FIRST WE SEE Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley and his Bohs counterpart Alan Reynolds having a heated exchange during the post-match handshake formalities.

There is a brief cut to Michael Noonan in his orange bib. He’s lifting his arms in the middle of the pitch to celebrate Rovers’ win that puts them six points clear of their northside rivals with two games to play, before being led away by captain Pico Lopes.

The camera returns to the touchline as both gaffers are separated, but in the same moment, a real flashpoint is missed. We know this because Graham Burke and Jake Mulraney are captured, all of a sudden, sprinting from the sideline to centre-circle.

Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

The next image is of Noonan, flat on the ground at halfway, with all hell breaking loose around him. Players from both sides steam in and what resembles a rugby maul rumbles its way towards the penalty box.

Or at least it did for eight seconds. Beyond that, it was hard to tell.

That’s as, during what could end up being the cinematic climax to this season’s League of Ireland campaign, an aerial shot was the peculiar editorial choice for Virgin Media TV.

The hundreds of thousands of viewers at home were left to wonder what was taking place.

Many will have felt Virgin’s main job here was to show them what was happening during what was unquestionably a newsworthy moment. We did not get a good feeling for the incident from the camera several hundred feet above the Tallaght pitch.

Perhaps this raises a wider question about Virgin Media’s relationship with the league’s brand. As four-year exclusive partners, there might be a temptation for them to consider the League of Ireland’s perspective when it comes to these editorial decisions.

As a league’s exclusive broadcaster, you’d hope any such feeling would be superseded by the journalistic necessity to provide the public with the good, the bad and the ugly. It is your job to air all noteworthy incidents around any event – and it’s under this criterion that Virgin Media fell on Monday night.

It’s clear that the neutral viewer isn’t very bothered by the ‘ugly’ part of this equation, anyway. Back in studio, analyst Eoin Doyle said: “I enjoy all that stuff, it’s great”.

“No pearl clutching from Eoin [Doyle]”, interjected host Tommy Martin.

The former St Pat’s and Sligo striker continued: “We all pretend we don’t want to see things like that, but you want things to be on edge, you want things to be edgy.

“You want emotions to carry over and stuff, and that’s obviously happened there.”

Virgin Media’s consistent coverage, high-quality commentary and intelligent punditry has worked wonders for the League of Ireland over the past two seasons. Their product deserves all the praise it gets.

Last night’s cutaway was not in keeping with the high standard of their output. It was inappropriate and a failure to chronicle one of the season’s most dramatic moments – a moment replete with consequences, via cards and subsequent suspensions. 

Cutaways are meant to be from attention-seeking streakers and clout-chasing influencers – not from the main characters on stage.