compared to listening on the radio, he often wants to make game more exciting than it actually is or maybe reacts to a standard point saying it was a once in a lifetime shot etc etc. Frank Doherty/Frank Morris on Galway BAY fm are insightful and interesting to listen to. Overall I sound very critical but genuinely believe good commentators and co comm are hard to come by.

fryingpan (Galway) - Posts: 37 - 02/09/2020 12:10:07    2290180

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Replying To oneoff:  "Issue now it it's being done out of tokenism and not on actual alibity."
It's RTE how many of the men are there on ability rather than tokenism ?

Most of the panels are there because they were good players not good pundits. Of all of them Joanne Cantwell is one of the few who can say she did the hard yards and worked her way up

Breezy (Limerick) - Posts: 1106 - 02/09/2020 12:46:59    2290186

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Replying To browncows:  "Dessie offers little -all he says is the obvious trying to please. The way RTE is going you will soon see women playing on the men's teams!!! to fulfill the 50%. Sean Og had a great voice giving out all the Sunday club results at 2300hrs"
Yeah it was a great service at the time. I remember I used to try and guess the second score as a bit of a diversion. Sean Og would read Longford Slashers 2-11 Clonguish.... and I would be in like Flynn with 1-9, which invariably of course would be completely wrong. The odd time I got one right I had an expression like Mrs Doyle when she guessed Fr Todd Unctious. Innocent times!

Llaw_Gyffes (Mayo) - Posts: 1105 - 02/09/2020 12:50:14    2290187

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our lads are fairly subdued compared to these guys
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Maroonatic (Galway) - Posts: 947 - 02/09/2020 14:47:27    2290211

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Yeh Darragh Maloney was a pleasure to listen too, mores the pity he was brought into the studio. Marty is a likeable guy and a fairly good laugh but his live commentary is a real turn off for me.

theduke66 (Dublin) - Posts: 324 - 02/09/2020 15:49:28    2290220

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Replying To PolicemanFox:  "I'm pretty sure there was at least one woman commentator or analyst on the Sunday Game (or maybe its predecessor show) back in the day (1980s?). I don't recall it being a big deal th the time, not sure why you feel it should be an issue now."
You are right. Liz Howard was a Sunday Game analyst in the early 80s and she was quite good. She was a former Tipperary camoige player.

Gaillimh_Abu (Galway) - Posts: 841 - 02/09/2020 16:02:44    2290226

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