Grinds My Gears!! - Issue 13

Catherine said I had to update my blog, so today I thought I'd post up all the stuff that I'd wanted to post (including about 4 or 5 posts below this one). If she keeps it up though....she'll be getting a GMG all to herself soon! (Only joking!)

Anyway, I've been wanting to publish this issue of GMG for sometime, and it was only after I came across some videos on YouTube, which are available at the bottom of the blog, that I really encouraged myself to get on and type it up. Of course, I recommend you watch those videos after reading this.

So yeah, anyway, you know what grinds my gears?? Well do ye? The British Media! Those regular readers know that I don't appreciate the British Media at all, especially in regard to its coverage of Madeleine McCann (which Sky News has now removed from its site, YAY!) and Princess Diana, but this also extends to sport.

I think the issue which pisses me off most is that they will cover any story like this to no end, clogging up the TV when other minor stories get a little snippet (the Sky Sports News one best shows this). Take the Canoe story at the moment. You couldn't not find this story on Sky, at least the BBC did some different stories, I mean Sky were interviewing former co-workers and everything!! And don't get me started again on the McCanns and their bleedin' family friends!

Another thing that annoys me is the shear arrogance (probably isn't the right word) of the British Media regarding their sports stars. Remember Paula Radcliffe who "collapsed" during the marathon in Athens? Well Sky spent the whole week coming up with reasons as to why she gave up; the road was too hot, the race was too long, there were too many other athletes etc. Why can't they just admit she was CRAP! Or take Lewis Hamiliton this year, they were complaining that Alonso and Spanish Formula 1 board requested that an independent investigator be present at McClaren to make sure Hamiliton didn't get any preferential treatment. COMPLAINING!! It's all well and good to wish your stars good luck on TV, but to try and downplay a very legitimate request regarding a British driver on a British team is unnacceptable.

Before England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 this year, the English Panel would refuse to admit that there team was shit. We knew it over here, the whole of Europe new it, but the English panel felt they had a divine right to be the be the worlds best. I cannot describe to you the satisfaction I felt seeing Croatia score that 3rd goal, and credit to the BBC, there panel had the balls to say they were crap, but that still doesn't account for the years and years of rubbish we had to put up with.

The same goes for Rugby, no sooner had South Africa won, than the article on Sky Sports went up, criticising the decision to disallow the try that might have won England the game. Or most recently, in the Hatton Vs Mayweather fight, it was very interesting to read that the referee "favoured" Mayweather and didn't allow Hatton to get into his stride, whereas on RTE.ie, the referee had to "work hard" to keep the match clean and fair.

The shear ignorance of the British Media seems to know no bounds, and that is why I have the following two videos below.

First, is Apres Match's play on Sky Sports:


Second is called "Channel Hopping" where it illustrates the difference between English and Irish coverage of the English Team:


And finally this one, it has nothing to do with the blog but its just funny!


Okie Doke, huh LIVE!

~The Damo

Top Sport 2007

One could criticise me for making these two lists at this time of the year but as far as most sport is concerned, the calendar for 2007 is over. So from that I've decided to compile the Best and the Worst sporting moments of 2007!

Worst Moments

10. GPA grants argument

9. Both All-Ireland Finals

8. Formula 1 Espionage involving McLaren

7. Dublin Vs Kerry

6. Tour de France drug abuse

5. Lewis Hamilton's Formula One Championship win (ok he hasn't won yet but it's as good as)

4. The tragic passing away of Colin McRae

3. Jose Mourinho's exit from the Premiership

2. Ireland's Soccer Performance (Czech Republic and Slovakia)

1. Irelands Rugby World Cup Performance

Best Moments

10. Ireland 4 - 0 Denmark

9. Dublin U21's winning Leinster Hurling Title

8. Roy Keane's first successful season in charge of Sunderland

7. Roger Federer's 5th Successive Wimbledon

6. Ireland's Cricket Team Performance in the World Cup

5. Man Utd 7 - 1 Roma

4. Dublin's 3rd Successive Leinster Title

3. Ireland's Six Nations Rugby Performance

2. Padraig Harrington winning the British Open

1. Manchester United winning the Premiership after three years!

Next blog: RTE's "The English Class"

~The Damo

Grinds My Gears!! - Issue 7

Yes I know it's been a long time, what with the AVGN posts and the Greatest of All Time and all that stuff, but now the time has come for the next round of GMG reports.

