WHEN 2FM FIRST aired their new nightly sports programme almost two months ago, they looked to many on the outside to be entering a game they couldn’t win.
Then 27 days later, Off The Ball was shaken by the stunning news that the team behind much of the Newstalk show’s success had resigned.
This was a game changer.
“The story broke on the Monday,” says Game On presenter, Damien O’Meara. “We had a rumbling over the weekend that something was going on, but you know yourself the rumours that fly around in the media, you don’t know what to believe.
“It’s not something that I am personally fixated on too much on. It’s not something that we’re talking about in production meetings every day. It’s not something that changes what we’re about. We’re still looking to provide the best programme we can provide on a nightly basis and that still means we’re sitting down and deciding who the best guests are and what the best items to do are.
“It’s not something that we’re putting a massive a mount of thought into because we’re just trying to get the best programme out there every day.”
O’Meara — an experienced sports journalist, who previously fronted the now-defunct Sport At Seven on RTÉ Radio 1 — adds: “Whether it’s an opportunity corporately or not is another matter but no one likes to see fellas out of work, particularly when they’re talented individuals.
“So it’s not something we’re doing cartwheels of joy about, celebrating the fact that five lads are out of work. But yeah it’s a big talking point for a lot of people.”
Off The Ball, of course, continues with Ger Gilroy again front of house. And the much-missed OTB5 will no doubt resurface sooner rather than later elsewhere. In the meantime, Clontarf-born O’Meara and his production of team of four will continue to settle into their new slot, further west along the dial.
“I know people will look in from the outside in and say they’ve been doing a show on Radio 1, it’s not that much of a change. But we’re still probably learning the beast that the new programme is and what works and what opportunities the extra time gives us.
“So we’re still settling in and you know it’s one of those things, you always look to judge these things a couple of weeks or months down the line. The reaction has been good, we’re getting far more correspondence in terms of text, emails and tweets than we wouldve got on the radio 1 programme, so it’s going well.”
Extra-time
The extra time available to the Game On team allow them to be a little bit more creative when covering the daily sports beat, according to O’Meara.
“Your primary goal is to try and get the best product out there. The fact that we have extra time means we can try to improve the production values and we can put a bit more packaging around things. So we’re constantly looking at ways of illustrating items rather than just playing it straight.
“Audience interaction is something that’s become a much bigger thing and the fact that we’ve see a fairly significant spike in correspondence from people you know gives you the opportunity to let the interaction drive the discussion a bit more than in the past. so thing s like that we’re more conscious of and then the fact we’re doing more live stuff, we’re trying to maximise that too. So making the most of Champions League coverage and what can you put around them and what can you put in those Champions League weeks that enhances the product and enhances the listening experience.
“So stuff like that is forcing us to up our game a little bit more… there are different opportunities now that we need to find ways of trying to fill and different ways of pushing ourselves. I think we’re enjoying it collectively.”
Game On airs on 2FM every weeknight from 7pm
Last week Ireland were rocking up without having played a game together in 5 months, and some of the team playing their first game of season against a battle hardened AB team who had been playing pretty consistently since June and we all expected we’d just turn up and win. In hindsight a bit delusional.
@John harte: The counter narrative to Ireland in 2024 is: caught a traumatised French side back in Feb with a red card. Wales and Italy at home = easy, very poor against Scotland, beaten by England and SA and then snatch and grab vs SA in test 2: brilliant grubber by Frawley but lucky it bounced right to stay in and then an epic but a bit lucky drop goal in the final seconds…. Very unfair take I know and probably wrong
@John harte: Comments section custom built for spoilt-child reactions.
@Andrew Slazenger: You’re correct in what saying. Win, lose or draw tonight, there’s a serious change coming down the tracks and a few years in the doldrums comparatively speaking. The profile of our starting 15 and bench last week and again this week suggests a serious rebuild job to be done over the next 3 years prior to World Cup 2027.
