Monday, May 4: 7pm, Glenanne vs Banbridge; 8pm, TRR vs Pembroke
Tuesday, May 5: 3pm, TRR vs Pembroke; 7pm, Loreto vs Cork Harlequins; 8pm, Hermes vs Pegasus
Wednesday, May 6: 9am, Glenanne vs Banbridge; 3pm, Hermes vs Pegasus; 7pm, Hermes vs Loreto; 8pm, Pembroke vs Glenanne
Thursday, May 7: 9am, Loreto vs Hermes; 10am, Pembroke vs Glenanne; 3pm, Loreto vs Hermes; 4pm, Pembroke vs Glenanne
* All on Setanta Ireland
25 comments:
Ban - Glens game looked like a great game on tv. Ban show great potential for next season.
Pembroke supporter
on your commentating comment 10:41, I agree it was pants.
Get someone in there who actually knows people in Irish Hockey now that he writes one of the best things to happen to Irish Hockey in a long time.....
Stephen were you ever approached to commentate?
Setanta are doing something good for the game, but put decent commentators in there....
Um, on the commentator issue, I was doing co-commentator for the women's matches with Will Downing in the semi-finals so you can see if I'm any use at it tonight!
While I realise you'll make your own opinions on it, I've major respect for the efforts Will put in. He's not a hockey guy but did a massive amount of research on all the sides he covered and hopefully that comes across tonight.
i think it's pretty cheap to slate the commentators i mean im sure they are doing their best knowledgeable or not..and i didnt think it was pants.
felt the coverage as a package was impressive!
yeah commentating pants (from setanta)
Coverage superb.....brilliant what they have done to promote hockey...
They can build on the commentating the next time.
I am only dissing one part of it...
Yes, and let's be happy Setanta shows these matches on TV.
Though the camera man obviously has to get used to speed of the game....
Great job by Setanta --and IHA - congrats
Think Trevor Watkins is quite good as he sounds genuinely excited by it all where most hockey commentators are quite dry and drawn out so he's a good one.
have heard that downing fella on radio and he's generally quite good so will be interesting to hear how he does tonight.
I watched the hockey on Setanta and thought it was well done. I was disappointed to see so much questioning of umpiring decisions. I thought umpires had been instructed to deal with this particular problem in a strong manner. If you watched the Cardiff v Leicester Heineken Cup match at the weekend ref Alain Rolland had a zero tolerance level to questioning of his decisions. That was the end of the questioning.
I thought the coverage on Setanta was well done but I was disappointed with the commentating to be honest. Stephen showed a pretty decent knowledge but Will Downing just doesn't know enough in my opinion. Players were frequently named incorrectly and there were numerous errors in explaining what happened. I don't mean this as a personal attack on Will though, he speaks well and apparently did a good amount of research. It's more said out of a desire for Setanta to find someone who is comfortable commentating AND understands the game AND is familiar with the players. Also, I'd like to see more analysis of umpiring decisions. I was struck by the contrast last night between Setanta's total acceptance of every single umpiring decision and RTE's indepth analysis of the Champions League Fletcher penalty/red card decision.
Heineken Cup refs have two touch judges and a video ref to assist them with decisions. If players don't question decisions, who will? The ladies final clearly showed the necessity for questioning. The ball hit a loreto player's foot and a goal was given. Hermes questioned. The decision was reversed and a free out was given. If there was a zero tolerance approach to questioning, Loreto would have won the match 1-0 with a clearly illegal goal. Is that what you want??? (In my opinion the self-pass rule has eliminated much of the unnecessary questioning of more trivial decisions as players just have to get back into defensive positions quickly.)
To May 6, 2009 4:38 PM, I think you're not really comparing like with like. One is the most heavily funded sport in the world with oodles of advertising and 45 minutes worth of time to talk after the game.
Do you want Setanta to have 10 minutes of highlights and then 30 minutes of chat about some supposed decisions? there were sweet fa big decisions in the women's games.
as for your point on the commentators - you want someone with knowledge of all the local players, vast tv experience and specialises in hockey...
we'd be so lucky!
I don't normally like to weigh into these comment streams but from my own personal experience, I found doing the co-commentary a really difficult challenge, knowing when to talk, when to stay quiet while trying to be informative and interesting.
I've done a reasonable amount of radio work before which is mainly scripted but this is a completely different kettle of fish. The game moves infinitely faster than the example used of football which has numerous 45 second breaks for talking about issues.
As for discussing umpire decisions, it was not an editorial decision by Setanta but most talk about umpiring decisions in hockey, in my opinion, can get over-technical and very dull and would not have added a huge amount to the commentary.
To May 6, 2009 5:44 PM, your point being lucky to get all that is totally accepted. However, that doesn't mean that hockey shouldn't aspire to what other sports have.
To Stephen, your point about the pace of the game and the difficulties of commentating is also totally accepted. You did a great job as co-commentator.
I think it was clear that I wasn't writing Will Downing off entirely, I'd just like to see him build on his knowledge for next year if possible.
And of course we don't need 30 mins of chat about decisions or overly-technical/dull talk, but occasionally it might be nice (and entirely possible where there is a replay) to hear an interjection along the lines of "to me that looked like a free out rather than a short corner". Or "that seemed quite a harsh green card, it looked like a decent tackle to me"
My point was simply that there was no analysis of decisions whatsoever. In my humble view it's possible to find some middle ground between that and the extreme that May 6, 2009 5:44 PM suggested.
Stevie, all you need to do is commentate like the south american footy fellas. Goal Goal Goal Goal GGGOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL.........
job done and people will love it
I thought the recent coverage provided by both RTE for the senior cup and Setanta was excellent. Of course there are things that be improved on but I thought overall, it was an excellent advertisement for the game. Standard of play helped. Really good to watch.
One thing that Setanta could look at doing in future is to have short segments explaining some of the rules and plays for people who might not be overly familiar with the game e.g. short corners. They did that with cricket and worked well.
I loved the three rock setup and the inclusion of the seating. Really made the atmosphere and there was plenty of banter and chat among spectators happening in the stand.
One thing I dont get though is that Setanta didn't want to errect another stand in UCD for the cameras as it cost too much? Was this right? But surely it was way more expensive to put together the seating in Three Rock?
What about that RTE commentator who shouts goooooooooal in hockey, i think he's very good.. Frank something!
I cant understand people giving out about the commentating on Setanta. This is our minor sport in which playing numbers are falling drastically in most clubs - weve just had four days of coverage during prime time - enjoy it! I couldnt make it up to Three Rock over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the coverage during the week. The commentating didnt worry me at all - well done to Trevor and Stephen, two voluteers who do have an in-depth knowledge of the game and were both interesting and informative. Setanta Sports - Premiership soccer, Magners rugby and IHL hockey - win, win, win!! Signed - 'not an employee of Setanta'!
If you missed the hockey on Setanta, is there any second chance of seeing it?
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