LAST Sunday night I was sitting in the house in anticipation of really enjoying watching the Allianz League Sunday highlights.

The leagues, for me, always throw up some interesting games and on any given day most teams can beat the other and really outside of Division One and the top of two (Galway, Derry and Roscommon). There isn’t much between the rest of the teams from fourth place in Division Two right down to bottom of Division Four.

I went to watch Down against Offaly on Saturday evening and just from mental memory, I feel I would be well equipped to give a decent analytical assessment of the game. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the majority of the analysis provided by RTÉ. Surely the game warrants some form of decent analysis? I really feel the lack of proper analysis available on a regular basis during the leagues and during the championship is failing to do the game justice..

Take last Sunday night for an example, even the analysis of the Roscommon against Derry game and the analysis of Tyrone against Dublin was centred around a couple of refereeing decisions that were given or not given.

Very little analysis on the kick-out strategies of both teams, the defensive match-ups, defensive structure of teams, the offensive patterns of play, the key offensive operators or the percentage of scores conceded from turnovers. The list could go on.

A number of seasons ago, Colm O’Rourke said “Galway have adopted a Tyrone type defensive system.” This was when Kevin Walsh was manager and had led them to an All-Ireland semi-final and Connacht title.

I could accept that level of analysis if the next line from the same pundit was to describe in detail what a “Tyrone type defensive system” was but instead he just said “They’ve turned a bit ugly.” I wasn’t sure if he was insulting the players and referring to how attractive they looked or if he was talking about the way they played.

A few weeks ago, presenter Joanne Cantwell threw out a statement that last year Roscommon were criticised for their ultra-defensive approach (Note: playing in Division One and still scoring 16 points a game) and this year they seem to be playing with a much more attacking game-plan. Roscommon drew 0-9 to 0-9 at home to Clare and 0-12 to 0-12 at home to Derry. Lazy, throw away comments

Noelle Healy got huge praise, and rightly so, a few weeks back for her brilliant analysis. It just started with her doing a bit of basic research on players names, etc, a little research can help.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be subjected to a proper analytical view of our games instead of some of the throw away talk we are treated to? If only they put as much work, preparation and thought into preparing the analysis on the very small handful of games they actually show as the large majority of managers and coaches do in preparing their team.