The RTE statement announcing Des Cahill’s exit from RTE’s The Sunday Game chair came packaged with a neat bow.
After 15 years anchoring the programme at the weekends, Cahill said he simply wants to attend live games again.
Then Joe Brolly – cut from his pundit’s role with RTE in 2019 –tweeted out a link to comments made by Cahill in June when he admitted he “used to enjoy making The Sunday Game a lot more”.
Cahill said: “I miss the laughter on the programme, a little spontaneity. I miss it. Because the programme just doesn’t have room to breathe, in my opinion.”
Maybe his departure and return to the radio newsroom only months later is coincidental. But, he follows a long list of national sporting icons who have been lost from our TV screens in recent years.
They include some of the most colourful and outspoken commentators known for sparking national conversations.
JOE BROLLY
The Derry barrister spent 20 years as an RTE Gaelic football analyst before being cut in late 2019.
The controversial pundit was removed from panel duties for the All-Ireland final replay between Dublin and Kerry after comments about referee David Gough.
Complaining about various decisions that went against Dublin, Brolly alleged that Gough had been influenced by pre-match “propaganda coming from Kerry”.
The 1993 All-Ireland winner was already on thin ice with RTE having apologised for calling GAA correspondent Marty Morrissey “ugly” in 2015.
RTE Head of Sport Declan McBennett may have had Brolly in mind when he spoke recently about the era of “personality punditry” being over. But Brolly 53, has claimed the show is too scripted, lacks fun and that his own departure was “cruelly” handled.
RTE certainly made an enemy for themselves by axing Brolly as he has been a harsh critic ever since.
He labelled The Sunday Game “stage managed”, “risk averse” and “entirely unnatural” last summer.
In Brolly’s recent tweet on Cahill’s departure, he spoke out on the
“robotification of analysis”.
EAMON DUNPHY
Sport chief McBennett was only just settling in his chair in mid-2018 when Dunphy announced that he was
leaving RTE after 40 years.
He’d principally analysed soccer and, along with John Giles and Liam Brady, formed one third of RTE’s
affectionately known Three Amigos.
With the late Bill O’Herlihy skilfully steering the panel, their discussions were often more entertaining than the games they were analysing. Like the time guest pundit Graeme Souness questioned Dunphy’s credibility and who he had managed? Dunphy shot back: “I’ve managed to stay alive for 63-and-a-half years, baby.”
Or the time Dunphy dragged journalist Rod Liddle into a row, calling him “the guy who ran away and left his wife for a young one”.
It made for great TV but, as McBennett noted generally on that style of punditry, “some people loved it but some tired of it”. Dunphy and the amigos got back together on his The Stand podcast and are still going strong.
Like Brolly, he is a critic of RTE Sport and claimed after leaving: “I didn’t want to be part of that.”
GEORGE HOOK
The veteran journalist and broadcaster was the face of RTE TV’s rugby coverage until stepping away in 2015.
Between himself and Brent Pope, they kept fans of the oval ball game entertained. Host Tom McGurk guided them through their analysis, like O’Herlihy with Dunphy and Giles.
Rugby is a tough game to analyse, particularly if some viewers don’t know a rolling maul from a fly-half.
But Hook’s what-will-he-say-next irreverence sat nicely next to Pope’s straight up punditry and the time always ticked by comfortably.
Explaining his TV retirement in 2015, Hook, 81, said he’d been planning it for years and was “very comfortable” to go. He also had a radio gig at the time with Newstalk but that came to an abrupt end in 2018 when he quit after making controversial comments.
Hook made a surprise return to the station as a once-off guest contributor earlier this month – talking about his love of James Bond films.
PAT SPILLANE
The Kerry football great broke down in tears during his final appearance in The Sunday Game studio.
That was back in July for the Kingdom’s All-Ireland final win, his last appearance after 30 years on TV.
The 66-year-old said he was conscious of not outstaying his welcome and claimed he left the role on his terms. He later spoke on The Late Late Show about how one of the reasons he left was “the volume of vitriolic abuse” he got on social media.
While he had a huge fan base and is a popular figure countrywide, he also polarised opinion and sparked outrage in Tyrone when he criticised their “puke football” under Mickey Harte.
There were plenty of cringey comments over the years too, like bringing up dating app Tinder in his analysis on a number of occasions.
But he always got a reaction from viewers and rarely relied on statistics or heavy analysis for emphasis.
JERRY KIERNAN
The Kerryman was a mainstay of RTE’s athletics coverage until his death early last year.
The two-time Dublin City Marathon winner, ex-cross country runner and Olympian worked at several Olympic Games for the broadcaster.
Like all the best pundits, his comments got him into bother at times. Like the time in 2013 he questioned why GAA players were getting a government grant.
As one inter-county footballer said: “Jerry Kiernan has managed to insult every GAA player in Ireland.” He made those comments on national radio but remained a compelling figure on our TV screens until his death at 67.
Months later, RTE wrapped up their coverage of the delayed 2020 Olympics from Tokyo with a dedication to their former colleague.
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