It was 4 games in 20 days in 2018 pre the evil split seasonâŚ
Be great for the Wexford lads to get back to the club championships
TUE, 30 APR, 2024 - 06:00
Another year, another paywall cracker. And no we donât mean dodgy boxes.
Sundayâs mesmerising Cork-Clare affair would have been a marketing dream for hurling if it was broadcast on terrestrial television. Instead, a Galway-Kilkenny Leinster round-robin game was offered. A high-scoring draw but nothing like the rampaging 56-score carnival that was produced at SuperValu PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh.
The teams in Salthill werenât going through the motions but there was a charade element to the game. Theyâll meet again, donât know where, donât know when. And their supporters were wise to it. Just 9,631 of them turned up in contrast to a record-breaking weekend in Munster where 36,814 were in Cork and 34,475 in Limerick.
RTĂ will point out that as a public broadcasting service they have to be as democratic as possible. That followers of the Leinster SHC have to catered for like the masses engaged with the offerings in the southern province.
For that same reason, there wonât be any live hurling on TV until May 19. Just like last year, the sport goes behind a paywall for the next two weekends as the provincial football finals take precedence on RTĂ.
Last season, the issue was GAAGO. It still is to an extent but there was plenty of prior warning given that all but one of Cork hurlersâ games were going to be on the premium streaming service. Nevertheless, by the time May 19 comes around and RTĂ show their match against Tipperary, Pat Ryanâs side could be out of the championship.
Alan Connolly of Cork is tackled by Adam Hogan of Clare. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
The Munster SHC round-robin split between RTĂ and GAAGO is five-four this year in contrast to five-five last season (RTĂ will show one final round game but unlike 2023 GAAGO have no plans to follow suit).
Why were the Waterford-Cork or Cork-Clare games not arranged for Saturday evenings? GAAGOâs finger points to the Munster Council. âThere are four Munster hurling matches and two of those are on Sunday afternoons at the same time as an RTĂ match,â said head of GAAGO and GAA marketing Noel Quinn last December.
âRTĂ made their picks and two of those four wouldnât have been broadcast anywhere if GAAGO didnât broadcast them so rather than go dark, better to pick them up.â
Pitting two high-profile hurling matches against one another at 2pm on Sunday afternoon was cannibalistic. Throw in the clashing Ulster SFC semi-final between Donegal and Tyrone and the most competitive of two Leinster SFC last four games and it amounted to a verified feeding frenzy.
Once upon a time, the broadcasting of two senior inter-county fixtures at the same time was prohibited and with good reason. On Sunday, four ran simultaneously â two on GAAGO, events in Celtic Park on BBC and the Pearse Stadium clash on RTĂ.
The GAA was devouring itself.
Whatever about the gross shortcomings of the football championship structure, whatever about the imbalance between the Leinster and Munster hurling competitions, Sunday afternoon exemplified, in all its ugliness, that the GAA calendar is broken.
And it wonât stop there. Thereâs an All-Ireland hurling quarter-final at Saturday lunch-time on June 22. Last week, we highlighted how difficult the remaining football schedule is for the Ulster finalists compared to those in Connacht and Munster. It isnât exactly fair on their supporters either who will have three games in four weekends. In the case of Donegal, itâs five games in seven. Bear in mind also that the GAA could increase the âŹ25 stand ticket price for the All-Ireland round-robin stages.
Reader John Conway raises another point about Tuesdayâs Sam Maguire Cup draw. âLast year, the full team allocation for the Sam Maguire group stages became known on May 14,â he writes. âDespite this, the exact dates and times for each stage were not fixed until five/six days before the games were due to take place. This undoubtedly contributed to the paltry attendances that we saw last year and it also made it impossible for those of us with season tickets to plan accordingly.
âI appreciate the time-consuming nature of the fixture-making process. However, every December the CCCC (Central Competitions Control Committee) are able to announce the times/dates and venues for 116 National Football League matches. With this in mind, it should be entirely possible to announce the same for the 24 group-stage games before the first game is played on May 18.â
The CCCCâs published list is subject to change â look at how many counties were allowed to move their games from March 17 this year, for instance â but Johnâs point is a salient one. Club players are benefitting from a more predictable championship structure yet fans should also be given adequate time to know when and where their counties are playing.
That they arenât is yet another symptom of a cramped inter-county season in urgent need of a stretch.
