GAA Angry Fans
Fans’ comments about the continuing poor standard of football this year are linked to more vocal demands for the GAA to take a really fundamental look at the format of the championships, with increasing support for an end to the provincial championships and replace them with an open draw. That, in turn, raises calls for the GAA to look at whether or not the admission charge for such games is fair or reasonable.
And even if the GPA go through with their threat – or should that be a promise? – not to do match interviews on telly, it seems like not too many fans will miss them.
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DEAR ANGRY FANS, as a licence fee payer, I feel very aggrieved by the quality of RTÉ’s hurling commentators. It appears rugby and soccer will always be best looked after by our national broadcaster. It was very obvious that the TV commentator on the Limerick v Waterford replay was poor at his job and lacked basic knowledge of the game. The same could be said of the radio commentator on the Dublin v Wexford game on Radio 1. This was the poorest commentary on our great national game that I ever heard. He sounded like he was commentating on a state funeral. Rugby and soccer would not settle for this treatment. Surely there must be some good hurling commentators out there. Yours in total frustration,
JOE BROLLY AND Pat Spillane are constantly competing on RTÉ to see who can be the most controversial or have the wittiest putdown. I’m very impressed with TV3's Championship coverage. Their commentator Mike Finnerty shows a good understanding of the game and, in general, the TV3 package is well put together. Panellists like Peter Canavan in football and Daithi Regan in hurling are excellent, being always calm and objective.
I THINK RTÉ is very good for hurling. I really don't like Joe Brolly on the football though. He can be very smug. TV3 are also doing a very good job. It’s all good
RTÉ FOR THE hurling. I’m not a big football fan so I’ve no strong opinion one way or the other but Joe Brolly's jokey style is hard to listen to. I don’t care much for Spillane or Martin Carney either.
AS AN AVID Kilkenny hurling follower I wish to compliment Tony Considine for having the decency to ask those people sniping at Kilkenny to stop it and enjoy the Cats. Thank God for decent journalists. Can we have similar fair play from RTÉ and ‘The Sunday Game’ in particular?
We seem to be getting more comments each week about standards of TV coverage. Maybe more fans are staying at home to watch games on TV because the recession is making them more careful about spending their scarce cash on tickets? Broadly, I think RTÉ and TV3 both do a good job, that’s why I’ve put your name in the little Black Book, Ian. TV3’s regular on-screen updates of player and match stats is an innovation RTÉ could copy without shame.
But whatever happened to those side line interviews at half time? I always thought they offered an interesting, honest view of how the opposing camps read the game at that point.
I’M GLAD I didn't waste my money going to Croke Park on Sunday. This game will do nothing for Dublin and only add to the hype. Clearly, Westmeath were as bad as they seemed against Wicklow. Even a decent Dublin club side would beat Westmeath. If we're going to have Ring, Rackard, Meagher Cups in hurling it's about time we had at least a two-tier football championship. Croke Park was half empty because a lot of people didn’t want to waste their money on a mismatch and they were dead right
IT LOOKS LIKE I could even score a few points myself against that Westmeath back line. It was a very disappointing game. Hopefully, Kildare can give the Dubs a better game.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN Leinster football? A couple of years ago Westmeath and Laois were going well. They were as good, if not better, than the two traditional powerhouses but they've both slipped back alarmingly. I hope Kieran McGeeney has really brought about an improvement with the Lily Whites for the sake of football in the province.
: As Brian Cody might say: ‘Dublin can only play what’s put in front of them’! If we had a two tier championship we would never have seen Antrim reach the Ulster final this year as they did in such style on Saturday night. Antrim would’ve been in a low tier and would never have the chance of causing upsets. I agree that something must be done to improve the format. Roscommon, Waterford and Westmeath have all been destroyed against stronger counties.
The provincial championships, allied to the Qualifiers, have produced a toxic mix that is killing Gaelic football. We need a system where every game won or lost has consequences for your chance of getting to the All Ireland final. We got away with it when cash was flush and fans were less discriminating. Now, the recession blues are highlighting many of the cracks in the GAA edifice.
SUNDAY IN CROKE Park should have been a double-header of Dublin v Westmeath and Laois v Kildare. The Junior final between Louth and Longford was alright as it happens, but €30 for a senior and junior game isn't giving the same value as if both senior semi finals were on. If Laois v Kildare was also on, the place would have been full as it is a better venue and more value for money.
