Wow, what an underwhelming waste of time and money that was.
It thoroughly felt like some kind of Transition year project.
[Im pretty bored so allow me to indulge myself, Ill get to my real discussion after this extended indulgence]
Day 1
Jacinta and Natalie from Drumcondra Vocational School win a draw to put on a show in Croke Park for the 125th anniversary.
Jacinta: Oooo, lets have a light show. [clapping hands excitedly]
Natalie: [Shrieks] Yeah, thatd be fabbo, lets have fireworks too. Everybody loves firework. And we have to have music. We can use my iPod, I have loads of Rihanna and other great songie things.
Jacinta: [Shrieks, grabs Natalies hand and jumps up and down in an excited manner] Deadly, yeah we have to meet those old guys from the GGA or whatever later.
Natalie: Ugh, well can you go meet them cos Im going drinking with Deco and Willo.
Jacinta: I suppose, but you owe me bitch. [And they make out]
Day 2
Jacinta: Those old guys were so totally boring. Im so not doing that on my own ever again [clicks fingers and pouts]. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is they have set us all these lame rules. We have to use music by Irish artists. I swear to Justin, I cant even name one.
Natalie: Me neither…Oh, oh, Shayne Ward is Irish. And that Spiral guy from Big Brother.
Jacinta: [clapping hands excitedly] Brillo, Nat youre a genius. Oh the other rule is that we have to have a clip show of old GGA clips or whatever. We might need some help with that. Ive only been to two Dublin soccer matches. Is it Dublin or Ireland? Who are the guys that wear green?
Natalie: Bohs? Its not just soccer Jac, they play rugby in that place too. Ok, so whats the good news?
Jacinta: Get this… We can spend as much as we like! We should get loads and loads of fireworks. And spend ages on the fireworks, music and light show and just spend a couple of minutes on the clip show.
Natalie: I think my dad taped that 20 greatest moments of the GGA or whatever. He was going on about it for ages. He is such a loser. We can steal a few clips off that. I think that has that weird sport where they use those giant wooden spoons. Which one is that?
Jacinta: I think they use those at the end of rugby matches! It is def GGA though. Awesome! Thats that sorted. We have to meet those old guys again later today. You have to go this time. Its my turn to get dirty with Deco and Willo.
Natalie: Fair is Fair [And they make out]
Day 3
Jacinta: How did you get on? They are sooo lame and old right?
Natalie: Totally. They didnt like our ideas for music.
[They both look disgusted and pout]
They said maybe to Shayne Ward but a definite No to Spiral. They had never heard of him. We are gonna need help on this. They were talking about all these old guys that I have barely heard of. Some guy from U2, and it wasnt Bono, like who knows those other guys names? And some band called Snow Pet Roll or something and The Blueberries? [looks at notebook] No, the Cranberries, that was it. I wrote that one down.
Jacinta: You are so lucky you can read…and write. We probably need your dads help on this too.
Natalie: Yeah you are right. But dont throw yourself at him like you always do.
[Pouts and shakes her finger at Jacinta]
He should know all this stuff. He is from place in the middle of nowhere. Awful. Or Awfully or something. He loves all the GGA stuff or whatever.
Jacinta: Cool, well, Im not promising anything. [Giggles and they make out]
The End
It would have been some much easier to make it better as I have already hinted at.
19 minutes was the running time. They spent about 4 minutes on the clip show. They lights and fireworks get boring really quickly.
Do some history of the GAA up to the age of TV coverage - follow it with ye old trad music(Fureys - Lonesome Boatman or something like that) and light show and fireworks.
Then do decades of GAA seasons. Mixed in with Irish music of the time, famous quotes of the time(the JFK thing was cool, but what about GAA quotes like Were going to do it , Sheep in a heap and the like.), and the fireworks and light show. Make the lights in the stadium do the colour of the team as they show who was winning the AI of the time. At the end of a decade have some fireworks.
The clip show they had was so random. Some things you would have to have in there werent.
Im sure we could all list some. It needed to be more rigid to the year in question (each year needed recognition) the milestones of the year (e.g. Waterfords first final in 50 years this year), and the winners.
Here is what I would show since 93 just in hurling. They showed some of this but skipped out other parts entirely.