This particular one though has been boiling away for a while, slowly churning my insides, waiting to erupt in a spectacular explosion of rage, ruthless aggression, pimples, styrofoam cups and all inanimate objects I am willing to hit so long as I won't regret my actions moments later. For months I have been unable to express my rage and disgust at certain things but last Sunday the little ticker timer in my brain reached zero.

Who do I thank for finally letting me explode......

Well....more RTE SPORT to be precise, but the only RTE sport logo I could find was too small, and didn't give the dramatic impact of such a large logo that I wanted!

Anyway.... So what's my beef with RTE sport? Their coverage and broadcasting rights? No. Their dedication to every sport they can get their hands on? No. Their commentators and sports analysts? No. Wait. YES!! That's the one.

I'll start way back when this particular beefing was a mere cocktail sausage (don't fuck with me over the fact that a sausage is in fact pork and not beef alright!). Let me take you back to the summer of 2006. A fairly warm summer if I do remember, though definitely an infinite amount of times better than this summer. Yes weather, I will have a good grinding over you in time... What happened in the summer of 2006? My leaving cert? Yes. My last Gaeltacht? Yes. The happiest moment of my life? Yes. A solar eclipse? No. The Germany World Cup? YES!

Ah, the Germany World Cup. I was routing for Germany you know, even bought a jersey there when I was over for the Ireland match after the World Cup. In fact I'm wearing it right now as of 16:54 on July 17th 2007. Ah memories.

Anyways, the World Cup. Of course RTE had coverage rights to broadcast all the testosterone filled action right here to our own TV sets. But what pissed me off most? Bill O'Herlihy (sp?), John Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady and co. What was wrong you ask? Well perhaps it was the fact that no team in the entire tournament was playing good enough. Yes that's right. At the end of every match, with the exception of the Final obviously, the lads were keen to mention how every team was playing poorly, below par football and what else. For me, this spoiled the enjoyment of the games as this would piss me off greatly.

But my disatisfaction with the lads didn't end there. Bring on the 2006/2007 Premiership title race. The contenders; Manchester United and Chelsea. What were the two key things this panel was concerned with? United's Cristiano Ronaldo and Chelsea's summer purchases bonanza. And who won the title and played the best football all year? Why Manchester United of course. Did the panel think that? Oh no. Chelsea were the best team, because they spent the most money buying players who ironically had no impact, if any, on the teams performance during the season. Cristiano Ronaldo was obvious the most overrated player of the year, and yet not only managed to win both PFA Young Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year, but also scored more goals than the entire Manchester City team scored at home. The lads never once acknowledged any of this fact, because they are anti-United.

Don't think for one second however that it stops there. Enter the world of GAA. And this my friends is the very reason I just had to write this blog. If the soccer panel is anti-United, then the GAA panel is most certainly anti-Dublin.

Last Sunday, the Dubs cruised home with a thrilling performance beating Laois in the Leinster Final. Dublin's third succesive Leinster crown I might add. What could be criticised about the Dublin performance? Well perhaps the bried period of about 5-10 minutes in the second half where the Dublin forwards went to sleep for a bit, but what did Pat Spilane suggest? That Dublin were the one team in the country that was the main example of the aggressive nature of the game. Two words stuck into one Pat, bullshit. The particular incidents he was referring to was Mark Vaughan throwing his fists in the air in front of a Laois player after scoring Dublin's first goal and Alan Brogan waving goodbye in front of the Laois goalkeepers face and then raising his fists in the air at the crowd.

What isn't mentioned is how these two incidents were provoked. The first, right after Vaughan scores, the offending Laois back tried to reef him as he was running away to celebrate the goal. The second instance was where two Laois players squared up to Brogan, and rather do the stupid thing of throwing a punch, Brogan did the slight less stupid thing of pissing them off further. This was also to the same Laois keeper that on two occasions cheated on the kick out when the referee's back was turned by taking the kick further away not on the required spot, which allowed for short unmarked kick outs which wouldn't happen under normal circumstances. These things can't be avoided, but actions like Brogan's and Vaughan's are brought out from the intensity of the game. To suggest that Dublin are the only team responsible is ludicrous. Remind me which two teams fought it out in the tunnel before the match....that would be Cork and Clare. And on which team did one player punch another much younger player to the ground during training? That would be Meath. Which team deliberately started their warm-up in front of Hill 16 in last years All Ireland Semi Final against Dublin? That would be Mayo.

See RTE, you're just pissing people off, if it wasn't for Tommy Lyons (former Dublin manager) in the Studio last Sunday, then all the country folk would have had a great lashing at the Dubs and their intimidating.

God it was good to get that off my chest!!

~The Damo