What a difference a change makes

Superstition and sports go hand in hand. Rituals vary from the junior hurler who wears one sock up and one sock down to the 23 stone american footballer who hasn't washed his jockstrap all season because he thinks the flies are lucky.

When Tom briefly mentioned the curse of Biddy Earlie in class today, it got me thinking about another curse that Irish sport has had to overcome in recent times. I'm talking about the curse of TV3.

It's almost 12 years since national sport events were first broadcast live on TV3. Qualification for the 2000 European Championships were at stake for the Irish soccer team, who were raring to make it to their first major tournament since the World Cup in '94. On RTÉ, Irish fans were treated to some thrilling wins against Croatia, who finished third at the World Cup in France two months previously, and Yugolsavia, who reached the knockout stages of the same toournament, as well as the drubbing of Malta at Lansdowne Road.

On TV3 however, things fared much differently. Defeat in Belgrade was followed by heartache in Zagreb, as Davor Suker scored a last gasp goal to give the Croats all three points. The curse did it's best to get the better of the Irish in Malta, but Steve Staunton's free-kick snatched a fortunate win, the first positive result in front of the TV3 cameras.

With Ireland one nil up against lowly Macedonia, and a matter of seconds away from qualification for Championships in Holland and Belgium, TV3 were present for the most heartbreaking goal Ireland have conceded in their footballing history (Pre Thierry Henry). The one all draw sent Ireland to the playoffs, where Turkey halted their progress.

When RTÉ resumed full coverage of Irish Internationals for the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, rousing home victories were coupled with dogged draws in Amsterdam and Lisbon, sending Ireland to Korea and Japan for the World Cup finals.

Arguably Ireland's lowest point came in 2006, when TV3 were present for the five goal drubbing against Cyprus, as well as the last gasp win against San Marino, who had conced 20 goals in their two previous games.

After plauging the footballers for long enough, TV3 decided to spread their wings and climb on to the rugby bandwagon, following Ireland's excellent Six Nations campaign. But again the TV3 cameras only saw heartache at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, as the Irish scraped wins against Georgia and Namibia, teams they put over 60 points past in the previous tournament. Ireland were eventually dumped out of the tournament in the group stage against Argentina, signalling the end of Eddie O'Sullivan's largely successful six years in charge. Oh how the fortunes have changed since...

In recent times, TV3 have distanced themselves from Irish national teams, and have concentrated on the GAA championships. Who could blame them though? It would be pretty hard to curse 32 different teams all at once!

NT

Highlighting major issues of sport in the media since 2010.