THERE WAS A poor enough atmosphere in Croke Park on Sunday. There seemed to be empty pockets of seats all around the ground with there was one big empty space behind the Davin goals. Both semi finals should definitely have been played there. It would have been a full house and a much better atmosphere.
I READ DIARMUID O’Flynn’s piece on ‘The Irish Examiner’ last Monday where he criticised people for not going to the matches. Has Diarmuid forgotten that the little people who go to the GAA matches have taken a 20 percent cut in their wages? Train fares and bus fares have gone up. Doctors’ fees have gone up. We have more to do with our money than just downing tools and heading to Thurles or Limerick. It might be different if we got in free like journalists and VIPs. We have enough to pay for now, seeing as the government are getting us to pay for the downturn in the economy.
IT’S SIMPLE ENOUGH really. Our great association is extremely cynical and calculating. They know that getting 10,000 people paying on average €20 a head is better than getting 20,000 people paying €5 or €8 a head. Basically, they don’t care about people on the dole or people under financial pressure. Look at the timings for the Qualifier next Saturday night – 7 p.m. in Tullamore because of TV, so basically ruling out many Cork supporters from travelling
Seanie, I don’t agree that the GAA is ‘extremely cynical and calculating’ about admission prices. I’d say it’s more like they’re out of touch – like many other people – about just how devastating the recession is for many fans and they haven’t adjusted to that grim reality. This year, I think the Leinster Council have made a commendable effort to match venues to projected attendances and the atmosphere at games have benefitted. Pre-recession, the Dubs would have almost filled Croker on Sunday even without a double-header.
I SEE THE GPA want to ban players from doing pre and post match interviews on TV and radio. Pathetic! We'll see if Croke Park have the bottle to face these guys down once and for all. If they are so worried about their image rights why don’t they just go away and retire and let the lads who want to play for their counties get on with it. If it means silence on the intercounty GAA fields for a season or two then so be it!
APART FROM A from a few photographs and the same clichéd post match comments, what do the GPA players actually do to promote the games? Hasn’t it struck them that if they lower the profile of the games they're actually lowering their own profile? There aren’t too many supermarkets being opened at the moment and even fewer to be opened by ‘Yer man, what's his name, who plays for the county’
Uachtarán Christy Cooney has been a lot cooler in his language towards the GPA than his predecessor. I suspect talks have broken down on the recognition of the GPA except no one is prepared to admit it publicly. Martin Cullen’s foosthering around about the player grants is exacerbating the situation. GPA players refusing to do match interviews – as several of our correspondents point out – will be the first example of ‘name’ players scoring a bunch of own goals.
WITH THE EXCEPTION of Kilkenny I believe that Leinster hurling is on a par with Munster. Kilkenny would beat any of the stronger teams in Munster and put them in the Qualifiers so I think not having the chance to meet Kilkenny is an advantage. I think it’s time for an open draw and have a level playing pitch for everyone.
THERE IS NO doubt in my mind that the Munster championship is holding hurling back. As a Munster man who has been at all the Munster championship games this year and who goes to most of them every year the sad but real truth is the Munster championship is overhyped and serves nobody well.
TIPP AND GALWAY will win nothing. They’ve no consistency. It looks like a Cats v Rebels final again.
Here’s a big Red Card to match your jersey, Scobby. Tipp and Galway are among four or five teams whose chances of an upset can’t be written off just like that, at this stage of the championship. Ollscoil is spot on in his comment.
SOME INTER COUNTY and club coaches are responsible for the deterioration in the standards of Gaelic football. There is an over emphasis on retaining possession. Too many hand passes are used to achieve this aim. Maybe if the coaches studied video analysis of their games they would find that their players are spilling an amount of possession. The game is slow, ponderous and not pleasing on the eye. Players are no longer capable of kicking thirty metre passes and are reluctant at shooting for a point from that distance. Coaches and players should concentrate on more positive tactics and kicking skills it might be more beneficial to their team.
I think Cavan’s performance against Antrim on Saturday night in the Ulster semi-final supports your point. Their selection of options for shots on goal was poor and their execution of shots was even worse. Antrim, on the other hand, played fast direct football, followed by some very accurate shooting. On the question of ‘provincials’ versus ‘open draw’, I’m an ‘open draw’ fan myself.
From his surname, I’d guess Michael Scanlon is an angry hurling fan from Clare. He wins ‘Comment of the Week’ for his crisp and convincing reality check on how the recession is impacting on GAA fans. It hasn’t gone away you, and it won’t, for about another five years. So, the GAA needs to wise up to it and start reacting intelligently.
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