Gaelic Games

TV View: Touch of Forrest Gump about RTÉ match scheduling

Understandable if viewers had taken to off switch on their remotes for fare provided in Meath-Kerry group game

Armagh's Rian O'Neill and Derry's Brendan Rogers in All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Round 2. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho
Armagh's Rian O'Neill and Derry's Brendan Rogers in All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Round 2. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho
Philip Reid
Mon Jun 03 2024 - 06:00

Whatever about paywalls and all the GAAGo carry-on – some matches available, others out of view and untouchable, a bit like the gold in Fort Knox – there remains a touch of the Forrest Gump box of chocolates analogy about the match scheduling which RTÉ end up carrying on The Sunday Game Live.

You never know what you’re going to get!

Indeed, it would have been understandable if viewers had taken to the off switch on their remote controls for the fare that was provided in the appetiser which was the Meath-Kerry group game in the All-Ireland Football Championship double-header for the couch potatoes.

You’ll get the gist of how it went from the conversation between Seán Cavanagh and presenter Joanne Cantwell from their viewing point, which was actually behind the goalposts a wee bit away in Celtic Park where they were perched for the second helpings, the Derry-Armagh group match.

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When Joanne asked Seán what he was looking for from the second-half as Meath went about playing catchup to the Kingdom, he replied: “I don’t know. I hope the referee blows it up early. Is that a possibility?”

Tongue-in-cheek the answer may have been but it was entirely understandable given what had come our way in the first-half and the malaise seemed to afflict Kerry too on the resumption with co-commentator Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s frustration sounding as if he was ready and willing to wear the jersey again and to put back on his boots to spark some life into his old team.

It wasn’t needed, though, because David Clifford was just as frustrated with the lethargic goings-on and smashed the ball to the net for Kerry’s goal (and opening score of the half, all of 14 minutes after the throw-in) which brought order to things.

“Did we learn anything about Kerry? Not much,” pondered Ciarán Whelan from the TV gantry beside Joanne and Seán when it was all over, demonstrating all the hunger of a man keen to move on to the mains of Derry and Armagh on the pitch behind him.

Indeed, the intensity levels prematch in Derry were already far, far ahead of what was witnessed in Navan to the point that pitchside reporter Damien O’Meara and Marty Morrissey’s co-commentator Enda McGinley had to move position for fear of being injured by the on-pitch drills.

Anyway, the duo safely managed to get through the prematch sideline chat without injury for a match which O’Meara wondered might be a “tight and cagey” affair. It proved anything but.

And those others safely with microphones in hand could sense what was coming. “It almost feels like a shadow Ulster final without the cup being here,” remarked Cavanagh of the atmosphere at Celtic Park for a match which had plenty at stake, especially for Derry given how their season had turned so dramatically since being lauded as Allianz League champions and as potential Sam Maguire winners.

[ David Clifford bags a pair as Kerry end their goal drought to power past Meath ]

Cavanagh – the Tyrone in him coming out – couldn’t resist getting in some (verbal) digs at Derry either. “It takes very little to make them implode and there is a lot of noise coming out,” he said of the league champions’ struggles since moving on to the championship. To which Joanne could only interrupt, “Oh, Seán!”

Still, following the rather skinny offerings from Paric Tailteann, the two Ulster rivals served up a far tastier dish that had its share of (actual) digs, skirmishes and, truth be told, some unsavoury shenanigans which had referee David Coldrick needing what Joanne referred to as “a million eyes” to keep tabs on it all.

But the scoreboard didn’t lie in letting us know which team were dominant, with Armagh’s goalscoring – the game plan brilliantly executed – proving irresistible to the point that Whelan at half-time remarked, “(Derry) look like a busted flush.”

“They are broken as a team,” agreed Cavanagh.

Marty Morrissey was also looking for answers as the match moved to the inevitable end game of an Armagh win. “What’s gone wrong with Derry?” he wondered.

McGinley responded with his thoughts of the “perfect storm” coming Derry’s way since the league win, referring to the key players who’d lost form, injuries and that they’d simply run out of energy.

Yet, as was noted by the analysts, Derry – with three championship defeats – still (for now) remain in the championship with the chance yet to progress. Dessert anyone?

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times