In his first All-Ireland senior final acceptance speech, GAA president Jarlath Burns acknowledged hurling’s new audience. A former Gaelic football pundit on BBC, he spoke to the viewers who had been tuning in from across the Irish Sea as this absorbing game was shown live on BBC2 for the first time. “We know that this game is being broadcast throughout the world, and I have a message for those people who are watching it who have never seen hurling before: this is our culture, our players, our volunteers.
They will be playing for their clubs next week. “They play for the love of their county and their parish and next week they will be playing for their clubs. We are proud of every single one of you.
” Across the Irish Sea, Twitter/X was full of applause for the game shown live on BBC2. As The Open was being played on the other side of Scotland in Troon albeit behind a paywall, Gareth Mowatt from the home of golf St Andrew’s offered: “The hurling final is utterly insane, my first time watch and I’m totally enthralled by it. Aggression.
Skill, physicality and very few rules. Top level sport at its best.” Dan Cook, the man behind the popular Crystal Palace fan account HLTCO (Hopkin Looking To Curl One), gushed about Rob Downey’s goal: “I’ll be honest, I’ve never watched hurling in my life but the run here, the atmosphere, all of it.
Superb. Might have to give it a proper go.” British journalist and broadcaster Nick Metcalfe published: “The fact I've seen more people talk about hurling on here than England winning a Test series says all you need to know about the eternal power of television.
” In February 2022, the Irish Examiner reported the BBC were going to be the biggest winners in the new round of media rights, which were confirmed later that year. With Sky Sports out of the picture partly due to the earlier All-Ireland final dates, there were simulcast berths available alongside RTÉ for the semi-finals and finals. In difficulty, GAA commercial and stadium director Peter McKenna saw an opportunity.
BBC was a gateway to more eyeballs on the closing stages of the senior championships and the new market that the GAA vainly attempted to claim Sky Sports would provide when they agreed a deal in 2013. The decision was a masterstroke by McKenna. As Metcalfe rightly points out, Ireland’s native game was provided with a platform that the powers of one of England’s own proudest and oldest sports surrendered in putting it on pay-per-view channels.
That’s not to absolve the GAA of chasing Sky’s sterling or putting some of hurling’s best games on their own premium platform GAAGO. When Burns spoke genuinely and passionately about hurling being “our culture”, the irony of it being put behind paywall on this island shouldn’t be lost. Next year, in a rerun of this year’s All-Ireland final Cork are due to travel to face Clare in Ennis in the opening round of the Munster senior hurling championship.
Tipperary host Limerick the same day. If RTÉ and GAAGO split the games like they did this year, that game will be on the latter as might two of Clare’s next couple of matches. In his segment on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland last Friday, Dónal Óg Cusack claimed the game is still being juggled by the GAA.
“Irish people in every corner of the world will gather to watch the match this Sunday. But it feels like here at home, the GAA doesn't know what to do with hurling.” Its commercial department understand its worth but some of their colleagues aren’t so sure.
What’s been forgotten is that anticipation is almost as important as the games. In a championship that lasts 91 days, there isn’t a lot of time to look forward to a match or digest it without the next landing on top of you. And that’s just the follower.
For the player, the one-week turnarounds can be crippling. Sunday’s final should never have gone to extra-time. BBC would have appreciated the game not eating into their schedule and the latest episode of “Flog It” being affected.
Instead, it was the players and referee who were being thrashed. Only when they view hurling vicariously like this past Sunday is the GAA reminded what a cultural asset is has. It shouldn’t need fresh eyes for us to appreciate what we have but there we were on social media on Sunday luxuriating like Sally Field in an Oscar acceptance speech that the Brits love our game, they really love our game.
If we really loved hurling, we wouldn’t need such cheap validation. If hurling was truly loved, it wouldn’t need development committee after development committee. Days like Sunday should provide soaring inspiration but there have been many like them and they have not.
[email protected] Cork to seek a TV match official? Five years ago, Limerick lost out to Kilkenny by a point and were denied a legitimate 65 as Cillian Buckley’s touch on Darragh O’Donovan’s sideline cut late in the game went undetected.
John Kiely wasn’t in the mood to cry foul and revisited the matter earlier this month when Limerick were again beaten at the All-Ireland semi-final stage. “I think if you look back on the interviews after that game, I did not lean on any incident that occurred on the day. Nothing, we just parked it.
” As he did in the post-match press conference, Pat Ryan adopted the same approach in Cork’s Clayton Hotel base on the Burlington Road on Monday. “There’s no point complaining about it, we’ll just have to move on past it.” Both Ryan and Kiely chose to take the high road.
However, that’s not to say Cork may look like Limerick did to ensure future errors are ruled out. Certainly, if the appearance of a conversation one Cork official had with referee Johnny Murphy after Sunday’s All-Ireland final is anything to go by, there may be something forthcoming. In late 2019, Limerick put forward a motion that would allow a captain or manager to seek live clarification of a refereeing decision “limited to two failed requests per team per game”.
It was referred to Central Council who eventually put a committee on it but a TMO is a long way off. Then Limerick chairman John Cregan said: “We took our beating, we have discussed since obviously because a lot of people feel aggrieved by it. Whether we would have scored the 65, we will never know.
.. but we were absolutely entitled to a 65.
” Whatever about the other two calls that went against Cork, Seamus Harnedy’s deflected shot that should have been a 65 was repeated in slow-motion on the big screens to the extent that it seemed to be trying to tell Murphy something. Lohan and McGeeney cut from same block Few teams have produced as many managers as the Clare 1995 and ’97 and Armagh 2002 All-Ireland winning teams. They were pioneers of their disciplines in several ways and it is little surprise parallels have been drawn and are now being retraced between Brian Lohan and Kieran McGeeney.
It wouldn’t be wrong to suggest both former captains have generated cultish followings both as players and managers and their sideline and in-front-of-microphone personas don’t truly reflect what they give to their players. However, their dedication to their respective causes is indubitable. As TJ Ryan said on the “Irish Examiner” podcast , Lohan achieved on Sunday his own drive for five in this his fifth season as Clare manager.
Ten years into his playing career, McGeeney reached his first All-Ireland final in 2022 and now in his 10th year as the county’s manager he has brought them to the ultimate decider. It's difficult to buy the argument that neither men have an ego. To be as commanding as they are, possession of one is essential but there is no question that they have strived to attain the best for their players and put them front and centre of everything they do.
If Aidan Forker walks up the Hogan Stand steps this Sunday, expect him to just as effusive in his praise for his manager as Tony Kelly was for Lohan two days ago..
