Would gaelic football be a better or worse game if we didn't have Joe Brolly's caustic comments to debate on a Monday morning? There'll be plenty of people ready to take up arms to argue both sides of that but as fun as it may be to debate, we genuinely hope we don't have to find out anytime soon.
Regardless of what you personally think about him, you would have to admit that Brolly is box office. And it's not just the Derry man either. Colm O'Rourke has been known to court a bit of controversy with his views from time to time. As much as we may say we just want to see a good game, much of the appeal of sport is down to the drama.
Ideally that will come from the kind of spectacle we saw in the All Ireland hurling final last year but, more often than not, it comes from controversy and the Sunday Game panel are excellent at stoking controversy. However, that may be about to hurt RTÉ big time.
GAA President Aogán Ó Fearghail has been speaking about the latest controversy surrounding Joe Brolly's comments and he has made the somewhat astonishing claim that such comments could have an adverse effect on RTÉ's hopes of maintain their foothold in the GAA broadcast market when the media rights are up for tender at the end of next season.
'It could be an issue', admitted Ó Fearghail when asked whether the kind of analysis seen on the Sunday Game would have an effect on the bidding process.
The GAA President was cutting in his remarks about the RTÉ panel's analysis last weekend with Colm O'Rourke coming in for particular criticism over his belief that there was a 'bad smell' around Tyrone's approach to the game.
I did say it before and I would still say it again: I think some of The Sunday Game commentary is unfair. But at this stage it’s predictable and in fairness it’s consistent in its negativity. So it’s fairly predictable. It’s tiresome, I find.
Ó Fearghail may well think that, and he may well have reason to, but to suggest that the RTÉ panel's brand of analysis could see them lose out in bidding process for media rights is rather incredible and something we may not have heard the last of.
[Examiner]