93: Careys goal against Antrim, PJ Delaneys point off his knees in the final
94: The 5 minute final, 2 goals, point, point, point.
95: Davys penalty, Were going to do it, Taafees goal
96: Ciaran Careys point, Dempseys goal
97: First back door, All-Munster Final, Jamsies point
98: Lynch and Loughnane, Sheep in a heap, The Croke Park sit in, All Leinster Final, Whelahan,
99: Cody the beginning, Welcome back Landers, The Cork comeback
00: Derry rattle Offaly, Offaly shock Cork, Denis Byrnes amazing semi-final, KK 5th goal in AI.
01: Cloonan and Kelly arrive, Mark OLeary…
02: Tipp KK sublime semi, Careys point in final V Clare.
03: Setanta, Cork Wexford x2, Comerfords goal.
04: 3 in a row stumbling bid, that Munster final, Corcorans point
05: Ridiculous KK GY semi, Cork stumble through, Corcorans goal v Waterford, Bens goal in final
06: stumbling 3 in a row bid, Fogartys goal
07: Cork Waterford x 3, KK GY, 2 goals v Limerick in Ai final
08: Joe Canning, Waterford get to final, KK win 3 in a row. Chas couldnt be done.
The GAA have continued to illustrate that they have no idea how to market their products. They have a hugely hyped 125th year celebration and they insist on spending the least amount of time possible in actually showing their product.
With soccer and rugby gaining ground on the GAA in the hearts and minds of people all over the country, tonight was a huge opportunity to lay down a marker as the #1 sporting organisation in the country and they blow it with a fucking lame light show and fireworks.
With all the advances in technology youd think that someone could come up with something better than fucking fireworks. Its the same shit over and over. Can anyone seriously come on here and say, oh I was at this fireworks showcase and it was so inventive and original.
Thats an argument for another day though.
This event was mundane, predictable and totally underwhelming.
The GAA and all other sporting organisations need to go learn how to market their products better.
UFC knew exactly what to do. They just pretty much copied the WWE model. Vince McMahon has been acknowledged by many, including Donald Trump as being the greatest promoter in the world.
Nobody does a video clip montage better than WWE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QcNJCi9XyQ
Honestly, watch that video. They bounce from wrestler to wrestler second by second.
At the end they show all the WWE champions of note from the 60s onwards.
Watch from 3:07:
They bounce from Rogers to Morales to Backlund to Andre to Hogan to Flair to Savage to Hart to Michaels to Undertaker to Austin to Rock to Foley to HHH to Angle to Jericho in little under 20 seconds.
Just based on my list of AI finals above, show captain after captain after captain. It would be really powerful.
Fennelly to Hanamy to Daly to Storey to Daly to Dooley to Landers to OConnor to Dunne to Comerford to Carey to OConnor to hAilpn to Tyrrell to Shefflin to Cha Fitz
They also show legacies. They celebrate the Rock being the first third generation superstar. The show the Rocks grandfather, then father and then the Rock himself.
The GAA tonight needed to celebrate the legacies of its history.
The 3 generations of Larkins and Donnellans. The multiple brothers appearing on teams (e.g. Fennellys, Dooleys etc…)
UFC have caught on and have begun to create similarly excellent video packages for their pay per view events. Its one of the main things that differentiate the UFC from other combat sports like boxing. Boxing matches tend to be marketed on the names alone. Hatton Mayweather. Lewis Tyson.
Promoters tend to leave it at that. They have added some cool stuff like the 24/7 shows which document each fighters preparation for fights but UFC have such an advantage being one company which holds most of the stars of a sport.
UFC 92 was the biggest event of their organisation. It was stacked card of fights and they marketed it very well. Here is the intro to the PPV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxaz848gC8Q
I am aware that there is a balance here. I obviously dont want GAA to become ridiculously gimmicky like WWE [or Darts. Darth Maple anyone?]. But there is a void here that was hugely evident tonight. At the end of each season they tend to do a montage of the season that was. These tend to be good but these are the exception and not the rule.
A light show and fireworks does not cut it.
In my opinion, tonight should have been at least 90 minutes long and released as a DVD.
