Hurling 2024

[Captain Scarlet]

It's Donal Óg's annual plea - https://twitter.com/TheSundayGame/status/1548790658885992449?s=20

That time he was moaning the Westmeath hurlers were just being mobbed on the pitch but were only given a few minutes on the same channel that give him his soap box.

[Saffrongael]

https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2023/05/08/news/cahair_o_kane_we_re_not_ready_for_gaago_and_it_isn_t_ready_for_us-3263329/

Cahair O'Kane: We're not ready for GAAGO, and it isn't ready for us

IT would have been very easy for RTE to throw a sheet over the mirror rather than allow Donal Óg Cusack and Jackie Tyrrell to peer into it on Sunday night.

Given that the Cork-Tipperary game in particular turned out to be a classic that hadn't been widely available to television viewers, they could have taken more time to dissect the nuts and bolts of it.

Instead they gave their pundits a platform for some introspection.

You don't see that very often, anywhere. Usually the last person to blame for anything is the one in the mirror.   

When GAAGO was an ugly duckling, it seemed there was a beautiful swan within.

In times of Covid, it provided outstanding service. Virtually the whole National League, across all four divisions, was available to either stream live or watch back on demand.

The big championship games were still carved up for TV between RTÉ and Sky but the vast majority were available for online customers to watch back at any time.

For the eight years that it existed, there was vocal opposition to the Sky deal.

Some were no less vehemently against it at the end than they had been in the beginning.


BBC making a play for greater access harmed Sky's position.

This year's All-Ireland finals will be shown live on BBC2 across the whole of the UK for the first time ever. Past broadcasts had been restricted to BBCNI.

There was nowhere left for Sky to go. They got thrown whatever was on a Saturday evening, a couple of decent qualifiers, their share of All-Ireland quarter-finals and a whole lot fewer subscriptions than they would have wanted because of the rise of dodgy boxes.

£50-odd a month or £100 a year (allegedly)? Legal shmegal.

Paywalls are proven to be damaging to the visibility of sport, and if left long enough, the sport itself.

Cricket, rugby, Premier League, Champions League, you name it, they've all taken the envelope and said to hell with the eyeballs.

Where they differ is that none of them have given the kind of precedence to a streaming service that the GAA have to GAAGO.

Amazon Prime has less than 10 per cent of live Premier League games shown this season.

Prime get 20. BT Sport have 53 and Sky show over 140.

It is pretty much an experiment. See how it runs a few Wednesday nights a year.

How fast the pictures can be transmitted through the internet compared to a standard television signal is the big issue in the world of instantaneous information.

If the goal is 10 seconds late on your screen, chances are you'll already know from your simultaneous scrolling that it's been scored.

GAAGO will show a total of 38 exclusive championship games from 2023 until 2018.

RTÉ television will show 31 plus the Joe McDonagh cup final, both Tailteann cup semi-finals and final.

That means GAAGO is showing 52 per cent of what is being shown live for the next five years.

The subscription element of GAAGO is one thing.

Paywalls are not good for the GAA and they're not good for supporters.

But when I purchased the Early Bird deal away back when it was announced, it cost €59 for the year. That's less than €2 a game, compared to the €13 people are now paying to buy access to individual games.

As subscriptions go, it wasn't wholly unreasonable. I'm still against the idea but it doesn't feel like a fleecing either.

The bigger problem here is that nobody is quite ready for streaming to take over.

Ireland as a country isn't ready for it. While 96 per cent of homes have internet access, in the border (77 per cent) and midland (79 per cent) regions that figure drops way down.

There are plans to develop and improve it, but we're not there yet. The cables, like everything else, get rolled out from Dublin and can take a long time to reach Sligo or Donegal.

The platform itself can be clunky. I'm as tech savvy as any other 34-year-old, but just for a trial on Sunday night, I tried to cast a replay of Antrim-Kilkenny to my TV. There was no cast button in sight.

Football and especially hurling are not games to be consumed whole on a mobile phone.

Aside from the visibility, there's also the communal aspect of people in a room being able to watch it together on a TV screen.

Even if it had worked, in terms of live games, casting is not available on all TV sets and isn't all that handy to do is some cases. It usually comes with a further built-in time delay in transmitting the picture from phone to TV.

The coverage from the games they've done coverage from has seemed good, with Paddy Andrews, Marc Ó Sé and Michael Murphy a fairly strong team for Derry-Monaghan, to lend an example.

Mike Finnerty and Dave McIntyre are excellent commentators, as Grainne McElwain is a host.

But they've also had games with no build-up or pitchside analysis.

