GAA/RTE renege on Promise to Televise Ring and Rackard Cups

[Saffron exile]

Apart from the pathetic response from the GAA PR department that the Ring Cup could not be staged on Sat/Sun 2/3 (as fixed last November in the original draw!) they rub it in by withdrawing RTE's commitment to televise both games. We're back to the same lowly status as the old All ireland B and Junior championships.
Its pretty obvious that the GAA took the decision to fix all four football qualifiers in Croker to the detriment of the Ring and lesser extent Rackard Cups. They weren't forced to play the football qualifiers there this weekend and do so to please counties that have had many opportunities to play there recently.
The Ring and Rackard Cup FINALS (not qualifiers) should take precedence over backdoor qualifiers and should have been fixed for the 10th and 17th August before the hurling semis rather than be treated in such a shabby fashion.
The sudden withdrawal of television coverage is a means of further demeaning the value of these championships and sullying the good name of Christy Ring and Nickey Rackard just to prove a point. This point seems to be that the R and R teams should agree to move the Final at a week's notice to a support slot to the Dubs game. Why didn't they do this with the Tommy Murphy Cup as the winners of this competition have no promotion play-off the following week.
Nicky Brennan and co. have stated the current GAA policy very clearly. They now agree with the promotion of 2nd class citizen status that often applies to hurling in the "weaker counties" and this attitude is basically discriminatory and contrary to GAA and EU equality policy. The apologies (quite rightly) to the abhorrent racial attack on a young footballer contrasts to the sniggering, demeaning attitude of GAA top brass to the 2nd and 3rd tier hurling competitions.
All Ring and Rackard counties should boycott next year's competitions unless the bungling, incompetent GAA administrators and laughable HDC come up with assurances that the original purpose of the Ring and Rackard Competitions is maintained, i.e., proper media coverage , with the final staged before a hurling semifinal. Not too much to ask?!

[Owenmoresider]

All Ring and Rackard counties should boycott next year's competitions unless the bungling, incompetent GAA administrators and laughable HDC come up with assurances that the original purpose of the Ring and Rackard Competitions is maintained, i.e., proper media coverage , with the final staged before a hurling semifinal. Not too much to ask?!

You're forgetting that Kilkenny minors etc. have to be accomodated for. You know, promoting hurling, and all that?

[Saffron exile]

This can be done by having the minor game as the first of a triple-header with the Ring or rackard Final second. Take it you were joking when suggesting kilkenny minors need exposure to promote hurling.

[hurl4ever]

fair play saffron exile, completely true. teams in both ring and rackard should be contacting the GPA to organise a strike for next years competition.

[EddieMerx]

fair play saffron exile, completely true. teams in both ring and rackard should be contacting the GPA to organise a strike for next years competition.

Problem is would the GAA care??? I seriously doubt it!!! RTE is all about viewing figures and they have no interest in promoting the game.

[Hoof Hearted]

fair play saffron exile, completely true. teams in both ring and rackard should be contacting the GPA to organise a strike for next years competition.

looks like they have started a year early. Carlow + Westmeath have agreed that they wont be fulfilling fridays night fixture !!!

[thewobbler]

Can I be the first to state well done to the GAA/RTE on their decisions.

Apart from 3 or 4 people on this thread and a couple of dozen players from the respective counties, I don't think anyone in the country would notice (or care about) this change.

[sligeach]

Can I be the first to state well done to the GAA/RTE on their decisions.

Apart from 3 or 4 people on this thread and a couple of dozen players from the respective counties, I don't think anyone in the country would notice (or care about) this change.

Yeah. Thanks wobbler.

Why don't you check out the sligo message board on hoganstand. People who've never seen a hurling game live were talking about going to this.

It would do a huge amount of good for hurling in Sligo.

[AZOffaly]

Can I be the first to state well done to the GAA/RTE on their decisions.

Apart from 3 or 4 people on this thread and a couple of dozen players from the respective counties, I don't think anyone in the country would notice (or care about) this change.

