It’s one of the oddest spats relating to the GAA world to have broken out in recent times and it’s hard to know what to make of the row, although I thought that An Spailpín fairly nailed it (on a number of levels) the other day.
But what do you think of the Cathygate imbroglio? Do you reckon this is just an RTÉ HR issue or are the GAA managers right to stick up for someone who they see as one of their own? I’ve stuck up a poll here on the site to test the waters in relation to the issue. Have at it.
We all love a good bash at the rugger-loving D4 mandarins in Montrose. But do Mickey Harte et al think they are doing Brian Carthy any favours with this? There’s no way RTÉ can be seen to react to demands from the people they are meant to be scrutinising on behalf of the public. If anything people might be asking about the cosy relationship between the watchers and the watched that this saga seems to typify
I would agree that it does Brian Carthy no good to have the managers taking up a fight for him. But he has been the no. 2 for years and its bad form of RTE to not give him the main sport on radio.I wonder did he have a conversation with Mickey Harte? Why would Mickey decide to start this unless he knew Brian Carthy was not happy.
Have changed my mind on this a number of times. Finally came down on the side of RTE. They pay the piper and make the calls.
Personally I would love to lead a campaign to get rid of Brolly and O Rourke who have given us a hard time but at the end of the day that’s life. They have their opinion and I have mine.
I do think there is a coziness that has developed and needs refreshing and changing periodically. O Rourke , Brolly et all have had a good run. I would like to hear other voices and opinions.
GAA tends to operate at a level of the unspoken. Signs and signals convey a lot. I understand why Harte etc would see Carty been hard done by, I would think the same but in the end we gotta fight our own battles ourselves.
What concerns me more is the midweek blurb that congratulated TG4 for outbidding RTE in securing the Heiniken cup games. Think about that. A fully publicly funded subsidery of the licence grabbing RTE outbids the mother ship with tax payers money to show a rugby match. I presume TV3 also bidded. So the idiotic public funded pair of RTE and TG4 drove the price up. Bear in mind the wad of cash our government has given for the development of Landsdowne and now the tax payer fires another wad courtesy of RTE at the rugby fraternity.
That’s like me bidding against my own wife when we went to buy a house together. Crazy!
I think the Carthygate saga is losing momentum by the noises being suggested in today’s papers. But ontheroad’s point about RTÉ’s use of public money in sports coverage in general is worthy of wider debate.
RTÉ’s desperately poor coverage of the football and hurling leagues combined with the laziness of the analysis by the football panelists in the championship shows how detached from reality RTÉ had become.
If the managers need to gripe at something, they would bring a much greater groundswell of opinion with them on these issues.
Meanwhile the worst commentator in the history of commentators still gets the mic on the biggest days in september,Ger Canning.Hes makes Billy Fitzpatrick sound like Sid Wadell.Also,even though Brolly and O’Rourke can be annoying,there take on Mayo is usually not far off.The truth hurts for us all!
Carthy seems to think he was entitled to the main commentators job on the back of his inane aping of O’Muicheartaigh. The fact that he is popular with managers should not recommend him to anyone, he always appeared to give them an easy ride which explains their carry on this week.
I cant agree more about Ger Canning. I was listening to his commentary on the Limerick/Waterford game today. He was shiteing on about the quality of some orthopaedic surgeon and it was clear that he was just filling time. I liked the Newstalk work today on the Ross/Leitrim game, McHale and Hayes were good as analysts.
I also listened to a lot of the Newstalk coverage today, first time I have tuned in on a Sunday afternoon to their GAA coverage. They are streets ahead of RTE. They knew how to hype up what was in reality a fairly low level championship match and most of their commentary and punditry (with the exception of the awful, spiteful Liam Hayes) was balanced and of a high standard.
RTE know they have to up their game to match the Newstalk coverage because the likes of Jacqui Hurley and Brian Carthy just aren’t up to standard. In relation to these two in particular, it shouldn’t matter who they are related to or how long they have been there, if they are not up to the job they should not be getting the prime time gigs. Carthy is just a plain bad commentator and is clearly too well connected to the managers to be able to engage in any form of objective interview and analysis. His reputation will have been seriously tarnished by this whole affair.
Mickey Harte has backed down today and fired a few final shots to try and limit the damage to his friend. But he has erred badly on this one and it now appears that he thinks (or thought) that he is a lot more powerful in the world of GAA than he actually is.
I’m with the national broadcaster on this one. I’m not a fan of Brian Carthy (It’s a goal, a goal for Armagh, and Armagh have just scored a goal) I agree with WJ, neither of the Micheal’s will ever be replaced, and most definitely not by the Ger & Marty brigade. It is however a tad audacious by the manager grouping to try to dictate to a commercial eneterprise how to do their housekeeping. Eyes on the ball lads!
I think that even though it galls me I’ll have to go with RTE on this one, despite the fact they are the ones who employ the woeful Ger Canning and McCarthy too. He has the most annoying voice I’ve ever heard and always goes miles over the top re people who have died, relatives of managers or players etc. Overall an annoying b**tard. Canning is a total tool, there’s no hope really for the national broadcaster. Then again, the buck who does the commentary on TV3 – dire! It’s time for some new talent I think. Old is not always best!
And there was I foolishly thinking Conor Mortimor was injured. Well he looked fantastic yesterday. He kicked points with left foot and right foot. Landed a free from sixty metres and linked play from midfield in.
The hair looked as if it needed a slight trim and I suppose he wont give up wearing the bicycle shorts at this stage but honestly watching him reminded me of his early years, all energy and style.
Now why he wore the Wexford jersey and went under the name of Ben Brosnan has me totally flummoxed but I’d say James Horan sent him down there for rehabilitation from his knee. I hope the Yellow Belly’s don’t think he is going to stay there. See you in McHale Park soon Conor and ditch the name Ben!