DÓNAL ÓG CUSACK launched a blistering attack on the GAA and RTÉ for their failure to screen more Munster championship games on free-to-air TV.
The pundit made his comments on The Sunday Game, where he said the GAA have waved the white flag when it comes to the promotion of hurling. He also said that 2023 has been “given over to rugby country” on RTÉ.
So far this season, Cork v Tipperary, Tipperary against Clare and Limerick v Clare have been shown exclusively on GAAGO and not on terrestrial television.
“Hurling needs oxygen,” said Cusack. “I have no issue with pay per view. That’s part of the landscape and it has its role to play.
“By next weekend when Clare play Waterford, four of the biggest Munster championship games will have been on pay per view. The GAA have introduced this microwave hurling championship, this compressed season, where there’s 11 weekends of hurling. I would say three or four of those now, you’re not going to have any games on free-to-air and you have to ask – who is accountable for the promotion of hurling, because whoever it is is not doing a good job.
“The GAA took on trusteeship of it. It looks as if they’re actually shrinking the game instead of growing it. And you’d have to question, are RTE and the GAA exploiting hurling?
Impassioned debate on the broadcasting of hurling. #SundayGame. pic.twitter.com/eKL6O0zKte
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“How many Munster championship games in football compared to hurling have they shown [on GAAGO]? It looks very like that they’re using hurling to get this joint venture off the ground, whereas it should be the other way around.
“There’s loads, hundreds, thousands of brilliant, brilliant volunteers who are trying to grow hurling. As I said at the outset, it needs oxygen. There’s no better oxygen that you can get in the game than the imagery coming out of the likes of Tipp and Clare, from a full Ennis. That being beamed into every house in Ireland. The Clare and Limerick game, the power of that.
“My nephew can name all of Liverpool squad. I don’t think the young fella was ever in Liverpool. Why is that? The opportunity we’ve lost over the last number of weeks to market the game has been huge.”
Cusack said it was heartening to see so many kids attending games such as Cork-Tipperary with hurleys in their hand, but said “new demographics” needed to be targeted.
“What about all the kids that we’re trying to introduce into the game, trying to grow the game, trying to bring new demographics into it? We’ve lost a huge opportunity over the last number of weeks and I would say that the GAA has failed horribly at this stage.”
Jackie Tyrrell, the former Kilkenny hurler and Cusack’s fellow Sunday Game pundit, said hurling was struggling for space on terrestrial TV compared to football.
“A Munster championship is the jewel in the crown that is the hurling world and yet two of the best games this year have been on GAAGO. I have no issue with GAAGO; why are we selecting those two games at such an early stage in the GAAGO journey? How many people would have watched those games if they were free to air?”
Tyrrell added that the Tailteann Cup final was on live on RTE last year while the hurling “struggles to get its main games on”.
“The Joe McDonagh’s an outstanding competition, there’s not even a hope of that getting mainstream TV when we can’t get our main games on. That’s what the frustration is,” he said.
Cusack said: “These are facts. Last year we had an All-Ireland quarter-final played at lunchtime. The next day there was a Tailteann Cup game on Croke Park.
“I came in downstairs here [RTÉ] and was looking at the screen and I thought something looked strange about Croke Park. The cameras were on the other side of the field. Now I can only assume those cameras were put on the other side of the field so that the crowd would look bigger.
“Someone had the back of Gaelic football. If someone had the back of hurling in that same way, there is no way they would have sold out with those games over the last number of weeks.
“And the last point I’ll make, Jacqui [Hurley, Sunday Game presenter], is I sat over there and the head of sport in RTÉ was here, you were here, and I said that given what was coming — that was a number of months ago — given what was coming with the coverage of the games in this country and on this station, we should put a rugby ball up in the corner of the screen up there.
“And I’m very proud of the Irish rugby team and they’re a credit to the country and we all hope they win the World Cup, but in terms of being a competitive space, the GAA have waved the white flag because we’ve now given over 2023 to rugby country.”
