The Sunday Game is no stranger to coming under attack for unbalanced criticism and the Wexford chairman is the latest to question RTE’s coverage.
The season is not long underway and we have already seen Eamon O’Hara publicly criticise Sligo boss Kevin Walsh, Michael Duignan has called the actions of the Wexford hurlers “disgraceful” during the Leinster hurling replay at Parnell Park recently while Pat Spillane is busy being Pat Spillane.
Today in The Irish Examiner, Wexford chairman Diarmuid Deveraux was scathing of the RTE pundits saying their criticism of the challenges during the Leinster replay.
“This is the youngest senior team we’ve had in years. Do they have any idea the amount of trouble and grief they cause piling pressure on these young guys?,” he told the paper.
Deveraux also felt that the criticised parties do not get a chance to reply, something that Kevin Walsh alluded to after the O’Hara outburst.
“This wasn’t Suarez playing for Liverpool and earning 150 grand a week; these are volunteers and a lot of them are students. If a comment is going to be made on TV I would like to see them do the same as newspaper and offer you a right to reply.”
He was also not over pleased with Ger Loughnane’s comments after the drawn game at Wexford Park where he described Dublin as having played “pure constipated hurling”.
“The game in Wexford Park was a tough, hard Leinster championship game and the crowd loved it. One person described it as “constipated” on TV. “Puke” is another word that has been used with football.
“Many of these people [making the comments] are teachers and surely it’s reasonable to expect a teacher can find a better adjective than words of that nature.”
Deveraux is clearly not a happy camper, and with Joe Brolly yet to really catch fire this summer, we expect the pundits to put a few more noses out of joint before the season comes to a close.
