Hockey sticks it to big sports as RTÉ corner a new market

TV View: Television sets seem to sit there like the mangy dog or the old pair of slippers, or occasionally as a wardrobe-sized flat screen across the chimney breast. Part furniture, part household utensil and part, in a "mine is flatter than yours" sort of way, status symbol.

This week RTÉ's ability to mainline into our homes made a minor sport more powerful than it is used to being. Those sunk into their overstuffed sofas gazing at VW Golf-sized plasma screens would have seen something unfamiliar blaze across their sitting-room walls. The national broadcaster swung hockey into the television front line. The women's European Championships staged at Belfield, Dublin, was brought into our homes at peak time as Ireland played France, Spain and the Netherlands in a series of pool matches throughout the week.

Pretty heady stuff this. From being a small sport that receives almost no television coverage to becoming one that is suddenly presented as entertainment for over an hour on prime time television is, as they say in rugby, a big ask. The question was could the game sustain viewer interest for that length of time.

Squeezed in between an All-Ireland hurling championship match and an international soccer friendly against Italy at Lansdowne Road, the hockey was, there is no doubt, overshadowed by its bigger brothers, but all things considered, and given the once-off-type coverage, the Irish women stuck their collective heads up and got noticed.

The first match, against France on the Sunday of the Cork-Clare hurling quarter-final (the hockey was broadcast after the hurling match had finished, allowing just enough time for GAA president Seán Kelly to make the dash from Croke Park to Belfield), averaged a 3.1 rating, or 115,000 viewers, which gave hockey a 14-per-cent audience share. The figure peaked at 164,000, a 22.8-per-cent share.

On Tuesday, Ireland's match against Spain, which was up against Coronation Street, drew an average 2.8 rating, or 106,000 viewers, which equated to a 10.5-per-cent share. The figures peaked around 7.30pm at 135,000, a 14.1 share.

The final pool game, against the Netherlands, essentially a match for a European Championship semi-final place, attracted 110,000 viewers, or an average 9.9-per-cent share. That figure rose to 135,000, or an 11.9-per-cent share at peak time.

RTÉ appear to be happy with those figures and see them as respectable. But if there was a small criticism of otherwise excellent coverage it was that perhaps they may have asked too much of viewers who knew little about the sport.

The rules, which are complex, probably needed to be explained more, and while Trevor Watkins, who is a former player, and commentators Frank Whelan and Bernie Heffernan, a former Irish captain, did simplify, the coverage needed mini-features.

Who knows what a short corner is, or a reverse stick, or a half court or a drag flick? Or why when there is a free does a team-mate place her stick in front of the ball. Easy terms for those who play, not so for those new to the game.

What the broadcaster did illustrate very well with generous coverage was the athleticism and ability of amateur players who rarely get a look in. Stereotypes were broken down as the Irish and, particularly, the Dutch showed how the game has entirely moved from the "jolly hockey sticks" image to that of a modern sport played by professionally trained athletes, who can provide value for money. RTÉ stuck their neck out in devoting so much airtime. But the sport delivered.

Bored? Go to Sky One. Nobody looks in the television guide to see what's on Sky One. It is a station for the channel grazers. You might get Top 100 Slappers. You might get lucky and hit Deadwood. Friday night it was Jose Mourhino. He got the Sky One treatment.

"This man has changed forever the art of football management," began the programme. Sky One does not do understatement.

The resident psychologist soon went to work analysing Mourhino in the sort of detailed way the manager would go about looking at an opposition team.

"He sees multiple patterns and multiple differences that pass normal managers," noted the boffin. "He knows what he can control, what he can influence. He's a control freak," he added.

"Cups are work. Life is more than that," chipped in the Chelsea boss in a way that was reminiscent of the days when we cocked our ears for Eric Cantona's musings.

"I think I'm the special one," shrugged Mourhino in his matter-of-fact way, the cameras adoring him. Yes, there's sex appeal everywhere these days.