GAA Match Commentators

In my opinion Ger Cannoing is one of the worst match commentators on GAA, what do others think? The following are my reasons for saying this -

1. He waits to see the umpire going for the flag before saying if the ball has gone over the bar.
2. In the early part of the match against Meath he said "they (Kildare) look to me like a tired team".
3. After Meath scored the goal from the penalty he said the umpire had raised a red flag.
4. He regularly gets the name of a player on the ball completely wrong.
5. He doesn't do enough research in advance of a match.
6. He has what I would describe as a very annoying voice.

Yea he shud be replaced by yer man on setanta or tv3

I hate when commentators defend referees when they've obviusly fcuked up,saying something like 'oh dermot earley disagrees with marty duffy there' etc....
Canning is one of the obove mentioned....commentators should say it how it is.

On the positive side he's not Marty Morrisey and in my book that trumps everything you got.

Jaysus, that has put me off my dinner, the missus will not be pleased.
In fact it is probably safe to say that is the nastiest thing to have been posted on here.

Shameful SC

the lad on setanta is the worst ever,makes a kick out sound like the best goal ever has been scored.....''and here comes the kick out,oh my god it gone so farrrrrrrrrrrrr''

Canning is by far and away the best commentator for GAA. The lads on TV3 and Setanta are useless...God almighty they haven't a clue.

I don't see how you can say he doesn't do much research either. I can assure you he does. I'm always delighted to throw on the video and see that Canning has done our game.

The most annoying thing about Canning is his regular 'xxx scores from an impossible angle'.

Ehh if its impossible how the in the name of jaysus did he score it?

Marcus, if Canning is the best then God help us. As for Marty Morrissey I agree he has to be the worst and for whatever reason his star seems to be on the rise, you can't turn on the radio but he's on it. He definitely has a face made for radio.

He does use the word latitude an amazing amount of times for a sports commentator but I definitely put him number 1 GAA commentator!

If RTÉ ever go digital hopefully there'll be an option to get Mícheál's radio commentary on the TV. Please god the great man will still be commentating when that day comes.

Marty and Ger drill a hole in my head. Darragh Maloney is decent but he does have a noticable bias towards the Dubs.

They had the basketball commentator (Some Cork lad, name escapes me) do a few matches for the online streaming last year and he was quite entertaining. Daft as a brush but a least he put a bit of life into it. Marty and Ger could make the greatest match ever seem like a wake.

Eamonn Sweeney did a very good piece on the back page of the Sunday Independent yesterday re RTE's coverage of GAA and in particular how dismal their match commentators, Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey, are compared to George Hamilton in soccer. He said -

"There is a stark contrast between the unfussy professionalism of George Hamilton and the floundering of Canning and Morrissey. Hamilton may not be a great individual in the vein of McLaren, Alliss or Ó Muircheartaigh, but set his commentary side by side with those of his GAA counterparts and the difference id obvious. You never have to make excuses for Hamilton".

Earlier in the article he gave a couple of examples of some of the inane utterances that Canning and Morrissey come out with. He also compared Michael Lyster's poor standards with that of his much more polished soccer counterpart, Bill O'Herlihy. He said -

"O'Herlihy facilitates, encourages and often provokes debate. Lyster stifles it, as though the target audience was a convent full of elderly nuns who might expire if subjected to excessive levels of excitement".

Marty does like a nickname or three.

Always_White wrote:

Eamonn Sweeney did a very good piece on the back page of the Sunday Independent yesterday re RTE's coverage of GAA and in particular how dismal their match commentators, Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey, are compared to George Hamilton in soccer. He said -

"There is a stark contrast between the unfussy professionalism of George Hamilton and the floundering of Canning and Morrissey. Hamilton may not be a great individual in the vein of McLaren, Alliss or Ó Muircheartaigh, but set his commentary side by side with those of his GAA counterparts and the difference id obvious. You never have to make excuses for Hamilton".

Earlier in the article he gave a couple of examples of some of the inane utterances that Canning and Morrissey come out with. He also compared Michael Lyster's poor standards with that of his much more polished soccer counterpart, Bill O'Herlihy. He said -

"O'Herlihy facilitates, encourages and often provokes debate. Lyster stifles it, as though the target audience was a convent full of elderly nuns who might expire if subjected to excessive levels of excitement".

Soocer much more handy to commentate on, it's an unfair comparison.

Commentary isn't easily, especially for such fast sports. They could improve surely, but it's not an easy racket.

Disagree with the Lyster thing as well. I think he is a particuarly strong anchor and it ebs and flows alright.

I thaught that everybody turned down the tele and listened to Micheal O'Muicheartaigh ( how often does he dye his hair ? ).Canning is awful and Michael Lyster is just boring.I like Des Cahill myself.Marty is ok and he was the brains behind ' Pride of the Parish' which is a super programme.

For me Donal O'Grady is by far the best GAA person on TV.He talks buckets of sense.

armagh4sam wrote:

Always_White wrote:

Eamonn Sweeney did a very good piece on the back page of the Sunday Independent yesterday re RTE's coverage of GAA and in particular how dismal their match commentators, Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey, are compared to George Hamilton in soccer. He said -

"There is a stark contrast between the unfussy professionalism of George Hamilton and the floundering of Canning and Morrissey. Hamilton may not be a great individual in the vein of McLaren, Alliss or Ó Muircheartaigh, but set his commentary side by side with those of his GAA counterparts and the difference id obvious. You never have to make excuses for Hamilton".