@John harte: I think we’ll win tonight and I also think that if we had NZ last in the series we would be in with a far better chance of beating them.
A lot of hysterical nonsense over the last week.
@Stanley Marsh: If the World Cup quarter final against New Zealand was a group game, i think we’d have a far better chance of beating them. Unfortunately, this isn’t how it works. You gotta be ready. You can’t just pick and choose when you want to play teams. It’s no excuse.
@Ray Ridge: This was the first match in the Autumn Internationals with only a couple of weeks work behind them against a team who have played 9 matches since we last played.
The odds were always stacked against us.
@Andrew Slazenger: i think its a valid view take, i think the first half performance with SA in the first test is worth a call out as was their high point in performance so far
A bit like last week, the closer we get to kick off, the more nervous I’m getting. Having gone with Ireland to win last night and again tonight, I’m not going to change my mind now.
@Ray Ridge: Thats us f then
Never forget when Henderson came out and said after the quarter final defeat last year you’re never going to be over 90 per cent against top sides. What kind of mindset is that, any elite professional team should be aiming for perfection in everything. I understand Henderson plays for Ulster and they have low enough standards as a club but seriously
@Eoin H: I actually think Baird could help, he’s 6 foot 6 and very explosive off the ground like POM. Also called lineout well for Leinster in big European games last year
@Eoin H: Giddy days expecting perfection from mortals in situations of high physical and mental strength. I think this Ireland team knows how to win against the best alright, wasn’t always this way.
@Adrian Fullam: stress, not strength
@Eoin H: pretty low rent comment about ulster.
I’m sure hendo was just logical and that you can’t expect to win 90%.
@Eoin H: Baird is also our fastest forward and would traditionally be used at openside to get to the breakdown first, South africa play a lock/blindside at 7, why couldn’t we? Think of the advantages at lineout time.
@Eoin H: A reason a greater part of ireland is not into rugby is because they see it as elitist. Supporters (Leinster mostly) are seen as privelaged , haughty, and supercilious. Overbearing wank&rs in other words . You are the archetype. Ulster is a proud rugby province – afford it respect you complete clown.
@JJB: I believe it’s spelled privileged.
@Eoin H: have a bit of respect you mo@ron
@JJB: You’ve one player in the Irish 23, through injury to Sheehan. You lost to Cardiff, you are the fourth best province and aren’t producing any talent for the national side
@brian o’leary: South Africa don’t. They play a lock / blindside at blindside.
@Eoin H: i am just a rugby fan – not from Ulster. I just like to see general fairness and some humility in commentary: something you know little about clearly.
@JJB: I think you need to have a chat with yourself. That is an extreme generalisation. Rugby may have traditionally been a sport played by university graduates and private educated boys but that changed more than 50 years ago. Bigotry (within and without) played a huge part in the lack of rugby participation in Ireland so it is alot more nuanced than just saying rugby was elitest. It was seen as a Protestant sport by many. Thankfully, all these old ideas are mostly consigned to history.
@Paul Ennis: I dont need to chat to myself at all. Rugby has not been fully democratized in Ireland and many of the fraternity are seen as up their own ass. I don’t necessarily subscribe to that except in the case of the clown aka EoinH who feeds into the stereotype. I will leave it there.
The lineout and ruck not performing last Friday , the same as the World Cup cost us the game. These are St Pauli’s jobs to coach. If they don’t improve this weekend they would want to start seriously looking for someone else to do the job.
@Jimmy Bean: was it now down to frawely that the lineout hasent worked for the past year?
@Jimmy Bean: is poc in charge of rucks?
@chris mcdonnell: you seem to be trying to out do dave moron with your comments of late. Did you lads have a falling out over who has more hair?
