GAELIC GAMES FOCUS ON TG4: Tom Humphriessays some guts and an ear to the ground for what is interesting and different helps make TG4's sports coverage a real winner
SOME GOOD news as they repossess your home and lay claim to any homes your children may own. A reason to feel quietly proud and cheerful as the world looks at the steaming rubble of our economy and shakes its head. TG4 – our distinctive, sharp and culturally relevant public service broadcaster – goes from strength to strength, and for sport that is good news.
In the past few weeks alone TG4 has won increased rights to GAA competitions from 2011-2014 and has been lauded for the quality of the work and the archiving on its new history of Irish rugby. The station has presented live coverage of Munster v Leinster from the Magners League, with 533,000 tuning in, and brought the Ladies Football Championship and the International Rules Series (both of which it now helps sponsor) to a successful conclusion.
The station established 14 years ago has been a joy to watch in terms of its bravery and innovation in all areas.
“The station started with this idea súil eile, another eye or an eye for something different,” says Macdara Mac Donncha who commentates and produces on behalf of the Waterford firm Nemeton, who have been an integral part of TG4’s sports coverage through the years. “There has always been an eye out for something else, something different.”
The first things spotted by an súil eile were gaps in the market.
“Somebody saw a chance there in the market for GAA clubs in particular. It used to be a highlights programme during the week, then they began showing deferred matches and now obviously it has developed to live matches,” says Mac Donnacha.
The channel’s sports editor, Rónán Ó Coisdealbha notes a few of the punts which the station took which have come off.
"We would look at anything with a view to broadcasting it. Early on we had the Spanish League in a weekly programme called Olé Olé Olé. Nobody saw La Liga and TG4 as a natural match and I'm sure there were smirks, but it worked. You could go from that to something like The Underdogs."
In recent years one of the bigger thrills for station members is to walk into Wimbledon and on the way to the press room to see the sign – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
“And we have this dedicated Irish language service working there along with everybody else,” he continues. “Since we came on air sport has played a vital role. If you look at our top 20 programmes in the last 14 years ratings-wise, including film, documentaries, soap drama, etc, sports programming would be the top 15 or 16 of that. We have been lucky over the years. From exclusive coverage of Celtic in the Uefa Cup to GAA to tennis. ”
The coverage of tennis is one of this little quirks with which the station established its niche.
“In the first place,” says Ó Coisdealbha, “there was an idea that we were established to broadcast to Gaeilgeoirí wherever they might be about the country. That attitude is still around today in places that would surprise you. I’d still get calls telling me that there is an under-12 final on in Galway next Saturday and as a local TV station we should be covering it! When we came on air we realised early on that we weren’t just broadcasting to the Gaeilgeoirs. We were set up to cater for everybody in Ireland. I think we have done a good job.”
Macdara Mac Donnacha drives the point home. “Maybe three years ago there was a tennis match which went on quite long, late at night. We stayed with it while the BBC had to abandon its coverage. That was appreciated to a surprising extent and it made me realise: tennis is a minority sport. People will stick with it. It has a loyal viewership. We were giving people something they wanted to watch.”
The language itself has proved little hindrance to the station’s sense of adventure and it is commonplace to have a conversation with somebody who watched a recent TG4 show in Irish but can’t remember it as being through Irish.
People want to see the games, however. Be the commentary in Irish or Mandarin there are certain visual clues which do some of the work. If the game is in Irish, the graphics, the clock, the score in the top corner and TG4’s wise decision to use the English version of players’ names all calm the viewers’ apprehensiveness. Radio na Gaeilge, in the building next door in Galway, translate the names.
“Language isn’t a huge barrier,” says Ó Coisdealbha. “If you don’t speak Irish and you are watching TG4 there is a barrier of course, but it isn’t putting people off. We did the original Celtic League in rugby back when nobody wanted to be associated with it at the start of the decade. We did that and got good feedback. When we started Magners League a while ago there was a new bedding-in period as people got used to rugby as Gaeilge again. The amount of emails we have received has been huge though, and 99 per cent of the correspondence is positive and there is a distinct air of gratitude at having some free to air sports coverage to enjoy.”
“People don’t really notice anymore,” says Mac Donnacha, “and I always remind them that, sure, we say the same 15 things time and time again! There are a lot of catchphrases. Get used to it!
“I remember myself watching snooker on S4C one time. If you are interested in the sport you won’t let that get to you. Some pubs will put on the local radio commentary over our pictures. Doesn’t always work. Radio is a split second ahead. Generally, though, people don’t notice the Irish or they absorb the catchphrases.”
An early master stroke was appreciating that we are a sentimental people and launching the All-Ireland Goldseries, becoming one of the first broadcasters to realise what a goldmine and a resource archived sports can be. Even now, 14 years on, they are surprised by the results. They have played the 1977 All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Kerry at least 50 times and still it guarantees 100,000 viewers every time. The series was a huge hit for the station and was followed by World Cup Goldand International Rules Gold.
The appeal of the station is its immediacy. Club matches in winter, for instance, have the interviews and analysis done from down on the sideline rather than from a cobbled-together studio in a commentary box. It works, somehow it just works, conveying the feel of the chats which people in the seats behind are having at the same time as treating the subject seriously while being true to the nature of it.
TG4 sport works because it feels like people you know put it together for your enjoyment. Last Sunday 150,000 people watched solidly through the broadcast of two club games.
“How we choose matches,” says Mac Donnacha, “is maybe we have a choice of five or six. Which is the most attractive? On Sunday, for example, we looked at it Thursday of last week, two games in Leinster, Munster and Ulster. In part it’s just the game you’d most like to be at! I had a slightly coloured view, having been at the game between De La Salle and Sarsfields two years ago. Maybe one of the games of the year. You have good characters – John Mullane, Kieran Murphy, Michael Cussen, who used to be a guard in Dungarvan. We will go for what we think.
“You have to try to get around to all the provinces and that can be difficult enough. On Sunday week we will go with the Connacht final between Killererin and St Brigid’s. And then we’ll look elsewhere.
“Kilmacud and Garrycastle looks possibly the best. You try to guess what would be the best and sometimes the game you think won’t be any good is a classic, but the Monday programme picks up the slack as best it can.”
That’s the secret. Some guts and an ear to the ground for what is interesting and different. The station was rewarded this week with more recognition from the GAA. We have been rewarding it with our own increased recognition for some time now.
“We would have a lot more viewers these days who would have no Irish than we would have Gaeilgeoirí,” says Ó Coisdealbha, “for an Irish language station promoting the language and doing it through sport that has worked well.”
A good news story for bad times.
