Newstalk: Off The Ball

Found myself listening to it a good deal - long commute.

Don't think Joe Molloy is any better than Eoin McDevitt but both are accomplished. Gilroy is fine but does want to see himself as an intellectual of the sport rather than a fan. As if he somehow can see into the soul of the effort and its his job to educate the mob to look past the day to day winning and losing. I do think as a producer and keeping the show on the road since it began is an achievement.

Rugby contributors very good. Andy Dunne especially. O'Driscoll, Thornley are very good. Tommy Walsh on hurling likewise. Should have more of them on.

Presenters: Phil Egan, O'Callaghan, Eoin Sheahan are good value.

Hannon sadly out of his depth, as well as some of the girls unfortunately. By and large they are fine. Giles made the jump initially and are just doing their contractual duties at this stage.

I have to say, i do miss the Football Show hour with Molloy. The regular contributors like Pat Nevin , Andy Mitten, Raphael Honigstein and Tim Vickery always provided good insightful analysis to the show when Joe was presenting.

Like many others, i dont have much time for the other presenters and would certainly not pay the monthly subscription fee just for the sake of listening to the Football Show. I have found other podcasts in the meantime for free and have moved on.

Have been listening to This is Football, The Totally Football Show and Stick to Football lately. Honigstein is on the Totally Football Show every now and again and the other two are filled with ex footballers reviewing the action of the weekend.

I have become a bit disillusioned and disinterested with OTB in over the last while and don't really miss it. I tune in now and then and it's all a bit meh to be honest. Certainly not worth the tenner a month. Joe and Will are grand but Ger really should act like an adult besides some of the sneering that he regularly does for no reason. Case in point his childish behaviour in relation to Rassie last week. I mean who does he think wants to listen to him acting the gom like that?

And to finish, the "bantz" between Dr. Ciara and "JD" in the mornings is an absolute cringefest. "JD" is a complete mystery to me. How he has been employed on national radio for as long as he has with his level of knowledge and and lack of a "radio personality" is completely beyond me. He was on doing the sports news the Friday morning of the Ryder Cup and basically said he didn't have much interest in it but that people would watch it and it would be forgotten about on Monday morning. Just give us the sports news please without telling us if you have an interest in a particular sport or not. Lots of people in this country have an interest in multiple sports, unlike "JD" who seems to be like a 14 year old child just obsessed with the Premier League in England and not much else interests them

To be fair, most posters follow it up with an anecdote, example or reason why they don't like certain posters, rather than just "X is sh*te". Like I cringe once I hear Nathan or Ger's voices and subsequent shouting, talking over others, etc. The reason I like Joe and Will is they let guests or the others talk. Like Will is an outstanding presenter of that Hurling Pod show. He managed the arguments between Paul Murphy and James Skehill to a tee.

You also have to accept people view people differently when they want €10 a month to listen to them?

The reason there's probably less chatter about the content of the show is its on at a time of day that doesn't suit me to listen anyway. In the free podcast era, I lined up playlists and listened walking, running, driving or cycling (one ear!) and listened to the content throughout the day. Since the paywall, I haven't even thought about them and listen to others instead.

I get that its the cost of 2 pints (or if you are Ger, a coffee a week if I remember right) but so too is YouTube to avoid ads, listen offline, listen like a radio, download content, etc and you could literally watch it all week and it be your subscription for your TV. You could get 2 different podcasts (e.g. Second Captains and another) for the cost of the OTB Subscription.

Listened to OTBAM on the commute this morning. From 7.30am to 8.10am, there was a discussion on how Eoin Sheahan was going to thumb to Paris for the game. 40 mins. You can get away with that shite when giving the content away for free.

Well all one of those subscribers won't exactly cover them on the bus to the airport let alone to France!

I'd rather give my tenner a month to the coffee maker that Ger wanted to take it off....because I like the coffee maker.

I heard them saying yesterday that Duff will be Ireland manager one day lol and they expect people to pay to listen to them? come on. You would have to pay me to listen to crap like that. what has Duff done to be talked about like that?

Yeah it's always a great paper review whenever he is on

Gary is brilliant but i found it a bit off he was commenting on the rugby team not being bottlers when he didn't watch the game. I know it's a paper review but it's very odd to go on the slot without watching the 80 minutes.

Anyone know who said this on Off The Ball? Might well have been a pundit but wouldn't surprise me if it was someone in Off The Ball towers, they're all experts. But it was dragged up yesterday in one of the big New Zealand newspapers yesterday:

“In the lead-up to the match, Irish podcast Off the Ball laid bare the perceived failings of the New Zealand forward pack. The front row concedes too many penalties, the locks are old and don’t work hard enough and Sam Cane ‘doesn’t know how to ruck properly’.

“In an on-field response, Cane displayed a merciless disregard for opposition welfare that has seldom been seen in his international career. The foundation of his game has always been consistency – and he was consistent, with Ardie Savea in tow, the rangatira of ruthlessness in setting the standard for the All Blacks’ defensive effort – Cane’s rib-tickling dismantlement of Hugo Keenan should be taped and replayed in the loose forward classrooms of Aotearoa.”

Kathleen McNamee on the PK show just now:

I think Stephen Kenny was handed a bad situation but he made the most of it.

Tenner a month folks.

They are right not to go there. I know its fun and all but you shouldnt need to pay a tenner a month to read what trolls are predictably saying on the internet. If you are going subscription, at least put out an informed product.

I dont think saying the team choked at the weekend makes you a troll.

They made some very fundamental errors, were poor in the scrum and lineout, and missed a routine kick. They didn't play to 80% of their ability and the occasion got the better of them. Choke might be a strong word but I don't know another.

A troll or someone who doesn't understand rugby, or perhaps even sport.