‘We are not spin doctors for the GAA’

Our GAA correspondent Jim O’Sullivan covers his 70th All-Ireland final tomorrow, 35 years after his first. Pat Spillane (pictured) fuelled the debate at the Ring of Kerry Golf Club this week about changing times, while Colm O’Connor stroked it.

Colm O’Connor: Your first All-Ireland was in 1971. How does the coverage of that compare with today?

Jim O’Sullivan: What I remember most of 1971 was that Offaly won - one of five teams I saw winning their first All-Ireland title. The big difference in coverage is the expansion of the media. Back then you had the daily papers including the Irish Press and the two Sunday papers. There was no local radio or internet. Another thing was there were no analysts or named writers - you just had your straightforward match report on the All-Ireland final for Monday’s paper and then Monday was a day for following up for Tuesday. The build-up used to be very gradual. It was nothing like the blanket coverage which we see in the papers today. I used to go the hurling and football press nights on my own. Today we would send three or four reporters to each of those press nights. I would come back and spend the week writing up eight, nine or 10 interviews.