Why wobbler? What would you prefer to see on telly instead? Just because you have no interest doesn't mean nobody else would, and as the GAA are supposed to be in the business of promoting hurling in all counties, not just Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary, why wouldn't they make RTE keep their end of the bargain. You could always turn to Sky Sports or something while it's on.


And anyway, it'd be more in your line to go and sort out your Fantasy NFL team!!!

[theskull1]

Can I be the first to state well done to the GAA/RTE on their decisions.

Apart from 3 or 4 people on this thread and a couple of dozen players from the respective counties, I don't think anyone in the country would notice (or care about) this change.

Seeing the bigger picture there wobbler 

[thewobbler]

Fellas, there genuinely isn't any difference between you expecting Croke Park and TV coverage for these competitons, and Irish League fans expecting a free government stadium and much improved TV time for their local league. The truth is that the public interest isn't there to afford these competitions the coverage or the facilities they want.

It isn't the responsibility of central council, or of RTE, to promote hurling in these minority counties. They can throw all the time, money and effort in the world at it, but unless there is a large number of people on the ground in each of these counties who are willing to put their time, effort and energy into reinforcing the top-level support, it would all be a waste of time. When these counties have the stuctures in place to support hurling success, they can start aiming for the higher ground, not before.

[EddieMerx]

Fellas, there genuinely isn't any difference between you expecting Croke Park and TV coverage for these competitons, and Irish League fans expecting a free government stadium and much improved TV time for their local league. The truth is that the public interest isn't there to afford these competitions the coverage or the facilities they want.

It isn't the responsibility of central council, or of RTE, to promote hurling in these minority counties. They can throw all the time, money and effort in the world at it, but unless there is a large number of people on the ground in each of these counties who are willing to put their time, effort and energy into reinforcing the top-level support, it would all be a waste of time. When these counties have the stuctures in place to support hurling success, they can start aiming for the higher ground, not before.

so give them no coverage and no support and let them develop their own game!!! You would be surprised how many people would watch the game. The standard of one these games would be on a par or above two top club teams so it's not like people would be watching guys trying to pick a ball up while bunching around the centre of the park!! If you watched any of these teams you would be surprised

[AZOffaly]

Eddie, you're wasting your time. Wobbler is a confirmed camánphobe. That's fair enough, obviously, but I don't think we'll convert him..

[Mentalman]

Fellas, there genuinely isn't any difference between you expecting Croke Park and TV coverage for these competitons, and Irish League fans expecting a free government stadium and much improved TV time for their local league. The truth is that the public interest isn't there to afford these competitions the coverage or the facilities they want.

It isn't the responsibility of central council, or of RTE, to promote hurling in these minority counties. They can throw all the time, money and effort in the world at it, but unless there is a large number of people on the ground in each of these counties who are willing to put their time, effort and energy into reinforcing the top-level support, it would all be a waste of time. When these counties have the stuctures in place to support hurling success, they can start aiming for the higher ground, not before.

so give them no coverage and no support and let them develop their own game!!! You would be surprised how many people would watch the game. The standard of one these games would be on a par or above two top club teams so it's not like people would be watching guys trying to pick a ball up while bunching around the centre of the park!! If you watched any of these teams you would be surprised

Not wanting to put words in Wobblers mouth but I think he's on record as saying he doesn't really get the game of Hurling? Tactically etc.? I could be wrong, I apologise if I've spoken out of turn. So I think the objection is more to the amount of money being ploughed into keeping hurling on life support in lesser counties, when that money could be spent on the dominant sport of football? And I guess that's one opinion. Not one I share. You'd be surprised how competitions like Christy Ring have boosted participation and interest in counties like Westmeath and Carlow, by providing a reward to those who do plough the less glamorous furrow that is hurling. On the other hand using the Christy Ring as the carrot to remove conties from the Liam McCarthy but then reneging on promises made to promote the competition tell those volunteers in those counties exactly what is thought of their effort. Should we just let hurling die out in those counties? Would it be OK if Laois, Offaly and Wexford go the same route? We wouldn't have much of an association if everything came down to cold hard cash. Again an example of a people who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing...

[Denn Forever]

Would TV3 show these games or is there some aggreement between RTE and TV3 not to show GAA gtames at the same time?