Sunday TV clash does not worry Setanta boss
Setanta and TG4 will be screening Sunday afternoon league matches throughout the upcoming NFL and NHL campaigns and Cogley is unconcerned about any competition for viewing figures which may arise.
“You always want to maximise everything but we walked into this with our eyes wide open.
“Audience figures are less of a critical issue for us. We’re doing this to give more choice.”
Setanta’s main concentration of GAA coverage in the coming months will be on Saturday evenings, starting with this weekend’s meeting of Dublin and Tyrone in the “125th celebration” match at Croke Park.
The satellite station’s highest ever viewer figures for a live GAA event was the 81,000 (7% of the available audience) which it secured for the first meeting between the same two teams under HQ’s lights two years ago.
Station chiefs are confident of emulating those figures this weekend and few people are likely to be turned off by the absence of a number of key players on both sides when the match is just one aspect to what is an eagerly awaited evening.
Mark Vaughan will be one of those to miss out. All-Ireland club duties with Kilmacud Crokes have vetoed his participation and much to the disappointment of the player who would love to make up for last August’s heavy defeat against the Ulster side.
“What guy doesn’t want to go out and prove that you are not that bad? It was one of the most disgraceful beatings you will get in a quarter final,” he said. “Every guy wants to go out and prove that it was a one-off bad show.”
Tyrone’s Brian McGuigan, who has already missed more than his fair share of games in recent seasons, also confirmed yesterday that he will be another non-starter in Croke Park.
The Ardboe player recently underwent surgery on an ankle. The injury was a complication from the double leg break suffered three years ago and he had already postponed the operation to concentrate on last year’s championship.
“This Saturday night is a big occasion, 125 years of the GAA, and you want to be there but you have to think of yourself. Maybe this game has come a wee bit too early but I’ll go down with the team and all.
“I underwent an operation before Christmas and I’m going to train this week and see what way it is,” said the former All-Star. “Maybe come the second or third (league) game we’ll see what way the ankle is. I’m doing a wee bit of rehab work and the ankle seems strong so hopefully I’ll be in better form for it this year.”
McGuigan will also miss the round four clash against Westmeath due to his upcoming nuptials but it is a measure of his hunger that he has postponed his honeymoon until November so that he can feature in the remainder of the league.
McGuigan isn’t the only player displaying a voracious appetite for the year ahead. Word swept around Tyrone over the New Year that Stephen O’Neill had even trained on Christmas Day and Mickey Harte has noted the general air of desire around camp.
“Last year I only played maybe two league games at the end of the competition and I was probably playing catch-up come the championship,” said McGuigan, “so that’s probably part of the reason why I didn’t want to go on honeymoon.”
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