Jack Anderson: 'This weekend, as with so many of the Diaspora, I will stream the county final'
Jack Ryan of Doon scores his side's second goal against Kilmallock in the Limerick SHC semi-final. Doon will need a repeat performance if they are to win a first ever county title. Picture: Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
- John Kennedy, Hawthorn coach, VFL Grand Final, 1975
Last weekend, as my sport-obsessed neighbours in Melbourne worried overnight about Glen Maxwell’s batting average against England in the cricket, I worried about Pat Ryan’s scoring rate for Doon against Kilmallock.
As it happened Ryan outscored Maxwell. Australia lost but Doon (my home club), thanks to two goals by another Ryan (Jack), won their Limerick SHC semi-final. This Saturday night, we make only our fourth ever county final appearance. A win would be our first.
The odds of a Doon victory are long. Na Piarsaigh are one of the best club sides in the country. Darragh O’Donovan and Richie English are out injured and would be a loss to Limerick, never mind us. And yet the biggest barrier is probably ourselves; despite all our underage success — another county U21 title this year — we have never won a senior title.
The attitude of many in the county towards Doon is probably summarised by the reaction on television of a former Limerick manager (who will remain nameless but is yet another Ryan and goes by the initials TJ) and who, when earlier in the championship Doon lost a lead against Patrickswell, just rolled his eyes and implied “typical Doon”. That waspish comment stung.
Of more interest however, is that that game between Doon and Patrickswell had just been shown on national TV. The package included analysis from the studio — an articulate and prepared Shane Dowling — and numerous cameras at the game.
Saturday’s county final will get the same treatment.
With the honourable exception of TG4, the previous attitude of national broadcasters to the club game had generally been somewhat lax. To quote Kavanagh, no matter how epic a club game may be for those involved, the parochial was still only, “A local row. Gods make their own importance”.
Whether this year’s national coverage of club games will continue post-Covid remains to be seen but what 2020 does show, both at club and soon (hopefully) at inter-county level, is that matches best market your sport.
A regular schedule of games in an abridged period is so much more enjoyable for players and so much more attractive for fans, sponsors and broadcasters.
In this, while a consensus seems to have emerged quickly on the benefits of a split-season in the GAA, slightly forgotten in the debate is that there would be a significant financial benefit for the GAA in a more condensed inter-county schedule.
Tournament-style championships rather than the extant, tortuously long championship, especially in football, would mean less spending on the preparation of inter-county teams.
Based on the most recent accounts, the financial feasibility of the intercounty scene has reached a tipping point, whereby the amount spent on inter-county preparations (€30m) is now similar to the amount raised in gate receipts by Croke Park.
This cannot continue but limiting expenditure by way of a tighter schedule of games and, at the same time, innovatively promoting sponsorship, ticketing, broadcasting and hospitality packages around a more discrete championship structure, would be sustainable.
For the GAA, 2020 has also shown how centrally Croke Park can act in a much more agile and inventive fashion than they are usually given credit for. The manner in which they have intervened to put a limit on spending and mileage for the forthcoming inter-county championsips may be the beginning of a much more mature conversation on money in the inter-county (and even club) game; rather than the current “sham-amateurism”.
There are other lessons for the GAA (as with other sports) from Covid-19. The commercial potential of the live streaming of games, as highlighted by this newspaper’s partnership with Cork GAA, is now being realised by many county boards.
When it comes to infrastructure, post-Covid the GAA will need more of the vision that has led to the building of Connacht GAA’s airdome and less of the sight of large, empty city stadiums.
And in upholding its primary duty — promoting participation in its games — the GAA needs to be aware that while Netflix’s CEO has said that their biggest competitor is sleep; for kids’ sport (and their health) Irish sport’s biggest competitor is screen time.
On public health, the Covid-19 response committee established by Croke Park had a diversity of talent and a clear-sightedness that was a model for others. The GAA’s central response was, of course, assisted by the fact that its implementation was left to some of the most committed volunteers in the country — local GAA club administrators.
There is now a definite scientific correlation between Government announcements on crowd numbers at club matches and the blood pressure of GAA club secretaries nationwide.
Limited ticket supplies to GAA club matches gave me one of my favourite moments of the Irish summer thus far. Phoning home before a club game, my Dad (with Mum in earshot) told me with all sincerity how he would not be able to go to an upcoming championship game involving Doon. I knew he was lying and that he had a ticket and would not miss the game. He would have got away with his covert attendance at the game if our manager Tony Ward had not been dismissed by the referee. And, as the camera followed Ward towards the stand, there was my Dad, isolated but identifiable in his usual seat.
This weekend, as with so many of the ‘Diaspora’, I will stream the county final and follow my club. Those of us here in Australia are only too aware of the need to stay physically distant. And yet, on Saturday night, from Melbourne to the Mackey Stand, I will be anything but socially distant.
And as for Doon? Don't think, don’t hope. Act. Do.
