Messages

Saturday 25th Louth v Meath, Grattan Park, Inniskeen, 5.30pm

There might be a right few Louth people going to that, having put on a decent show at the weekend. They might have fitted in a few more had they used Crossmaglen or Newry, but I suppose the latter is needed for Down games.

Really not a fan of the "elderly person with no broadband" argument. This demographic got through 80% of their lives with knockout championships and minimal tv coverage. They're not losing out on something if they never really had it. And even if they did have it, their parents didn't, so why should they? It's a futile, nonsense attempt to tug on heartstrings, most commonly chorused by stay at home supporters who like to watch soccer and whatever is on YouTube at the same time.

I'll always say that GAA Go went about things arse faced. Had they done the Netflix / Now TV route and made the software easy to use and access first, then more secure later, it would now only be a year or two from being a staple purchase that just floats out of almost every bank account in Ireland every month.

But they've invested all their tech time to date in making it difficult to steal. Which means they're picking up customers only because they're forced into it, rather than because they're curious. Which is not the right way to start up, and is the fundamental driver of the current angst.

Absolutely. Say they provided an easy to use setup and showed free games midweek that had been on the previous week, then people would use it and then perhaps pay the required fee to upgrade to see the games live. Say they had a game of the week free from Tuesday, that could be Cork v Limerick this week.

A bit of care with the app should ensure that pretty much anyone can use it and there is a suggestion that clubs might have a few techie volunteers to help club stalwarts.

Also the GAA should better integrate the different streaming options, so that if you get it working then it all works, so that you don't have different issues with ArmaghTV, UlsterGAATV and GAAGo. You need a technical platform that different providers can feed into. Then you have the ridiculous situation in the autumn that TG4 shows the club games, but are prohibited from showing these outside Ireland, but GAAGo don't bother their arse showing them outside Ireland although the video feed is already available.

Somebody needs to have good look at the whole thing.

Westmeath is a dangerous match but at least we are forewarned having played them last year. It's probably the critical match in the group for us since if we beat them we are almost guaranteed last 12. Management have a big job picking the players up after Sunday now. Barring injuries or knocks I wouldn't make too many changes either given how well we played for 3/4 of the game on Sunday. Maybe just freshen the team up with one or two players. They are quite a defensive outfit as well so it could be worth starting Oisin O'Neill as we will need to be able to pick off scores from long range against them.

I presume there are scenarios where score difference could determine second and third place, so given that we have them at home then we should aim to win by more than the minimum.

I'm not sure what is the situation with Oisin O'Neill's fitness. He looked rightly in recent games, but I expect they were building him up, as he would get his place on talent. Likewise with Nugent, who is now looking more like his 2022 self.

What is the big deal about what Cavanagh has said anyway?. The GAA has cash in the bank and is asset rich therefore some people might think it is a wealthy organisation. Bit of an over reaction from Burns IMO.

It has cash in the bank and a thousand uses for that cash, free streaming would be somewhere in the 900s on that list. 

But surely its all relative, while (as far as I can see) at the end of 2023 there was 'cash' of circa €45,000,000 there are proposal capital projects of circa €500,000,000 in the coming years (if Burns is to be believed), as such having cash in the bank is irrelevant.

Sean Cavanagh is an embarrassment. Everyone knows that the GAA is going to have to uprate its contribution to Casement to at least reflect inflation and that would in itself use up a large part of that sum. And even if the whole Euros thing collapses they are still going to have to spend a significant amount on some sort of stadium there and perhaps a refurbishment of Clones if the big scheme in Belfast is reduced. No doubt HQ has to make contributions to the likes of the projects in Louth, Meath and Kildare, that would account for most of the remainder. People are always calling for expenditure on this and that.

Wouldn't mind seeing some changes, definitely think Nugent and Duffy should in from the start and Oisin O'Neill should see far more game time. Grugan, Murnin, Forker etc played most of the league and have plenty of miles in the legs. Would definitely start Rian though as he didn't play much in the league and could do with more football.

Exactly.

Not taking them lightly but you'd rest near half your team including some of your main players? Interesting..

No, you are starting your subs, not as much of a change as you might think.

There is a great deal of shite on discussed on this matter. Some guy was on the radio there, likely a politician, saying that "Sky had been better as most people have Satellite TV", which is completely untrue, while in reality far more people have broadband. He then said that it should be on RTÉ and advertisers would bid for slots, but RTÉ hasn't much money to give to the GAA and there are people who are not paying their TV licence ranting about games not being on TV.
There is a loss of visibility to the GAA in not having this game on TV, and that too has its price, but there has to accurate discussion of the situation, not fantasy. For one thing, RTÉ is supposed to serve everyone and this aim might not be compatible with having 20 hours of GAA each weekend. Virgin Media does nothing, which it would if advertisers really were interested.

This group might end up like last year where it came down to last 5 minutes of the last games. Say that Galway beat Derry, then Derry beat Armagh, but Armagh squeeze past Galway.

He can hold his own that boy.

Sean Cavanagh    Looking to get himself noticed again.

No one is saying that the likes of a streaming service is not a revenue builder, before streaming we still had reasons to generate money, but some matches like Saturday night with everything on the line for Cork at home against the reigning champions needs viewed free

Is Gaago owned by RTE or the GAA?

Yeah but when you have rights etc involved then the games are scheduled way in advance. Did you know 2 months ago that this match was going to have riding on it what was riding on it?

On a weekend with 2 football finals, the obvious thing was for RTÉ to cover one hurling game on the Saturday and decide closer to the date which one they would cover.

Armagh had 2 previous marks but didn't take them.

Or to be pedantic, they took them and hit the ball backwards.

Manager of Wicklow going around punditing.....
Chairman of Offaly going around punditing......

And among the best pundits they are.

Clearly the Croatian song was by far the best one there, as was reflected by the public vote. However, the juries decided otherwise, so really it's all about pushing an agenda. Just a confirmation of what was probably always the case. Or certainly recently. Can't be letting the public actually decide!

Juries are supposed to be less biased on non song related issues. Public votes are as much based on geography as anything else. However, Moldova giving Ukraine 12 suggests that juries have their issues too.

Very surprised at Wicklow. Though Oisin would have had them chomping at the bit for this. Maybe just a bad day at the office.

Oisin didn't sound impressed on the Saturday Game last night.

Israel considered the most hated country in Eurovision... yet ended up with one of the highest volume of public votes.

Your daily reminder that social media is not an accurate reflection of reality. 

How did they manipulate the public vote, by hook and by crook I assume.

People who wanted to support Israel made an effort and used their phone.