GAA Clichés and Dublin Legends

[balbec]

Football is not very interesting.

[Raylan]

Much like Sidney, evidently.

[Sidney]

I think I hear the sound of a pot calling out from somewhere in the direction of Clare

[Fagan_ODowd]

@Sidney

I went out for my customary Friday night walk to buy a packet of cigarettes at 10pm this evening and what did I hear was coming up after the news on RTE Radio 1 but this year’s first edition of “The Championship” with Brian Carthy (fáilte is chéad).

So instead of walking to the nearest Centra shop on Newcastle Road, I decided I’d head all the way down to Tesco opposite the hospital so that my walk would be long enough to hear all of this year’s gala opening to the series.

As always, there was an all-star guest list, with the three man panel made up of Gordon Manning, GAA correspondent for the Irish Sun (cc: of @AppleCrumbled), New York Gaelic footballer CJ Molloy, and Wicklow manager John Evans.

Some highlights were:

A recorded interview with Jim Gavin at the official launch of the Leinster Championships at Casement Aerdorome, Baldonnell. It was very boring. Jim used a lot of buzzwords like “facilitate”, “player-centric approach” etc., which is a surprise as he’s normally great value in interviews like these. He said that Paul Flynn always gave his all “every time he wore that sky blue jersey on his back - that’s his legacy”. That’s not a legacy, Jim, it’s merely a description of a player making an effort.

New York-born CJ (his accent is like a softer spoken Des Bishop) told us that his uncle Anthony Molloy is in great from, as is everybody back in Ardara. He said that “you would have got some price on Donegal to beat Dublin back in 1992”. I’d say you surely would have, CJ.

CJ would love to see more native New Yorkers get their place on the team - only 11 out of something like 400 players to play for the team over the years have been actual New Yorkers. But John Evans chipped in to say that that figure could well increase if Mr. Trump has his way!

John then said that Ciaran Deely is doing great work with London - they’re apparently even bringing in experts from London soccer clubs. That poaching of coaching talent could well explain why Tottenham have such a long injury list at the moment.

We then heard from Mayo manager James Horan ahead of the new NFL champions’ trip to New York, and James was very boring, so I can’t remember any of what he said, but I’m sure he used the word “process” (as always with James, it’s pronounced “pross-ess”, rather than “pro-sess”).

Galway manager Kevin Walsh was next up for a recorded interview, and Brian put it to him that Galway perhaps take more criticism for their style of play than other teams. Kevin responded that “there are a lot of empty vessels out there, and we have to make sure those empty vessels don’t hit us on the ears”.

Speaking of vessels, “Seascapes” followed at 10:30pm as usual, but sadly I got home as the Fergal Keane-presented programme was coming to the end of its first feature - about the Irish youth sailing championships, and I didn’t hear the feature about currach racing on the Liffey, which sounded quite interesting. Might listen back on the player after I finish this post, actually.

But back to the GAA, and the programme finished off with John Evans rambling on in his inimitable style. He was full of praise for Wicklow legend Kevin O’Brien, who he says is doing a wonderful job with the under 17 team. Brian then joked with John that he’s been involved with so many different counties that he must love driving up and down the country. I chuckled to myself at that - it was lovely, harmless yet original humour.

John finished off the programme by mentioning the late Pat McAuliffe, and told us of “what a loss to managers” he was - Pat always had a kind and gentle manner as he put a hand around you looking for a post match interview on his “transistor”, as John called it. John specifically recalled an incident in Waterford on January 26th this year, when the wind and rain was lashing down. I thought the way John was teeing up the anecdote that he was going to say that he had bene stuck for a lift home and Pat obliged, but the anecdote just turned out to be that Pat and John had conducted a routine interview.

A shit anecdote, but nevertheless you could hear John’s affection for Pat as he spoke, and let’s hope this series will be a worthy tribute to Pat - I hope to update this thread periodically with mini-reviews of what has become a lovely little Friday night tradition for me - listening to “The Championship” and a bit of “Seascapes” while nipping out to the shop for my smokes.

That was a lovely tale well told. I was out in the car listening to Seascapes there later. They had a very interesting piece on beached whales.

[Ashman]

Seascapes is a great piece of radio .

[Ashman]

The sharp loud musical interludes on the Brian Carty show are annoying .

Good review

[Sidney]

Come to think it, apart from the usual “deh-deh-deh-deh-deh-deh…deh” musical interludes (recycled from early 90s Sunday Sport) I’m sure at one stage a miscellaneous piece of music accidentally played for a couple seconds while somebody was talking. It was just after the Kevin Walsh interview. I’m surprised that a slick, big budget production like “The Championship” would have a gremlin get into the system like that.

[myboyblue]

I enjoyed Woolie and PTG’s shut down of a preview show above in Errigal the other day. Away to fuck with that shite, what sort of cunt would even listen to it.

[PhattPike]

A rale damp squib of a weekend to launch the football championship as well. Updates from London and Noo Yawk coming in over the radio.

[Sidney]

The Connacht football championship has a rare gift - it can make two of the great cities of the world, London and New York, seem very boring.

The Father Stone Wall of provincial championships.

[Ashman]

Surely we will get Marty reporting on the banks of the Thames or the Hudson .

Last year the NY v Leitrim first round game made for fabulous radio .

[dodgy_keeper]

@Ashman

Surely we will get Marty reporting on the banks of the Thames or the Hudson .

Last year the NY v Leitrim first round game made for fabulous radio .

He’s in New York.

Expect the roaster thread to be hectic this weekend as 10,000 Mayo fans descend on NY.

[Ashman]

There are already more that 10k Mayo GGA followers in NYC

[Perez2017]

If the county wins, club games made them sharp, if they lose, club games had them burnt out.

[anon67715551]

@Ashman

Last year the NY v Leitrim first round game made for fabulous radio .

It probably did to the neutral. To the invested however, it was coronary inducing.
Noel Plunkett with the winner iirc.

[cowpat]

half of them will be illegals living there. Trump’s troops should swoop…

[cowpat]

There are 30 men on this panel. No one person is better then the other.

[Fagan_ODowd]

RTÉ GAA (RTEgaa)

[Ashman]

The GAA are very bad to market the start of their championships

[myboyblue]

They’re much too busy on social media monitoring clubs twitter feeds for inappropriate content