Dónal Óg: Hurling needs more promotion

Dónal Óg Cusack says the GAA and Bord Fáilte could be doing more to sell hurling bothnationally and internationally.

In his first ‘On The Line’ column, which features on the Association’s officialwebsite, the Cork goalkeeper described last Sunday’s Leinster final attendance of 22,150 as “not good enough”.

After attending a Bord Fáilte event in Ballymaloe on Sunday before heading to Croke Park, Cusack wrote: “It struck me what a poor job we do of selling hurling — not just to tourists but to our own people. Hurling is an amazing part of our culture. It makes us unique in a world whereeverything is increasingly the same. You have to experience a game to appreciate its beauty. We take it for granted.”

Cusack was also critical of hurling champion-ship associate sponsors Guinness who are also backers of the IRFU.

“We opened Croke Park to rugby a few years ago and that was the right thing to do. I chatted to a friend in Croke Park on Sunday and we wondered did rugby gain more than we did from that time.

“While we had them as guests we should have kept an eye on the way rugby and its sponsors have sold their game as part of what we are. This is Rugby Country? Not the part of the country I grew up in anyway! We should be careful or else we might be convinced that it is. The Leinster final was another chapter in a golden age for hurling. Sunday’s Munster final is a different sort of occasion now. We need to sell these days with the same imagination and drive that Galway brought to the table.”