Indo Sport
Bits & Bobs | Masters nostalgia | The media v Irish football | Dan's Mastermind subject
10 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome Bits and Bobs on a Friday. Good to have you with us. Your emails, of course, are always welcome. Indosportpodcast at independent.ie is where you can get us. Happy to say in studio, first time in a while on Bits and Bobs, Dan McDonald.
Hi. Ciao. It's been a while, yeah. I turned you down a couple of times. I apologise.
Yes, you have, Dan. Yes, you have. You're a busy man. We know that. And in his Bayern Munich jumper, which I'm not sure is... It's Friday. ...appropriate office wear, home from the Munich bureau, is Ronan. Hello. Hello, Joe. Those rotations midweek were... I'm talking about PSG. Well, we'll see them in the semi-finals. Yeah. The last time you two, the Dundalk Mafia, were together...
Oh, Dundalk.
We were over this last time. Dundalk RD, it's a whole thing.
But anyway, move past it, move past it, move past it. You're pretty sure you had messages from RD at one stage about this show. Move past it, just move past it. You're from Dublin, aren't you?
Ah, whatever. Well, I've had to read all week about Manchester United in Dublin.
I know, that's what I mean.
Yeah, imagine, imagine, imagine sort of just being placed into the next. But you see, I had written down the topics we discussed and one of them was Dundalk in crisis. You see how it happens with a script, you know what I mean? Halloween and Derry. Halloween and Derry. You know, 31st of the October 2025. Is it really that long? That was the classic of the genre. Oh, yeah.
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Chapter 2: What nostalgic moments do the hosts share about the Masters?
Yeah, it's my fault, really. A bit of bravado last year. We were out somewhere. I think it was a couple of staff were out and I was like...
I'll do them I'm always watching the Masters I'll do one of those blogs and then they came looking for me in Masters week I was like no no I'm watching the Masters I'm not doing the live blog but you know what I've actually now realised it's a great way to be able to watch the golf and call it work which is there's a genius to it because like Saturday for me I know some people may be listening to this on Sunday but Saturday for me is the dream sporting day we've got the Grand National we've got the Masters but that's a little bit harder to sort of you know siphon away sort of
12 hours you know a lot going on at home you know it's like well I need a bit of time to watch a match okay that might be a 90 minutes try to sort of explain a 12 hour request is a problem so now everyone's getting packed out of the house apart from the youngest around 4 o'clock or so because you're working I have to work and I mean I can't do this usual thing of like putting kids to bed pause it and then you catch up like 45 minutes later it's a live vlog I cannot be I mean I just professionally have to be doing this will you get a day in lieu
no no it's just I work every Saturday no I knew you'd get mileage somehow yeah Yeah, you can get modded if you walk to your shed, Joe, you know. No, I'll be working. It's my last day. I'm plucking off for a couple of weeks after. So I thought I'd go out and stuff. But, you know.
Well, it's all, look, I mean, we're at round one and Rory still has to go and play round two in the baked Augusta National property that is in the evening time. So, you know, we can't, but it's looking very good. I thought round one, that was the first time I watched Rory and thought he's like a veteran.
Just like a veteran the way he managed that first six, seven hole stretch where he wasn't playing his best stuff. There was, this is timeless. One of the reasons people love the Masters, obviously, is that so often the likes of Fred Koppel's for a long time, Bernard Langer, will show the young guns a thing or two about how to navigate your way around, you know.
And yesterday, Thursday, it was Jose Maria Alathaba, two-time winner in the 90s. So Luke Kerr-Deneen on Golf Digest followed him and has written this great piece on Golf Digest where he describes Alathaba putting in the greatest chipping display I've ever witnessed.
And so he gives this, you know, I don't know what possessed him to think that Elathabal would be the story because he was proved so correct, you know. So he's watching him all week. Elathabal doesn't play any golf tournaments all year. None. He's not out in the Champions Tour. He's not playing Champions Tour majors. And so Deneen observed that Elathabal spends the most time on the range all week.
at Augusta he's cramming in effect his one exam of the year he's cramming he was there early wasn't he I think that might have been part of the logic just you could follow him really early doors and you know let the peace breathe after you know perhaps but Deneen care Deneen noticed noted on the driving range that Alatabal's highest recorded ball speed this week was 155 miles per hour now a low digit single handicapped golfer in Ireland who plays once a week could get 155
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Chapter 3: How did the Irish football team perform against Czechia?