We do miss Sheehan a lot. Better line out thrower than Kelleher and better around the field especially in attacking sense. That said, our lineout issues are not only down to who’s playing HK. The last LO against NZ where no Irish player got up sums up our problems there. It looks like the players have totally lost confidence in what we’re doing in that area
@Michael Corkery: To think Herring was on the bench against New Zealand without playing a single minute this season for Ulster was scandalous. Meanwhile, Heffernan has been getting stuck in all season for Connacht. There’s some serious questions about the team selection going on here.
@Ray Ridge: Definitely agree, would have osbourne starting too
@Ray Ridge: Heffernan never struck me as being INTL level while Herring is proven at that level so I can understand the selection . Granted both hookers having 11 minutes of rugby between them this season was a huge issue.
@Michael Corkery: While that could be true, it’s still speculative, be better to know for sure. He’s on good form rn, hopefully moving forward that AF uses the bench to keep learning more about the players that have momentum for their league teams
@Michael Corkery: Not sure what Herring has proven to be honest. Nowhere near strong enough and offers nothing around the park. Heffernan is no world beater, but he offers plenty of aggression around the field. The days of a hooker throwing an odd straight dart now and again and locking out an odd Scrum is well and truly over. Need to be offering much more than that.
@Ray Ridge: Herring is a good scrummager and solid lineout thrower. He’s reasonably good in the tight exchanges but has nothing lined up the power of Sheehan (who is a freak) and Kelleher. Herring has never had a poor performance for IRL that I recall when called upon but the other 2 mentioned are definitely better than him.
Paul O’Connell has serious questions to answer. Failed at Stade Francais, failed with the 20’s, failing now. He’s beyond criticism because he made angry faces in his playing career, though.
@Aidan Farrell: The angry face is not to be underestimated, Aiden. It’s extended O Mahonys career by some……
@Aidan Farrell: 3rd best player for us behind drico and wood, if all o connell did was make angry faces then sexton wad twice as bad, wasn’t he suspected for abusing officials when not even in match day panel?, you’d never find o connell doing that
@Cian Halley: suspended
@Cian Halley: you’d never find O’Connell winning against NZ either
@teuO6nLS: or O’Driscoll
@teuO6nLS: ya true too having said that neither did sexton when it mattered did he though
@Ray Ridge: Sure. Nothing to do with his ability…just the face. It’s a proven fact that this is what all international coaches love and select people based on…. how angry the face looks. You love hyperbole, don’t you?
The counter narrative to Ireland in 2024 is: caught a traumatised French side back in Feb with a red card. Wales and Italy at home = easy, very poor against Scotland, beaten by England and SA and then snatch and grab vs SA in test 2: brilliant grubber by Frawley but lucky it bounced right to stay in and then an epic but a bit lucky drop goal in the final seconds…. Very unfair take I know and probably wrong
O Connell and Kelleher getting a free pass on a basic task which has been a problem for over a year.
@Oran Burns: Blaming Kelleher is such a limited rugby knowledge thing to do
@Eoin H: is he not the hoover? Or is it because he’d from leinster
@Cian Halley: A Munster fan calling out Leinster players for a poor lineout? You’ve the worst lineout stats in the URC and the second worst last year. Hilarious stuff
@Eoin H: O’Connell still has Beirne calling the lineout when he clearly cannot do it. Let him focus on his highlight reel moments while everyone else does the hard work
There’s big pressure on the lineout to deliver an attacking platform. It has been a problem area since the RWC (although in SA they seemed to have sorted it out). It’s a complicated set piece – when it goes wrong it’s rarely just the thrower – and having POM has probably covered some of the weaknesses over the past few seasons. Kelleher is a class player who could really do with an injury-free run. That said, I wonder would Herring be starting if he had more match fitness: Jackman (a former hooker!) described him as the best thrower he’s ever seen.
They have to up their A game to win this. Last week was a terrible disappointment, not just the loss but that the game wasn’t closer to a single score.
@Con Cussed: Error count was off the scale. Half that and we’ll be in with a good chance of winning tonight
Ireland will show up and deliver an aggressive performance tonight. Expect us to build an early lead and then hold on
24-18