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Declan Lee: GAA are losing viewers due to rival sports and a lack of media engagement
GAA president Jarlath Burns has his work cut out to get viewers back due to the effects of the split season and an aversion to media engagement
Declan Lee
Today at 01:30
As the GAA season begins to pick up its championship pace, itâs clear that we are set for another summer of sporting clashes and broadcast conflict. We are several seasons into an adjusted GAA calendar that has seen the All-Ireland championship finals move from their traditional September spots, back two months to mid-July.
A mid-May kick-off for the championships has now become early April and sees the GAA go head-to-head with not just the biggest sports in the world, but also the biggest fixtures in those sports, as their seasons climax just as the GAA campaign is in its formative stages.
Itâs not ideal for a national sport whose profile has been waning and who has made several wrong moves in recent years on how best to promote and position the game to the public. Not least the issues around GAAGO and creating a paywall for games in conjunction with the national broadcaster.
So instead of having a free run at the summer, barring bi-annual events such as the European Championships and World Cup in football, and the Olympics, the GAA are now playing two thirds of their season clashing with European rugby fixtures and the climax of the most exciting Premier League in years.
But has the change in calendar affected the audience? In 2019, before adjustments to the calendar were made due to Covid and the new season format, there were six GAA matches in the top 30 most-watched TV programmes for that year in Ireland. In 2023, just three GAA matches made the top 30, a 50pc decrease on the traditional calendar.
Itâs not a massive indicator of a plunge in spectators, but what the GAA are losing out on with their crammed league and championship, is that they are not whetting the appetite of the thousands of passive sports fans out there. The ones who would stick a game on in the background, or because it was something to watch. Instead of turning on a cracking NFL final between Dublin and Derry, they were watching a relatively dour 0-0 draw between Arsenal and Manchester City.
The National League finals would have always clashed with other sporting calendars so this was nothing new, but the GAA now have these issues for the championship too. The Connacht SFC final will clash with the Premier League game between Liverpool and Spurs, while the Ulster SFC final will clash with Manchester United and Arsenal.
Many will say the provincial championships are dead but these two still have some bite in them. GAA fans will watch them but with a huge contingent of Manchester United and Liverpool fans in the country, the GAA are losing thousands of spectators for these types of games. Approximately 60pc of the GAA championships will take place while the rugby and soccer seasons reach their finales.
Even the All-Ireland SHC quarter finals, which do not take place until June 25, will be played on a Saturday afternoon to avoid a clash with the URC final later that day.
GAA fans havenât had a second to take breath since the league began, with the championship throwing in a week after Derry secured that dramatic victory over Dublin. â
The first half of the first week before the championship was taken up with the media digesting a new contender to Dublinâs All-Ireland crown following Derryâs win, with the back end of the week then trying to get people excited for a championship starting in early April. This is all while competing with Champions Cup rugby and the Premier League in full flow. There is only so much sport and content an audience can consume and be excited by.
Itâs not just that though. The GAA has become a sport of introverts. The massive personalities have gone. The chastening of pundits by inter-county managers in post-match interviews is gone. The âWhat do you think of that Joe Brolly?â is gone. GAA players speak now like the way footballers and rugby players spoke 15 years ago, say nothing. However, both those sports realised the value of positive media coverage and developing personalities.
As rugby invites Netflix into their changing rooms, the GAA freeze at the sight of a microphone. We know less than ever about players and managers as media bans and an inherent fear of microphones has spread through every GAA dressing room across the country.
One of the few glimpses we were offered behind the curtain was by OisĂn McConville who gave two journalists full access to his Wicklow team and preparations in the lead-up to their championship game against Kildare. They lost the game but was it because McConville let media in? That would be a ridiculous thing to say, wouldnât it?
Do the GAA think the media will go away? Do they think they can simply ignore it and continue to grow? Do they think they can go head-to-head with some of the biggest sports in the world and win? These are sports that give extensive access to the players and managers because they recognise the impact and benefit this has to their product.
GAA president Jarlath Burns has set out his stall as a reformist and a forward thinker. He has begun his reign in a very similar way to how Jonathan Hill approached his early months in the FAI. A lot of common-sense soundbites, strategic media engagement and being very vocal on modernising certain elements of the game.
