Although he's already settling in to his new job with Floriana, it was nice to have Roddy on the show this week, albeit on the end of a phone line.
I think there's going to be a huge interest in how he fares with the Maltese side, and I can foresee a big contingent of curious Irish football fans visiting the Island this autumn after the league finishes here to see how the Rodmeister is getting on over there. It could be a good thing for the Maltese tourist industry, and given that Floriana have links with Shamrock Rovers and are nicknamed ‘The Irish’, I reckon plenty of supporters here will probably adopt them over the coming season or two.
It sounds as if the club is based in a idyllic place, and with temperatures of 30 degrees at this time of the year it sounds like a nice plan to combine a sun holiday with a bit of football thrown into the mix. Good luck to Roddy.
Colm Foley was complaining after the programme that while Johnny and Tony McDonnell got to look mean and moody in the pundits VT which runs at the start of the programme, Colm is filmed fixing his hair and winking into a mirror. To be honest his gripe is well justified. He did it all in one take too, consummate professional that he is. The voiceover for that segment was more Limerick than London this week. We'd be interested to know what you think about that or any other aspect of the show - mns@rte.ie will always get us.
On this week’s show we mentioned the excellent Sligo Rovers match programme, for their home European tie against Vllaznia. It's a pity the result wasn't as good as the programme, or as it was more correctly described, the European souvenir magazine.
It seems that every journalist with a Sligo leaning was collared to do a piece, including the likes of the Sunday Indo's Eamon Sweeney, Adrian Eames from this parish, Leo Gray the sports editor of the Sligo Champion, while many former players including the likes of Chris Rutherford and Nicky Brujos contributed to a really good read and a great encapsulation of Sligo's European adventures.
Congratulations to the team who put it together. At €5 it wasn’t cheap, but good value all the same.
It strikes me that the quality of match programmes here has improved in leaps and bounds over the last decade or so. For many years I collected programmes going back to the 1970s and in many cases the old programmes were almost identical from week to week with the same ads in the same place. In fact there were lots of ads and not very much editorial.
You could replace the clubs name in the ‘We'd like to welcome the players, officials and supporters of X club today; we've always had great battles with X club down through the years, and we're hoping for another exciting game this afternoon.’ Yawn.
Pat Dolan must take some credit for developing the programme at St. Pat’s during his tenure there. He always referred to it as the matchday magazine. It was glossy, full colour, with up to date statistics and interesting articles.
The Cork City programme has won several awards in recent years and deservedly so. Every time I visit Turner’s Cross I'm always pleasantly surprised by the quality of the programme there. At the start of the season our first live game on RTÉ Television was the meeting of Dundalk and Bohemians at Oriel Park, and I thought the programme that night was a credit to Dundalk FC.
While I'm handing out the bouquets, Drogheda United deserve a big thumbs up for producing an excellent programme for the FAI Cup replay at home to Shamrock Rovers, just a matter of days after the first leg had been drawn. This programme featured photos and analysis from the original tie as well as up to the minute stats and good editorial copy as well. That this was managed in the short couple of days between the two ties was really superb and a far cry from the ink smudgely A4 sheets folded over of the days of yore. (It's been pointed out to me that there might not be such a word as ‘smudgely’; but if Ian Dowie can invent a word like bouncebackability, then I might be allowed smudgely)
I don't know anything about the economics of producing these programmes for crowds ranging from 1500 to four or five thousand, but with full colour printing, and late deadlines to make them as up to date as possible, I can't imagine that there's too much profit to be made. Indeed I'm sure almost everyone who helps produce or contribute to the programmes do it on a voluntary basis, and with the good of the club in mind.
It's an important part of the matchday experience for me. I always like to get to the ground at least 45 minutes before kick-off. No rush, no stress, and a chance to read the programme before the game.
I salute everyone at all clubs who put the hard work into getting the programmes produced. Incidentally, as a regular attendee of games in Spain, it's interesting to note that they don't really go in for match day programmes. At some clubs they hand out a free sheet newspaper with some basic facts and figures, but the concept of an actual matchday magazine or programme seems to be stronger here or in Britain. I'm presuming we followed the British model years ago.
This is a topic we intend to visit on MNS later in the series, and if you have any thoughts or ideas, get in touch with us at mns@rte.ie
There were some cracking goals in the June goal of the month competition and if you missed them you can see them again on this website. Our panel of experts have selected their favourite but obviously I can't tell you which one they've gone for. We'd like to know what you think too, so vote away on the poll, again on this website.
We received an email from a viewer asking why the Sligo Rovers-Drogheda match was shot from the main stand when the European game had been filmed facing towards the main stand, (which looked much better), and the answer is because the sun was shining brightly on the evening in question, and it would have been right down the lens of the camera making it virtually impossible to see any of the action. Obviously the angle of choice for us would be back towards the main stand which looks really well especially when it's as full as it was for the Europa Cup match last week.
Good luck to the Bit o Red in the second leg on Thursday, and as I said on the programme on Monday - they can still do it. If they've been beaten 4-0 in the second leg by the time you read this, you'll know why my bookie is driving a Bentley, and I'm on the 46A.
