John O Callaghan - Midland Tribune

[Offalys Future]

I been reading his pieces on Championship this year and am just wondering does he normally write on hurling?
In the last 2 weeks there was 12 championship matches.

His predictions were following

Shinrone vs Shamrocks - Shinrone - WRONG
Birr vs Belmont - Birr - CORRECT
Coolderry vs Lusmagh - Coolderry - CORRECT
Ballyskenagh vs Kinnity - Kinnity - CORRECT
Seir Kieran vs Tullamore - Tullamore - WRONG
St.Ryanaghs vs Kilcormac/killoughey - KK - WRONG

Kinnitty vs St.Ryanaghs - St.Ryanaghs - WRONG
Shamrocks vs Kilcormac/Killoughey - Kilcormac/Killoughey - WRONG
Shinrone vs Ballyskenagh - Ballyskenagh - WRONG
Birr vs Coolderry - Coolderry - WRONG
Belmont vs Seir Kieran - Seir Kieran - WRONG
Tullamore vs Lusmagh - Tullamore - WRONG

You have to laugh that out of 12 games the local sports journalist can only get 3 right!!
We all be watching you alot closely for rest of year John!!!!

[Lone Shark]

John would be a hurling writer certainly however he has a lot more responsibility in the Tribune than just that. I'm pretty sure he's the editor of the paper and would be busy out on that front. Theoretically John Horan would be their sports journalist, however they never seemed to give him too much to do while I haven't seen him feature for quite a while now.

[Offalys Future]

Ah am sure he has am only having a bit of fun!

[kinnittyman]

Someone here made an excllent point about the Tribune championship/match previews etc recently. It's so vague its laughable.

For Example a preview of Kinnitty would entail "have a balanced team, play fast hurling and good hurlers in James Rigney and Colm Coughlan". Thats about the level they go for. Its actually pathetic. The championship started 2 weeks ago and there wasnt even a proper preview. Two years ago (the 2007 championship) a mate of mine brought in the Clare Champion to me when we were in college They had a 24 page preview of their senior championship with detailed information on each team, background stuff, the whole hog including interviews with all team managers on their hopes and desires for the year. It was a fantastic read.

Why oh why cant the Tribune not do something like this? It would have drummed up great interest in the championship and that is after all what we need. To be honest I find the hurling coverage on the Tribune to be a bit of an embarrasment at this stage. Too late for a championship preview but how about improved match reports and enhanced match previews from now on?

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Someone here made an excllent point about the Tribune championship/match previews etc recently. It's so vague its laughable.

Ya, I made that point on the SHC Round 1 thread. Vague is one accurate way to put it, overly nice is another. I don't know why it is so but I get the feeling that they are terrified of saying anything the least bit critical of any team. I don't know why this is the case, perhaps the Lone Shark could enlighten us. Maybe it's because they rely on clubs for information and are afraid of upsetting anyone.
I'm not calling for anything vicious, mean or Dunphy like but just some objective detailed assessments, good and bad, of the various teams.

[kinnittyman]

Someone here made an excllent point about the Tribune championship/match previews etc recently. It's so vague its laughable.

Ya, I made that point on the SHC Round 1 thread. Vague is one accurate way to put it, overly nice is another. I don't know why it is so but I get the feeling that they are terrified of saying anything the least bit critical of any team. I don't know why this is the case, perhaps the Lone Shark could enlighten us. Maybe it's because they rely on clubs for information and are afraid of upsetting anyone.
I'm not calling for anything vicious, mean or Dunphy like but just some objective detailed assessments, good and bad, of the various teams.

Seconded!!

[Lone Shark]

I think to be honest, it goes back to the previous point I made - John O'Callaghan, not unlike Alan Walsh in the Express, has a job which goes way beyond simple sporting analysis and as such he doesn't have the time to put into research that he might like. Alan Walsh is the same, however the fact that he is still involved in hurling on a day to day basis gives him some advantage in terms of digging up insight.

When I was doing this stuff for the Indo last year I put a savage amount of time into these preseason previews, ringing PRO's to see how people were fixed, going through transfer lists on the GAA website, looking up league results - basically I put up to ten to twelve hours of time into articles which these guys probably have to knock out in an hour. As it was a labour of love for me and I had some work to do building up contacts anyway, it made sense, but JOC or Alan Walsh couldn't do that, realistically.

Ultimately it's not that you can't say anything critical, but you can't say anything critical if you're not 100% sure that it's right. Without putting in the hard yards, you can't do that so you end up rehashing the big name guys from last year and hope that none of them have gone out to Australia or transferred to a Dublin club without your knowledge.