UTV & BBC & RTE & TV3

[ziggysego]

http://www.gaa.ie/page/allianz_gaa_football_national_league_2009.html

http://www.gaa.ie/page/allianz_gaa_hurling_national_league_2009.html

Don't think the matches for TV has been announced yet.

[laoisgaa]

Setanta Ireland confirmed GAA coverage, January-March
Date Fixture Coverage
Sat, January 31 NFL: Dublin v Tyrone LIVE
Sat, February 14 NHL: Tipperary v Cork LIVE
Sat, February 14 NFL: Game TBC deferred
Sat, March 7 NFL: Tyrone v Galway LIVE
Sat, March 7 NFL: Meath v Laois deferred
Sat, March 14 NFL: Dublin v Derry LIVE
Sat, March 14 NFL: Laois v Cork deferred
Sat, March 28 NFL: Tyrone v Derry LIVE
Sat, March 28 NFL: Down v Offaly deferred

[ziggysego]

Was watching the BBC News at lunchtime today. Sarah Travers said that All-Ireland Champions Tyrone won their first game of 2009 against Monaghan on Sunday....

Really? First game you say.

[ONeill]

Maybe she means we're going to bate Monaghan a rake of times this year!

[wherefromreferee?]

To be fair to the BBC, the coverage of the McKenna Cup has been fine.  Showed a couple of scores from the Tyrone game and interviewed Harte, SoN and Monaghan trainer/coach, Marty whatshisname.  Don't think we can ask for more in mid Jan.

[never kickt a ball]

To be fair to the BBC, the coverage of the McKenna Cup has been fine.  Showed a couple of scores from the Tyrone game and interviewed Harte, SoN and Monaghan trainer/coach, Marty whatshisname.  Don't think we can ask for more in mid Jan.

Have to agree with that. Jerome has been fairly active this past week. However spot the McKenna Cup final preview on this page:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/default.stm

[Maguire01]

and here!

http://www.rte.ie/sport/index.html

[never kickt a ball]

Or here? 

http://ulster.gaa.ie/

[ziggysego]

Or here

http://www.donegalgaa.ie/

or here

http://www.queensgaa.ie/

[mountainboii]

FFS! How incompetent, lazy or both can you get?


Wexford 2-9 3-12 Armagh

Ryan Henderson scored three goals as Armagh staged a revival to beat Wexford by 10 points in Sunday's Allianz Division Two opener.

Two early goals had Armagh in command but Wexford battled back to enjoy a 2-8 to 2-3 interval advantage.

Armagh suffered a blow when forward Ronan Clarke was yellow-carded and had to be replaced under the new rules.

But the Ulster side, beaten by Wexford in the All-Ireland quarter-finals last August, pulled away for a big win.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/7863762.stm

[Maguire01]

Has been fixed now i see.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Caught some weekly sports round up thing there on RTE - think its aimed at young people. They discussed both the rugby this Sunday and Ireland match tonight and world cup fever etc. There was no mention of the gaa. RTE only pay lip service to gaa for most of the year and seem to spend a lot of time building up other sports. This was highlighted when they announced at the sports awards that Munster NZ got the biggest viewing figures of the year even though in reality it was the all ireland finals.

I also think that the gaa needs to promote its games better. A repeat of the All Ireland football final is taking place on Sunday in Omagh. There's also loads of other top matches in both football and hurling this weekend. More effort should be made to make the general public aware of these games and make them appealing to them. I actually think the whole season needs to be redesigned. Does it make sense that the majority of games played by counties during the year are seen as meaningless by many fans?

[Maguire01]

(e.g. the Dr. McKenna cup a few years ago which attracted crowds of near 20,000 for games)

To be fair, that was a one-off between Tyrone and Armagh when both were at their peak. No other McKenna Cup game has come close - not even for finals.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Caught some weekly sports round up thing there on RTE - think its aimed at young people. They discussed both the rugby this Sunday and Ireland match tonight and world cup fever etc. There was no mention of the gaa. RTE only pay lip service to gaa for most of the year and seem to spend a lot of time building up other sports. This was highlighted when they announced at the sports awards that Munster NZ got the biggest viewing figures of the year even though in reality it was the all ireland finals.

I also think that the gaa needs to promote its games better. A repeat of the All Ireland football final is taking place on Sunday in Omagh. There's also loads of other top matches in both football and hurling this weekend. More effort should be made to make the general public aware of these games and make them appealing to them. I actually think the whole season needs to be redesigned. Does it make sense that the majority of games played by counties during the year are seen as meaningless by many fans?

You would have to see (a) why many fans see such competitions as meaningless and (b) how you would be able to redesign the intercounty season to have more meaningful fixtures without impacting further on just as meaningful club competitions. Crowds of 80,000 for league openers under floodlights in Croke Park can show that when it gets itself in gear the GAA can do the marketing of its games well and one-offs or something that doesn't have a long lifespan (e.g. the Dr. McKenna cup a few years ago which attracted crowds of near 20,000 for games) the GAA right now appears to be good at. However stretching it over the course of an entire national league campaign is going to be much tougher and would require more resources.

As regards RTÉ, when the next round of bidding comes along for rights to show championship games, it needs to be made clear that it won't have a guaranteed majority of championship games to show, with the possibility of only having a small number of games they would have the rights to show (like TV3 now have) or even the sacrilege idea of them losing the rights completely. While many would be up in arms, it would surely be the boot up the arse the public broadcaster deserves.

Probably the wrong thread but I have suggested one way of changing the season which I will out line below. Its only a rough idea but I think we need to think of better ways to get people interested from earlier in the year:

. Link the league and championship and split the championship into an A championship and B championship.
. Have 2 groups of 8 in the A championship and the same in b). There are a lot of teams who simply arent in a position to compete with the top teams.
. Each team plays each other once with the top four qualifying for the quarter finals with 1st in group 1 playing 4th in group 2 etc.
. Start the B championship earlier. This would mean that the winners of the B championship could have a playoff with one of the 4th placed teams for a quarter final place. Meaning every team in Ireland still has a chance of winning the All Ireland.
. Each team plays 3 home and 3 away games. Have a huge advertising blitz early in the year. Season tickets for home games and for all games will be available through clubs at reasonable prices and with oap/children tickets available. These will have 1st choice on quarter final tickets and on.
. Each team plays 1 neutral match possibly in Croke Park. Say have a few big Croke Park Weekends with double headers on Saturday and Sundays.
. Possibly organise the groups on a geographical basis so that there will be plenty of derbies and bigger crowds.
. There would be relegation/promotion each year between championships.
. Possibly have the provincial championships as a warm up.
. Start the championship in March/April. Matches will be played once every 2 weeks. Every other week will be set aside for club games with county players and there will be no exceptions. Club players need more games than once every 2 weeks so something would have to be considered here. Still think this would be better for clubs than the current situation.

This would be a huge shift from current situation and I'm not saying its the best way forward. But really think it makes no sense currently for most counties to only start playing meaningful games in July even though the season commences in January. Also think it could lead to a better structured season for clubs. Should also mean nearly every county match is important. The traditionalists would probably hate this idea!

[ziggysego]

I'm a traditionalist.