And that's grand when it's an alternative. When it's the place you go to for the games that you wouldn't ordinarily expect to see on your terrestrial TV station.

It's not grand for a broadcaster with exclusivity on more than half of the games every summer.

On Saturday 20 May, GAAGO will show Kerry v Mayo and then Galway v Tyrone.

Those are not only the two big ties of that weekend, but probably the two biggest ties of the entire round robin series.

Hurling has been here for a few weeks already. 

The blowback ought be loud.

Like most things, this kind of slipped beneath the radar. It was as if Sky are gone, Hallelujah, who cares what happens now.

The Sky deal was many things but one thing you couldn't accuse them of was a bad package. Even the biggest begrudger would admit they did analysis well.

You either had Sky or you didn't. If you had it, you had it on your TV.

A streaming platform, by its nature, will run a number of seconds behind. In a fast-paced, high-scoring sport like hurling, seconds can be a long time.

An email from GAAGO to customers last week conceded that there were some "teething issues" on their opening weekend.

More worryingly, it told recipients that they were having issues with payment through Android phones and that they should purchase via "the website instead".

Given that around 52 per cent of phone users in Ireland use Android, it's the kind of glitch that tells you this thing isn't at the level it needs to be at to occupy the position it now holds.

GAAGO will be a great service in time. It was brilliant during Covid, and as an alternative option for secondary games that might not have squeezed their way into the TV schedule, it would have been invaluable.

But it's a massive error on the GAA's part to have made it a primary broadcaster and to have given it so many games of such significance at this point in its existence.

In his annual report, Tom Ryan said that the big advantage was that GAAGO "will give us complete flexibility and control over match selection, scheduling and how we promote our games".

The other big advantage might be some flexibility in the contracts. It's not a multi-billion pound foreign entity they've signed up with. It's part-owned by the GAA and RTÉ.

You would think in the circumstances, where it's the same vested parties from both sides of it, there has to be some wiggle-room.

Streaming is the future. Eventually it will all go that way.

But it's not the present, least of all for the GAA.

This is a move for years down the line, once the technology is tightened up and readily available to virtually everyone in the country, and when bigger sporting organisations have shown how to lead their broadcast package with it.

GAAGO isn't ready for us, and we're not ready for it.

[johnnycool]

I understand the frustration of missing two cracking Munster championship games to live TV and all the promotion loss that goes with it, but you got to remember we're in a round robin scenario with 11 games played over 7 weeks and you've more games in Leinster in the same timeframe and we haven't even touched on the football.

It's not RTE's job to promote hurling and as much as I think the GAA do a poor job of promoting hurling (I'm not going to start on lower level hurling) I think GAAGO is a step in the right direction as we now get a lot more access to games than we ever did. I'd prefer a youtube channel but the production process needs paid for somehow.

Donal Og won't give two shiny shítes if Westmeath and Antrim play out an absolute humdinger of a game in a few weeks time and he himself probably couldn't name half the hurlers on the field let alone his nephew..

[johnnycool]

Oh, got to see the Cork/Tipp game (not saying a firestick was in play or not    ) and it was a clinker.

Some great scores throughout, thought Tipp should have held out for the win, subs made a big difference to both teams, Kingston for Cork and Mark Kehoe for Tipp, serious pace in both sets of forwards and both defences struggled with strong running at them hence the scorefest.

Both remain undefeated and now both should be confident of holding out for a top 3 finish but nothing is set in stone yet.

[johnnycool]

I understand the frustration of missing two cracking Munster championship games to live TV and all the promotion loss that goes with it, but you got to remember we're in a round robin scenario with 11 games played over 7 weeks and you've more games in Leinster in the same timeframe and we haven't even touched on the football.

It's not RTE's job to promote hurling and as much as I think the GAA do a poor job of promoting hurling (I'm not going to start on lower level hurling) I think GAAGO is a step in the right direction as we now get a lot more access to games than we ever did. I'd prefer a youtube channel but the production process needs paid for somehow.

Donal Og won't give two shiny shítes if Westmeath and Antrim play out an absolute humdinger of a game in a few weeks time and he himself probably couldn't name half the hurlers on the field let alone his nephew..

Turns out that GAAGO is a joint venture between the GAA and RTE, so I'd have thought that it's no wonder they've had two high profile Munster games on GAAGO to generate a bit of revenue...

[The Premierview Podcast]

A quick quiz on the current Tpp Team, whos father won 3 all Ireland medals in 3 different decades, who has 6 senior club football medals etc etc

and also why us Tipp Lads would prefer if Kyle Hayes didn't start at centre forward for Limerick against us

https://thepremierviewpodcast.com/tipp-team-quiz

[seafoid]

I understand the frustration of missing two cracking Munster championship games to live TV and all the promotion loss that goes with it, but you got to remember we're in a round robin scenario with 11 games played over 7 weeks and you've more games in Leinster in the same timeframe and we haven't even touched on the football.