However, saying what needs to be done and getting things done are two very different things. It remains to be seen if he can have an impact on the issues around the calendar, the ongoing contempt for GAAGO by most of the GAA community, and media access to help tell that GAA story.
He has his work cut out to create an impact when not even a Late Late Show special could generate excitement across a nation for All-Ireland championships which kicked off in the middle of Storm Kathleen on the first weekend in April.
Declan Lee is a PR & marketing consultant who has worked with a range of Irish sportâs national governing bodies and national and international brands @DeclanLeePR
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The football final should be the second week of August- you reverse engineer from there.
16 teams in Sam Maguire - straight knockout. One side of the draw plays one week, the other side the following week meaning matches every weekend but two week break for advancing teams. One of the finalists will get three week break instead of two but then the breaks.
Last 16 the last two weeks of June
Quarters first two weeks of July
Semis the last two weeks of July
Final second week of August
League played jan - finals played the weekends before paddyâs day with division one final on paddysâs day.
Switch the provinces to round robin competitions where each province can choose their structure and tiers to best suit. They get April and May to play these off. Provincial finals first two weeks of June.
16 teams who donât make top 4 in each province go into open draw - 8 losers go into third tier. Eight winners play the 8 sides who donât make provincial finals - the winners go to Sam losers play second tier.
Second and third tier competitions played as straight knockout and finished up in June.
Late stage GGA
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They must forget Liverpool and Man Utd play in August and September aswell.
I always imagine you look like this:
Nobody watches the premier league until after the October bank holiday
Less people watching the games
Less people going to the games
Less people playing the games
Rosenbourg situations developing at inter county and club level all over the country.
The product is absolutely shite.
Hurling is dying in lots of traditional counties.
Counties which should be strong holds for Gaelic football might as well not field a team.
Yet lads on here this think this whole thing is working.
You sure do mate.
Not their finals anyway. It is impossible to avoid football etc completely but going head to head with them is moronic.
The only month youâre clear is July but itâs already at the business end of the GGA by then.
As an outside observer, I have to say it strikes me as a calamitous move. I also donât believe this âamateur ethosâ stuff. The GGA has all been about commercialising. This seems to be people talking themselves into something.
If you have something good going, donât move it. There are consistent efforts to move the Six Narions in both time slots and off free to air but sane people resist it because they know that they have hit a sweet spot. They have the run of tvs in an otherwise drab 6 week late winter period.
Fair enough if someone comes into compete. The NBA traditionally got big Christmas audiences but the NFL have come into trample that. But giving it up like the GGA have seems downright incompetent.
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Society if it was run by the GAA:
School holidays: January to March (because children will learn better in summer weather)
Leaving Cert begins December 25th
St. Patrickâs Day: January 12th (Club finals can thus return to St. Patrickâs Day)
Halloween: July 11th
Christmas Day: October 24th
All new houses to have a minimum of seven bedrooms
Gardai to work 10am to 5pm only (âthe ordinary Gardai are delighted with this arrangementâ)
Health Service: All hospitals to be modelled on University Hospital Limerick (shure what dâyee need doctors for anyway)
Ambulances to be exclusively booked online
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Nobody is going to football games because the championship is not competitive. They are still going in numbers to Munster hurling games. The gaa are reaping what they created, good enough for them. Years thinking that soccer was the bogeyman not realising what a fuck up the FAI was, the IRFU have snuck in and cut the legs from under them.
Given the football has not been a fair competition for the last decade and more, only right that club scene now takes prominence anyway.
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Have the IRFU done major damage? I live in rural Ireland. I donât see any impact by rugby. If you go along the N20 Cork to Limerick road for example you have 2 rugby clubs Charleville and Mallow. Long distance with only 2 rugby clubs.
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Football is still no 1 in participation levels and epl is still top dog
Eh Paul Bellew is saying that there has been a 7% rise in adult participation amongst the macnas heads.
Although i see they have restricted their u19/20s competitions to vibrant people only which seems a bit regressive and elitist.
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They have done minor damage in playing numbers but more so in attendances. Itâs just well organised and offers guaranteed games with high level players. A lot of it is event junkies but it keeps rugby very relevent. Thankfully soccer is still primarily attended by actual junkies so is a joke.
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Rugby will always appeal to the masses because no matter how big, small , skinny or round you are thereâs a position for you on a rugby team .Anyone can claim to have been a good rugby player in their day whereas most other sports you can tell by one look at a lad