Over the weekend, Paul Galvin, writing in his Sunday Times column, called for a rethink regarding the Sunday Game. The Kerryman feels RTÉ's flagship GAA show has long been a liability to the Association and is also now one for the broadcaster too. Galvin wants to see it rebranded and relaunched with fresh faces in the analysts' seats.
Mickey Harte has also expressed displeasure about the current state of GAA analysis. Quoted by the Irish Daily Star's Karl O'Kane, Harte, who was speaking at the launch of the Michaela Foundation/Fintona Pearses Golf Classic, decried the rise of the 'celebrity analyst'.
It is a case of do we get quality analysis, or so we get sound bites – that is the big difference.
You need to be sure the people who are analysing our games – some people would call them celebrity analysts – be really mindful of the fact that it is not about putting someone else down to raise themselves up.
Though he did not specifically name RTÉ, it would not be a stretch the suggest that Harte was talking about Joe Brolly, Pat Spillane and others who appear on the national broadcaster's GAA coverage.
There has been bad blood between Harte and RTÉ for the past six years over the leaking of a letter to journalists which Harte sent to the broadcaster. RTÉ's John Murray Show also broadcasted a sketch with was viewed as insensitive to the Harte family.
In contrast, Harte said that he enjoys what he sees as the more 'insightful' approach of Sky Sports.
What I would suggest is that there are a couple of men on another channel (Sky) that I quite like listening to and one of them is heading off to China (Jim McGuinness), and the other one is here (Peter Canavan), and they are very insightful.
They really tell us something different, and they don't tell us what we have all seen after it has happened. They analyse the thing in specific detail and they are very good to listen to and it's not about sound bites.
Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