It's not RTE's job to promote hurling and as much as I think the GAA do a poor job of promoting hurling (I'm not going to start on lower level hurling) I think GAAGO is a step in the right direction as we now get a lot more access to games than we ever did. I'd prefer a youtube channel but the production process needs paid for somehow.

Donal Og won't give two shiny shítes if Westmeath and Antrim play out an absolute humdinger of a game in a few weeks time and he himself probably couldn't name half the hurlers on the field let alone his nephew..

Turns out that GAAGO is a joint venture between the GAA and RTE, so I'd have thought that it's no wonder they've had two high profile Munster games on GAAGO to generate a bit of revenue...

Maybe it's because Munster hurling is box office and there is no box office football this weekend
If the hurling had a more balanced 5+6 split there would be more interesting matches in Leinster and fewer in Munster.

[johnnycool]

I understand the frustration of missing two cracking Munster championship games to live TV and all the promotion loss that goes with it, but you got to remember we're in a round robin scenario with 11 games played over 7 weeks and you've more games in Leinster in the same timeframe and we haven't even touched on the football.

It's not RTE's job to promote hurling and as much as I think the GAA do a poor job of promoting hurling (I'm not going to start on lower level hurling) I think GAAGO is a step in the right direction as we now get a lot more access to games than we ever did. I'd prefer a youtube channel but the production process needs paid for somehow.

Donal Og won't give two shiny shítes if Westmeath and Antrim play out an absolute humdinger of a game in a few weeks time and he himself probably couldn't name half the hurlers on the field let alone his nephew..

Turns out that GAAGO is a joint venture between the GAA and RTE, so I'd have thought that it's no wonder they've had two high profile Munster games on GAAGO to generate a bit of revenue...

Maybe it's because Munster hurling is box office and there is no box office football this weekend
If the hurling had a more balanced 5+6 split there would be more interesting matches in Leinster and fewer in Munster.

The only thing of interest in Leinster is the battle for the third spot with the Dubs now in pole position, other than that it's a foregone conclusion.

As talked about in a recent podcast 5 of the 7 top teams are in Munster but there's no will to change this to an open draw so we'll need to live with it.

[seafoid]

I thought the first point was strange. "Failing to grab a close match against Limerick. Limerick were deemed unbeatable at the time.
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/05/13/tailteann-cup-previews-cavan-can-begin-charge-for-title-with-win-over-laois/Waterford's two negatives to date have been failing to grab a close match against Limerick, who were down to 14, and the loss of Tadhg de Búrca to another serious injury.

[NAG1]

Davy seems to be taking a lot of heat on SM for Waterford's Championship performances this year, any chance he 'steps back' and not take up the second year of his term?

[Milltown Row2]

Davy seems to be taking a lot of heat on SM for Waterford's Championship performances this year, any chance he 'steps back' and not take up the second year of his term?

He was interviewed and saying stuff like "been here 5 months" "I'll be putting in a powerful amount of work for the next 12 months"

So seems set for another season at the very least

[imtommygunn]

I wouldn't be sure he'll get it.

[marty34]

Hard to know what's gone wrong in Waterford this past few years but a lot of defeats in the round robin since it's started.

Was in finals and semi-finals under Mc Grath but they seem to be fading away badly year on year. They seem to have the spine of a team but I can't figure out what the problem is.  They've had a few injuries but not more than any other county.

Is it they'd have no home games and have to play away having that big an impact on them in championship?

[marty34]

Kildare have been a big disappointment in the Joe Mc Donagh.

After shooting up in the Christy Ring, they haven't pushed on at all.  Must be a huge gulf between JMcD and CR.   Kildare really needed to stay in the Joe Mc Donagh this year to push forward.

Though with underage going well and Naas going well that they'd have got one result to keep them up.  Down caught them and gave them a lesson.

[Milltown Row2]

Kildare have been a big disappointment in the Joe Mc Donagh.

After shooting up in the Christy Ring, they haven't pushed on at all.  Must be a huge gulf between JMcD and CR.   Kildare really needed to stay in the Joe Mc Donagh this year to push forward.

Though with underage going well and Naas going well that they'd have got one result to keep them up.  Down caught them and gave them a lesson.

Down have quality hurlers but lack the physicality against big teams, Kildare in the past have usually been a big team but maybe have dropped in recent years, been a while since I've seen them in fairness.