“They made great radio and helped make radio great.” Those were the words of Ger Gilroy on Off the Ball last night on Newstalk, paying tribute to the team that had taken his original creation from 2002 and turned it into a cult show before suddenly resigning yesterday afternoon.
Social media was all of a flutter throughout the hours following the departure of Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Ciaran Murphy, Simon Hick and Mark Hogan, though the individuals themselves were markedly quiet for the first time in a long while.
The team had made a pitch to start the 7-10pm programme one hour earlier, thus eating into drivetime, the golden hours of radio broadcasting.
That would have meant crashing on top of the George Hook programme which remains by some distance the stations most commercially successful show.  It has a listenership of 131,000, almost 100,000 more than Off the Ball though the contention from the team was that they could drive this even higher.
Newstalk management took the view that what they had was too valuable and that while they wanted to maintain the status quo and reward the presenters with additional programming at weekends, the more broad based mix of the current drive time slot was too important to give up.
Discussions have been going on since the end of 2012 so it was not a decision made in haste by the presenters.  No indication has emerged yet as to whether they have an alternative already in place.
RTE Radio launched Game On last month in the hands of Damian O’Meara and has benefitted from the rights to live coverage of Champions league ties featuring Celtic and man United in its new slot from 7pm on 2FM.
It is highly unlikely that RTE would import the whole team on top of an existing experienced sports broadcast unit that has equal if not higher profile and a larger listenership.
With Today FM in the same ownership at Newstalk there are few alternatives within Ireland then for the presenters.
An option might be to move into the growing world of online radio.  u.tv is expanding its own level of digital content and the Guardian has shown there is a large audience for online broadcast of topical and opinionated sports content through Football Weekly and other podcasts.
That is for a global audience though and whether the Off the Ball mix of irreverence and insight would carry over beyond its core is something that any investor in the talent would have to consider carefully.
Irish site Balls.ie has developed into a strong online brand and may be ready to step up but whether the financial muscle would be there to accommodate the whole team is questionable and there may be conflicts of interest as well.
It seems likely that individual presenters would be welcomed back in different capacities but that itself would take time and for the moment it is likely that the five will adopt a lower profile while the waters clear.
It’s a cruel game at times and while many of the fans of the programme were upset last night, Gilroy’s familiar and easy handling of the situation showed that there is plenty of life in the programme.  Sponsors of Newstalk Sport include Gillette, UPC, Toyota, Powerade and Lucozade Sport.
A discussion between Gilroy, Keith Wood and Eddie O’Sullivan on the Ronan O’Gara situation last night showed that it is ultimately the content and the guests that make a daily show and that is something which fans and presenters alike will be reflecting on today.