I forgive you 
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I still think itâs a huge mistake having the semis on the same weekend. It essentially halves the amount of build up, media attention, analysis etc that you get on each game. L
Iâd say those Waterford semi finals from 2009 on got very poor crowds.
Not to overstate the obvious but the population of the counties generally correlates fairly well with turn out.
Of the âHurling Countiesâ Cork would be way out on its own in terms of population and clubs, Galway and Limerick heavy hitters with well over 200k in both instances. Tipp and Wex have about 160k. Clare and Waterford 130k who to be fair with Probably Wexford punch slightly above their weight in support terms and Finally KK with a 100k.
GAA have surely shot themselves in the foot somehow on juvenile access to big games. Iâm not quite sure of the strategy change but 20 years ago youâd have bus loads of juveniles from clubs going to big games. Remember when the lower Cusack at the Hill side would be full of kids for the final. A subsequent factor to that then is that its inhibitive for families to travel so they are losing parents in those figures also.
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Some of them used ayt a full box of liqueurs before an evening match. Butlers were seething at the early kick offs.
Itâs a tricky one but thereâs no real excuse for them not marketing these games anyway thatâs for sure.
Two weeks is a short enough preparation for an Ireland final and letâs just Kilkenny had three weeks theyâd have a big advantage over Limerick.
Iâm not dead against two semi finals on the one weekend If they were done properly.
I agree with this. Semi-finals are supposed to be prize fights which are endlessly deconstructed before and after with pointless talk.
I thought both football semi-finals last year really benefitted from having space to breath in terms of coverage so that full focus could be applied to each.
The rushed nature of this championship is grating.
hard to half zero.
There is pretty much no build up at all through the media and conversely the GAA for this. People can argue times, and split seasons and all the other stuff. But at the moment, there is no externally sporting factors that are affecting the media to hype up these games, and we have the sum total of fuck all.
Limerick have had 3 weeks, a month and then two weeks between their last three games.
It isnât that itâs rushed itâs just the structure is woeful.
Because of the rushed nature of the championship, thereâs a sort of information overload factor, and yet paradoxically this leads to people taking a more skin deep, less in depth interest.
Plus the build up to these semi-final weekends is shit because itâs six weeks too early and people donât like it. Semi-finals are supposed to be the culmination of the summer, blow out weekends which rage against the dying of that yearâs light.
Theyâre supposed to be Galway v Tipperary on August 15th or Kerry v Mayo on August 22nd or Dublin v Donegal on August 31st or Tyrone v Armagh on September 2nd.
Tomorrow should be a day for strolling around Galway in the late afternoon/early evening and rocking up to the Dew Drop about 5:20pm, with the first half of an early round hurling qualifier between Cork and Wexford in progress. A few easy pints over the next hour and a half before mulling over it whether to stick around for the next match on the telly. The summer should be just coming into its swing.
The USP of the GAA championships is they are the summer.
Now theyâre not.
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The championship taken as a whole feels rushed, epitomised by having weekends with two semi-finals and matches going to extra-time and penalties, and everything done and dusted by July 24th.
All that feels rushed, and thus it feels like a deliberate downsizing of the championships by the GAA.
The championship should feel like reading a book. You donât rush read a book. You allow it to slowly sink into your brain so it can be fully absorbed, and you give it the space to do that.
I genuinely canât understand how people say this. What exact âbuild upâ things would there have been in other years that there arenât this year? I presume every paper has a bit of space devoted to it every day this week as in previous years, maybe even more as thereâs no premier league on to compete with. All the podcasts, radio sports shows etc are talking about it. What other things are missing?
Breaking Ball with its haunting trad/trance fusion theme tune.
âThe Championshipâ with Brian Carthy at 10pm on Friday nights on RTE Radio 1 (fĂĄilte is chĂŠad).
Saturday afternoon radio preview discussions of the match being interrupted by Peter Smith telling us thereâs been a goal for Brentford at Old Trafford and Manchester United are staring down the barrel of a second defeat in their first three Premier League games.
The first sightings of the falling of leaves from trees.
Space to breathe.
Yeah, I was going through them there and itâs pitiful enough.
The KK semi final in 09 had almost 62k though which surprised me. Was it paired up with a football?
Cork in 2017 was a big attendance but that was mainly due to Cork
Meath v Mayo
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The only thing there isnât a version of now id say is breaking ball which was great in fairness but was only on for a few years. Thereâs far more media coverage of gaa now than there ever was due to podcasts and social media. For as long as I can remember people have been saying very low key build up, youâd hardly know there was a game on etc. The GAA could definitely do far better from a marketing point of view and the media bans and general âi supposeynessâ of the players certainly donât help but itâs always been like this.
Needs to be more Gaelic Stadium on RTE2 the Saturday lunchtime before a 50/50 Dublin v Meath knockout Leinster final on the last Sunday in July, featuring a Meath defender with his sleeves rolled up and arms folded being interviewed on his farm, while the monotone Dublin goalkeeper tells us about the intense rivalry in the border country of Fingal.
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Itâs been a long time since a Dublin v Meath game could be described as 50-50. I did enjoy the level of seethe and pure hatred for Graham Gerathy in the 2005 renewal I was in attendance at. It was still a proper rivalry at that stage. Even 2010 felt like a freakish result in its nature because in reality Meath werenât particularly good at the time despite semi-final appearances in 2007 and 09â.
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A Datsun driving up a farm lane in Wexford.
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Dublin v Meath still attracted big attendances up to as late as 2013 and Meathâs performance in that match wasnât too bad.
However the increasing softness of the interest in Dublin v Meath clashes was summed up by previously hardcore Dublin supporter @Sidney passing up attendance at that match in favour of attending Munster hurling instead. He tells me he hasnât attended a Dublin-Meath match ever since.