But yeah, certainly like somebody kind of just getting around with their hands around the green, that stuff is...
I don't think he ever played a huge amount in America, did he? I'm trying to think. He was of the era where you actually played on the European tour and the sort of drive and wedge and put PGA courses weren't what he was playing every week. And that's why you had that European success in the Masters through the 80s. You had Sandy Lyle, Woosnam, obviously Seve.
It was, I don't know, was it a coincidence? The type of courses they were playing?
Probably not. Did you see, Gary Players had a weird Masters as well. Have you seen all this? He started the week brilliantly where, you know, he always says, I've flown more than any other human being. And so Golf Digest did a thing where they were like, could we fly with you? And he did an interview on the plane. And it was, you know, it was kind of interesting. He was talking about like,
life's the greatest gift. And my wife died. And I, you know, for four years I was lost, but now I've got a new girlfriend and I'm so happy. And, you know, I owe it to everyone to just live life. All my friends are dying. I've got a new girlfriend. And you're like, you know, it's just about okay.
When you said you had a weird week, I was thinking every week is weird, Joe. So like, what makes this any more indistinguishable than the other ones?
He walks that sort of line where you're like, ah, I guess ultimately he's sort of preaching an okay thing-ish. But just his turn of phrase, like him and Watson and Nicholas, after they were the ceremonial starters, were in the press conference.
They're talking about the 12th hole, the water in front, you know, and he's like, it just shows golf, you know, like you don't need to have a million yards. Like the 12th. What is it, an eight iron? It's cripple more people than polio.
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of using Croke Park for foreign sports events?
Humble Gary just wants to talk his grandkids through the good old days. Dan mentioned Grand National. You weren't here for this, Roman. Dan walked over and said, we're talking Grand National. And I said, you know, I guess we can to an extent, you know, four o'clock tomorrow. It's my mastermind subject. It's my mastermind subject.
He said, I know everything about the Grand National between 1985 and 2000, especially 1995.
85, I said.
No, no, no. 85 to 95, 2000.
No, I said... See, I actually oversold. I said 80 to 2000. And then I was like, actually, 80 to 84 was a problem because we used to have all the Grand Nationals recorded from 1985 on the old VHS. Every year, the Grand National would be recorded. My dad would record it. And then, obviously...
as the old VH tapes were, maybe for younger people who may not remember, you know, you had to have like space on the tape to record the next one because the 1991, obviously we had a disaster because the tape must have ran out halfway through the race. So when you'd be watching that back, you would get to like the chair, which is the 14th, 15th, and then there'd be a cut.
And then the start of the next one, they'd be sort of halfway in the second circuit. So it was obviously like frantic, frantic things going on at home. Don't record over Carnation Street. I am. Now occasionally we'll cut into like some show from the two minutes that sort of Bullseye or something comes in.
Just stop this now. We have a lot of 18 to 34 year olds listening to this show. This is actually embarrassing.
Sorry. I'm just explaining like for your demographic.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Dan provide about the Grand National?
Do you not like the vibe of this around Crow Park? Are you fairly... I'm a pragmatist. Take the money, give it to GAA clubs.
I would be increasingly the latter. And I think Peter McKenna is dead right. I think that's his MO and that's what he's been asked to do. But I would just wonder... are there any of the people who were around in the early 2000s who were protecting, rightly or wrongly, trying to safeguard the history of the association and things? Like, is money the be all and end all now?
They've pretty much decided it is.
Basically, there's no other... Would they turn down a UFC thing, maybe? Maybe? Probably not. So boxing, you know, is a violent sport. Football, the English garrison game. What would they turn down?
Yeah, and like lionising Tyson Fury, I find this a bit strange as well.
It would just be amazing if we had Tyson.
Yeah.
Tyson can get Katie Taylor over the line is kind of the way it was pitched.
Just a live InfoWars podcast or something in Croke Park. You know, where do you draw the line?
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