When you’ve invested 15 years into something, you’re going to care about it — and probably care too much.
Des Cahill thinks The Sunday Game will change “fairly dramatically” and he wonders “how the hell they’re going to squeeze it all in with so many competing interests”.
Everyone feels ownership of The Sunday Game, and their decade-and-a-half-long anchor, Cahill – the face of the show – felt that weight.
How could he not? Cahill is fully invested in the club game with Cuala in Dublin.
He is well aware of how people feel about the GAA’s flagship programme.
They are not his problems now as he moves towards Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport on RTE radio.
And he’s “loving it.” The move. The freshness. The less constrained nature of radio.
Cahill is the latest in a raft of big names to go, following Pat Spillane, Colm O’Rourke, Kevin McStay and Dessie Dolan out the door in recent weeks.
RTE have also lost some massive voices in recent years in the likes of Ger Loughnane and Joe Brolly.
Cahill says the challenge of replacing them should not be
underestimated. The constant analysis/entertainment conflict played out publicly in the social media reaction to the Sunday Game is one element of it.
Some decry the lack of colour and outspoken analysis. They say it’s gone too PC.
Others say there isn’t enough cutting-edge commentary on strategy and tactics.
There will never be a winner here.
Cahill says: “I am not sure how much colour they want in it. They want analysis.
“To use the term character, what do you mean by character? Is it derogatory? No, it’s not. People with strong opinions, not afraid to throw them out there. At times I wondered about the veracity of their opinions.
“Joe Brolly, Ger Loughnane, when these were throwing out opinions it was dynamic, it was energetic.
“Now you have people, which is probably the way it should be, they are thoughtful and kind: ‘Why did Dessie say that or do that?’
“Which is as it should be, but it is going to be very difficult to get people who are not all the same.
“You don’t want everyone the exact same on a panel. But look it, that’s the challenge. There are lots of bright people out there.”
“Declan McBennett (RTE Head of Sport) is meeting people and he will be conscious of that too.”
The 63-year-old, who competed in RTE’s Dancing With the Stars in 2017, has a fair idea of how it will pan out for whoever replaces him in The Sunday Game hotseat.
“I’ve been there,” he says. “I’ve been the recipient of this. It’s true life: Fantastic, fresh, different, brilliant.
“Like Joanne (Cantwell) initially, Fantastic, brilliant, dynamic, and then two or three years in you have people giving out about her.
“In my opinion it’s not because of her. It’s not because she’s a woman.
“You’re there a while and people get used to you. It’s not the whole audience but you have people on social media, always looking for ‘something different,’ quote, unquote, ‘Ach, you know…same old, same old,’
“You hear all this. You can’t afford to live that way.
“It only struck me. Someone is going to be offered it and they will be so excited and thrilled.
“It’s a landmark programme. It’s one of our pillar programmes in RTE.”
Cahill did an interview a few months back that got people talking, where he pointed to the difficulties The Sunday Game was experiencing with so many competing interests and lack of airtime for them all.
“I do think that I cared too much and that I did feel bad when Longford, Wicklow or Carlow people felt they were getting such little time,” he says. Maybe it’s unfair, but I just use them as an example.
“But, is the programme analysis? Is it reaction to the matches? Is it highlights of the matches? Is it the consequence of the actions in the matches?”
It’s nearly as fragmented as the apple crumble RTE’s soccer correspondent Tony O’Donoghue called in to Cahill with during the week to mark his years on The Sunday Game.
“There were so many elements to it (not the apple crumble),” says Cahill. “So what is it? And then football and hurling. It’s a two-hour programme.
“We start with Tyrone against Cavan and immediately 600 people go on Twitter and say, ‘Why isn’t the hurling on first,’ or vice versa.
“Everyone feels ownership of the programme. There aren’t many programmes in RTE that the public actually feel is their programme.
“The Sunday Game is one of those few programmes.
“If you gave everybody a piece of paper, two hours to fill, maybe 15 matches and two or three analysts for football and hurling – now make up a programme.
“Everybody would come up with different durations. It’s a subjective thing. A prominent person said to me today, ‘I am surprised you were frustrated. I loved the programme as it is.’ And some people do.”
Cahill continues: “I think it was trying to be all things to all men.
“Things like camogie wanted to be part of it. Ladies football wanted to be part of it – even though their contract was with TG4. That’s understandable. I have no issue with that. Or the Joe McDonagh Cup. ‘Why aren’t you showing the Joe McDonagh Cup?’ The Tailteann Cup?”
Which brings Cahill to the future. There is very little nostalgia here. His tendency is to look ahead to the next challenge.
“Next year’s Tailteann Cup is round robin instead of straight knockout,” he points out. “The All-Ireland goes to group matches. I don’t know how the hell it’s going to be managed next year.
“Rather than me carrying the weight of caring so much about it and wanting it to be right and perfect — it’s just very difficult. I think they’re going to have to change it all fairly dramatically.”
Earlier this week he spoke to former ‘Six One News’ anchor Brian Dobson, who moved to Morning Ireland and News At One. I have these chats with Brian Dobson,” says Cahill. “I really enjoy his company. He is not a big GAA man.
“I was asking about when he left the Six One. Now, he was going to Morning Ireland with half a million listeners.
‘What was the reaction that you were leaving the flagship programme of news?’ The reason I was asking was because The Sunday Game is still seen as the flagship in sport and how would people react to it. He said, ‘I’m so glad I did it. The best thing ever.’
“Morning Ireland and News at One he probably has more time now with his interviews than he had with the limitations with durations of Six One News.
“So he is loving it and I am loving it.
“My son, who works in production, has said to me, ‘You should have done it years ago.’ He was surprised I didn’t. That’s what he’d be saying.
“I said, ‘Why do you say that?’ He said, ‘I could tell you were
frustrated.’
“I would be telling him because he understood production issues etc.
“I am thrilled at how I feel about the whole thing. I really am.”
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