With Liam Brady joining Eamon Dunphy and Johnny Giles in retirement, we have come to the end of an era for soccer broadcasting in Ireland.
After 25 years on the punditry couch, “Chippy” said it was time to “let the young ones have a go”. But they are big boots to fill. Despite Brady’s occasional grumpiness – he commented recently about “falling out of love with the game” – his words still resonated with the Irish public.
A clip of Brady saying Ireland had the “worst group of players” any manager had in his lifetime after Ireland’s 2-1 loss to Greece on Friday got more than 300,000 views on Twitter. Younger generations tend more towards social media and podcasting for their post-match analysis, but it is still television that sets the tone for the commentary.
Brady, Giles and Dunphy, were part of an era in RTÉ when the cult of personality was strong across all sports. Now, as the station appears to be moving away from that model, other broadcasters are capitalising and monetising that very style. British soccer punditry was once seen as so vanilla that Apres Match would parody the mayhem of what Eamon Dunphy would be like on the BBC.
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Today, Sky Sports build their Premier League coverage along personality lines. As Dunphy once said, “it’s showbiz, baby!” and Roy Keane is truly Dunphy’s natural successor, his punditry sometimes more entertaining than the match he is talking about. YouTube videos of Keane getting angry get millions of views for Sky, while his partners on air, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, have built their personalities enough to have their own popular stage show, The Overlap on Tour, which barely mentions football.
Carragher takes this even further when he appears on CBS Sports in the US alongside Micah Richards and Thierry Henry for the Champions League, where entertainment is king, and banter the order of the day.
In that context, RTÉ needs to decide what it wants to be now that Brady has retired. Virgin Media, presented by the superb Tommy Martin, is capturing the zeitgeist more than RTÉ, but the Irish broadcaster still holds sway and the majority of the rights, particularly around international tournaments.
Who are the “young ones” then, the next generation of international soccer punditry in Ireland? Who is now best “voice of football” from the couch on Irish TV?
We look at the main candidates from RTÉ and Virgin Media...
Richie Sadlier
One of the obvious successors to the great panel, Sadlier has come a long way since scoring in the Uefa under-18 third-place playoff. With his master's degree in psychotherapy, Sadlier is a clever, considered guy and it shows – his takes are measured without being bland. A regular pundit since about 2010, he is sure to be a staple of RTÉ’s future punditry. Also well worth listening to on The Second Captains Podcast for his debates with Ken Early after Ireland games.
Didi Hamann
Hamann carries on the legacy of Dunphy and Brady in that he is not afraid to speak his mind and throw out a controversial quote. Without an Irish football background, he offers an outsider’s view and is entertaining in his approach, even if you don’t always agree with him. During international tournaments, his scepticism of England goes down well with Irish viewers. Referring to England’s Euro 2021 final loss, he said it was a “golden opportunity missed but still OBEs given out like smarties”.
Karen Duggan
An insightful and incisive pundit, Duggan has a good eye for the game in both men’s and women’s international football. She is able to discuss tactical trends in a coherent and easily digestible way and is not afraid to get off the fence, as evidenced by her column in The Irish Times criticising Vera Pauw’s style of football. Unlikely to hold back if Ireland should succumb to a dour 0-0 draw against Nigeria.
Brian Kerr
Far from a young one – three years older than Brady – but Kerr may be the most natural successor to the “old” RTÉ panel, even if he’s on another channel. Kerr certainly does his research, from acknowledging the Japanese goalkeeper speaks seven languages to knowing an Icelandic player’s brother goes fly fishing, and has his own lexicon – “Tunisia have been malojen at the back” – gives him an authentic quality. Like Giles, he has the experience to critique Irish managers having been a former Ireland manager himself, and while some of his criticisms of Stephen Kenny have come across as harsh, his voice is a respected one in Irish football.
The others
Damien Duff gives Giles vibes for his no-nonsense insight and his standing in the game as one of the best Irish players of his generation. A shame then he is not available for duty due to his job as Shelbourne manager but, at 44-years-old, the seat will be kept warm for him if he does decide to leave management.
The abiding memory of Kevin Doyle’s punditry is him wearing a fez after Morocco won against Spain during the 2022 World Cup. He may not particularly stand out from the crowd just yet, but Doyle appears to be growing into the job.
Beside Doyle with the fez on was Kenny Cunningham, who is a reliable fill-in for the main panel. The same could be said about his international team-mates Shay Given and Richard Dunne, who are potentially future Brady figures but need a few more years to establish their punditry styles.
Damien Delaney is a good communicator of the tactical side of the game and will not pull punches with his takes. He has been an outspoken critic of Kenny’s management. Stephen Kelly and Lisa Fallon both have a great knowledge of the game and shine more as co-commentators than as pundits. And Fallon has a much-needed insight on the global women’s game. Stephanie Zambra (née Roche) is another who mixes punditry with commentary and is adept at both.