Earlier in the article he gave a couple of examples of some of the inane utterances that Canning and Morrissey come out with. He also compared Michael Lyster's poor standards with that of his much more polished soccer counterpart, Bill O'Herlihy. He said -

"O'Herlihy facilitates, encourages and often provokes debate. Lyster stifles it, as though the target audience was a convent full of elderly nuns who might expire if subjected to excessive levels of excitement".

Soocer much more handy to commentate on, it's an unfair comparison.

Commentary isn't easily, especially for such fast sports. They could improve surely, but it's not an easy racket.

Disagree with the Lyster thing as well. I think he is a particuarly strong anchor and it ebs and flows alright.

Disagree there, I think Gaelic football is easier to commentate on than soccer. There is non stop attacking in GAA and loads of scores so it's easier to inject some excitement into the commentary. There was one premiership game at the weekend that had 2 shots on target, one because of a goalkeeper mistake and the other in the 93rd minute, try make that sound exciting!!

I agree with you on Lyster though, I like him as an anchorman

Yeah it's the nicknames thing drives me wrong, so much so that it slips into common usage, the prime example being James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick. call him James or call him Cha, but ffs don't call him James Cha. It sounds like his second name or something. Same with the Waterford centreback.He is Michael or Brick, not both.

I'm hyperventilating now, gotta stop.

TheBigFullForward wrote:

armagh4sam wrote:

Always_White wrote:

Eamonn Sweeney did a very good piece on the back page of the Sunday Independent yesterday re RTE's coverage of GAA and in particular how dismal their match commentators, Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey, are compared to George Hamilton in soccer. He said -

"There is a stark contrast between the unfussy professionalism of George Hamilton and the floundering of Canning and Morrissey. Hamilton may not be a great individual in the vein of McLaren, Alliss or Ó Muircheartaigh, but set his commentary side by side with those of his GAA counterparts and the difference id obvious. You never have to make excuses for Hamilton".

Earlier in the article he gave a couple of examples of some of the inane utterances that Canning and Morrissey come out with. He also compared Michael Lyster's poor standards with that of his much more polished soccer counterpart, Bill O'Herlihy. He said -

"O'Herlihy facilitates, encourages and often provokes debate. Lyster stifles it, as though the target audience was a convent full of elderly nuns who might expire if subjected to excessive levels of excitement".

Soocer much more handy to commentate on, it's an unfair comparison.

Commentary isn't easily, especially for such fast sports. They could improve surely, but it's not an easy racket.

Disagree with the Lyster thing as well. I think he is a particuarly strong anchor and it ebs and flows alright.

Disagree there, I think Gaelic football is easier to commentate on than soccer. There is non stop attacking in GAA and loads of scores so it's easier to inject some excitement into the commentary. There was one premiership game at the weekend that had 2 shots on target, one because of a goalkeeper mistake and the other in the 93rd minute, try make that sound exciting!!

Seee that's why I think it's harder!

Hardly time to draw breath, let alone have some free time to make instatnt tactical observations, which often sets certain sporting commentators out from the rest,

I defintely take your point about the lack of action also been a hinderance, and I suppose that's a fair enough point.

I just think too much is probably too hard in commentary.

rgb wrote:

Yeah it's the nicknames thing drives me wrong, so much so that it slips into common usage, the prime example being James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick. call him James or call him Cha, but ffs don't call him James Cha. It sounds like his second name or something. Same with the Waterford centreback.He is Michael or Brick, not both.

I'm hyperventilating now, gotta stop.

Think you are being a tad bit pedantic here rgb, the nicknames thing you have described doesn't bother me in the slightest

Try commentating on a game on national TV or radio and have a producer screaming in your ear that you have to take a break, introduce another reporter, give the score, mention the next sports programme....

Soccer is far easier to commentate on, as you have loads more time to think about what you have to say.... Hamilton "Danger Here".....

No excuse for Canning or Morrissey to be ill-prepared. Both of them have stats men or people to take notes with them....

As for comparing Lyster and O'Herlihy.... At least Michael knows what he is talking about.... Bill is being told what to say/ask....

No I'm not being pedantic wingback. It's just a personal irritation that I shared.

Re-watched the Meath match over the weekend and the amount times Martin Kearney got the players & teams mixed up was unreal, Meade is having a great game for Kildare, Meath have been dominate all through the second half etc, etc

I've never taken to Ger Canning, maybe cos I grew up listening to Miceal oHehir in the 70's. You could tell that OHehir loved the games and the players, Maybe I'm wrong but I always get the impression that Ger Canning doesn't enjoy the matches, especially football and this comes accross in his commentaries

You could be right there e.s.b. as he is much better when covering soccer. However if he doesn't like doing G.A.A. then he should leave it to someone who does.
I agree with the other posters who said that doing a commentary on soccer is easier than Gaelic Football which is much faster and there are more players involved. On the otherhand you need to do more "filling in" with soccer as it is generally so boring with very little happening for long periods and this is the area where Canning is hopeless. A child wouldn't come out with the stupid statements that Canning sometimes does.
Eamonn Sweeney is correct in his article when he says that because RTE have no competition when it comes to GAA coverage they will throw any old s * * te at us. They don't have to worry about viewers going to another channel.