Munster and Ulster eroding provincial lure

IT’S easy to knock the GAA. Often, too easy.

Last Thursday’s championship draw was accused of being way too early and way too low profile, as if it took up just five minutes on the graveyard shift of some local radio station, and not over half an hour live on prime time national television.

The GAA championship isn’t like the Premier League where every team knows it has 38 games and the first of which is in early August. It is an unique creature with some teams out in the first week of May and others that won’t see action until the last weekend of June. County boards and county managers need to know well in advance when to plan and peak for.