RTÉ to discuss GAA scheduling of top ties after extra-time fiasco

RTÉ ARE to discuss the scheduling of high-profile championship matches with GAA chiefs in an effort to avoid a repeat of Sunday’s extra-time debacle.

Last Sunday the station was forced to miss broadcasting the opening minutes of the Munster SHC semi-final between Limerick and Waterford after the Leinster SFC clash between Westmeath and Wicklow went to extra-time.

The GAA ordered extra-time to be played in any provincial first round or quarter-final that ended in a draw this year in an effort to free up weekends for club action, yet the move has caused scheduling difficulties for The Sunday Game chiefs.

“It’s something we’ll probably have to look at,” admitted the show’s producer Paul Byrnes.

“This is the first year extra-time has come into action this early in the championship and it’s something we’re still coming to terms with. We’ll need to sit down with the GAA at the end of the year and talk about it. But it will be next year before there could be any change.”

Byrnes also defended the decision to broadcast the extra-time action from the Leinster tie in Tullamore, rather than showing the start of the Munster game.

He reasoned: “RTÉ never ever leave a live match until it’s concluded. It’d be madness to stop showing until there has been a conclusion. How would the Wicklow and Westmeath fans have reacted if we stopped showing it?

“It was a no-brainer for us. We would have liked if the game would have held off in Thurles until 4.15pm but when that didn’t happen, we went there as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, TV3 Championship Live series producer Ciarán O’Hara has defended the station’s broadcasting of the Cork/Kerry Munster SFC clashes after their camera work came in for criticism from viewers.

The failure to have footage of the off-the-ball incident that led to Paul Galvin and Noel O’Leary’s first-half dismissals came under the spotlight, as did the amount of replays that they showed.

“We’re obviously disappointed that we didn’t catch the incident that led to the sending-offs. We checked all the angles but didn’t have it. Yet that can be said of several incidents over the last 20 years. We were following the play and that way you could always miss stuff. But I can understand why it’s frustrating for the viewers.”

He added: “We’re surprised about the criticism of the replays. We are very conscious of the viewer and we would keep an eye on any e-mails, and listen to any feedback. But we don’t have more or less replays than other stations like RTÉ, TG4 or Setanta.

“Our standard protocol is to follow the play and we might show replays when there’s a score, but we get back to the action as soon as possible.”