Buckling under the weight of Ireland’s greatest noughties moments

So, sports fans are outraged that Jermaine Defoe is missing from the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award shortlist? (According to click king Mr Google Analytics). Wait til they see this evening what the chainsaw gang in Montrose have done to the array of Ireland’s Greatest Sporting Moments in the 2000s, writes Tony Leen.

In defence of RTÉ, shrinking the long list of Irish sporting achievement in the noughties to a select handful for tonight’s penultimate run of the TV series is a lose-lose act ever before one even contemplates said list. Narrowing it to five borders on self-flagellation.

Not helping in any way is the material necessity of extending the noughties from a decade to 12 years to incorporate Katie Taylor’s Olympic gold in London in the final discussion before an overall winner from the four studio debates is made on RTÉ in a week’s time.