Cooney supports RTÉ in Carthy stand-off
The managers - Tyrone’s Mickey Harte, Kildare’s Kieran McGeeney, Laois boss Justin McNulty, Kevin Walsh (Sligo), Mickey Moran (Leitrim), Brian Cody (Kilkenny), Glen Ryan of Longford and Cork boss Conor Counihan - are refusing to give interviews to RTÉ who they feel have mistreated reporter Brian Carthy in the wake of Micheal Ó Muircheartaigh’s retirement.
According to GAA President Cooney though, RTÉ are quite entitled to send Carthy to lower profile games rather than ask him to fill Ó Muircheartaigh’s shoes by commentating on the biggest match of the weekend.
“RTÉ have a responsibility to utilise their staff how they feel is best appropriate,” said Cooney yesterday. “It’s not our part to tell them who they should have commentating or reporting on matches.
“I wouldn’t expect RTÉ to come along and tell us who we should assign on our staff to the various roles here in the GAA.”
Cooney doesn’t agree with the argument either that the managers in question aren’t obliged to grant interviews after Championship matches this summer.
“That’s not true,” he insists. “As part of our agreement with the GPA, players have to make themselves available for interviews after matches.
“Managers are not specifically mentioned in that agreement, but it’s normal practice that they cooperate with interview requests as well.
“We have a contract situation with all our media partners with regard to the use of our players and we have (a) contract with our county boards regarding television matches. I would hope this will be sorted quickly and it won’t be an issue throughout the summer.”
The managers sent a letter to RTÉ last week outlining their position but the broadcaster hasn’t lodged a complaint with the GAA or asked them to intercede in the issue.
Cooney said: “I wasn’t aware that a letter had been sent to RTÉ from a number of managers. I understand now that a response has been given from RTÉ. That’s as much as I know, I don’t know the content of that letter. We haven’t heard anything official from RTÉ about this. This is just about a number of people voicing their own views.
“I know RTÉ have responded and we’ll wait to see what was in that letter.”
Cooney might be publicly backing RTÉ in their stand-off, but he also made a point yesterday of praising the man in the middle of this row, reporter Brian Carthy.
“I would say that Brian Carthy has given outstanding service to our game for decades,” said Cooney. “He’s a very good commentator and I’m sure he’ll continue to have a pivotal role in the the next few seasons. I don’t know how long these plans are for Brian Carthy or any of these people and it’s not our place to speculate. All we want is that anyone commentating on our games does it with balance”
