Sundays will never be the same again as fans wake up to new show
But this Sabbath things are about to change on the goggle box as the GAA and RTÉ aim to create something of a sporting and television revolution.
Tomorrow, Park Live, a one-hour show broadcast at 10.30am on RTÉ One from the Croke Park museum, bids to tap into the burgeoning market of GAA twenty-somethings, male and female, and do for Gaelic games what Sky Sport's 'Soccer AM' has done across the pond for the garrison game.
The satellite show, broadcast on Saturday mornings between 9am and noon, has become a cult classic among players, managers and supporters, targeting a laddish FHM-reading audience who enjoy their footie, their Stella and their tunes.
"It will be a little bit like Soccer AM," admits Cormac Hargaden, senior producer of Motive, the production team responsible for the creation of the 10-week series.
"We are bringing the new era of GAA to a television format and trying to reach out to a new generation of armchair fans. Our core audience is between 18 and 25 and one of the lines is that we are going to be a television equivalent of Alka-Seltzer for people recovering from a Saturday night.
"Hopefully by the end of the season it will have become part and parcel of GAA fans' Sunday."
But don't expect to see Irish clones of Soccerettes, The Things I Know about Football or The Paul Dalglish Interview, which form the backbone of the cross-channel show presented by Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain.
"We started with a blank page," replies Hargaden, when asked about the comparisons with AM. "If there are similarities it is probably because those things are good ideas."
Hargaden and his team are not parachuting into a strange land. They made the award-winning Breaking Ball, its spin-off, BBX, and Marooned, a documentary on Páidí Ó Sé and the Westmeath team that won an historic first Leinster SFC title.
The company also followed Roddy Collins in The Rod Squad and made a five-part series, 'Coach', which chronicled an American high school sporting season.
Mairéad Ni Ghormáin, who fronted BBX, will co-host Park Live with Ger Gilroy, the Newstalk star who has gained a cult following with the Off the Ball sports show. Critics may take the easy option of slamming the timing of the show, which discriminates against fans who are commuting to Croke Park on a Sunday morning, but as Hargaden explains, scheduling of the programme is beyond his control.
He also points out that many of their viewers may already be in situ in the big smoke recovering from the night before. And he vows that the product will be hangover-friendly.
"The show will be more informal that a lot of stuff of television. There will be no sensibilities in presentation, no ties and no desks. This week we will have two guests, who are All-Ireland winners from Cork and Clare; we will have interviews with Paul Flynn and Damien Fitzhenry, plus a little bit of comedy and a skills challenge."
All that remains is for Ní Ghormáin and Gilroy to spark and pull the whole thing off. The latter is hoping to transfer his easy style of expertise and humour from radio to the television medium. Apart from the early Sunday morning start, he is relishing the challenge. "The key thing is we will have a bit of craic," he admits.
"There is a huge market there. People are up on Sunday morning thinking about the day and given that most local radio coverage of these matches usually comes on at about 2pm, there is a void to be filled. So we will offer them their first opportunity to interact. It is going to be organised mayhem."
For Gilroy, the Irish appetite for GAA is limitless, and Park Live is a tasty alternative to a menu which though comprehensive, is in need of a revamp.
"The challenge for us is to offer them something different, something new and exciting. We will have the early news, anything from the night before, a review of the papers, the weather, the traffic, all the things that people are thinking about the morning of a big match when their county is involved.
"The aim is to deal with the serious issues of the day, and the GAA, but to do so in a more innovative way."
Gilroy is a fan of Soccer AM but makes an interesting observation: "It is a great show but I think they have a tendency to go overboard in their appreciation for their interviewees.
"Trust me, we wouldn't be fawning over the guests as so often happens on that show. The viewers will be getting proper analysis, not some glib anecdotes."
For all concerned Park Live is a big step. Ten weeks of live television is a pretty gruelling undertaking but Hargaden is certain his squad is match-fit.
"The step up to live television is an exciting one and a challenging one.
"Our company also does the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards show so a lot of the crew have experience of a live outside broadcast." And what of the feedback from the power-brokers at Croke Park, and that renowned reticence to embrace change?
"The show is done very much in consultation with the GAA and RTÉ sport. The GAA have been very co-operative and the venue of the museum is very much a feature of the programme."
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