We had an eclectic bunch on Off The Ball's Saturday Panel this week as comedian Tommy Tiernan, TV3's Tommy Martin and Sunday Independent football writer Dion Fanning joined Ger on the show.
Tiernan, who talked about being taught by Meath All-Ireland winning legend Colm O'Rourke, revealed that he either supports or has major soft spots for Meath, LA Lakers, Corofin, Galway, Juventus and Liverpool (did we miss any?) and that led Ger and co to chat about whether sports journalists should be open about the teams they support.
"I certainly would like to think listeners are intelligent enough to know if a guy is doing his job right. I think that applies in sport as well. Because you're a Manchester United or Liverpool or Aston Villa fan - or a Partick Thistle fan - I always believe you don't insult your viewers or listeners or the audience or underestimate their intelligence. They know if you're not doing your job right, if you're giving someone an easy ride or an overly hard ride - or if you're taking an overly harsh view of a certain team's performance," said Martin, who supports Celtic (due to being born in Glasgow), Chicago Cubs, Donegal and the Limerick hurlers.
"What does happen though is that biases of viewers, readers and listeners colour the way they view what you say - and in that sense you can't win."
Another team that Tiernan has a soft spot for is the Irish cricket team, quipping that they are the "Dropkick Murphys of international cricket".
He also put it to Fanning that he had always suspected that the writer supported Liverpool, with Fanning admitting that was actually the case.
"But these days, I've got an increasing fondness for QPR, who are my local team in London," said Fanning.
Listen to The Panel in full via the podcast.
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