IT WAS A phenomenal Munster final and as usual, the hurling man was ready to celebrate it. Cherish it. What a game. Our game. Irish guaranteed. Wonderfully us.
We knew what was coming, the inevitable reaction. This was a time for widespread celebration. The declaration that this is the greatest game in the world. It was as certain as the fact hurling man can’t trust Galway. The way it was, is and will be. Forever.
All too often football heads exist on the other end of the scale. Time for a reckoning. The game is in crisis. Objections. Protestations. A grand pity party.
Navigating that sea of negativity is clearly frustrating and often unhelpful. But is any sport buoyed by constant positivity either?
Consider how the Tailteann Cup came to pass. The format was passed at the 2019 Special Congress but its introduction was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. In February of this year, Congress voted for a new All Ireland SFC format with the second-tier competition tied into that system for 2023.
From the offset, the complaints were loud. In 2021 then Antrim manager and pundit Enda McGinley labelled it a Losers Cup, criticising the GAA’s plan for not catering in profile or prizemoney. Joe Brolly pointed to the grades in the LGFA and how they allocate financial allocations and All-Stars at every level. Oisin McConville lashed out at the scheduling.
Fast forward to 2022 and the hits kept coming. Kevin McStay wanted the final played on All-Ireland final day. Peter Canavan thought the key is marketing. Separate sponsors, separate awards. Ciaran Whelan looked towards the promotion of Division 3 and 4 in the league as a perfect example of what not to do. Those involved deserve better.
Suddenly GAA president Larry McCarthy stepped into the breach. He has heard the wails; oh, he knew how you felt. Queries? Complaints? Well, they weren’t going to take them lying down. He was ready to return fire.
“I say they do not understand marketing,” he declared when asked for a response to the sideline critics. This competition is getting a press launch. It’s getting its own player awards scheme. There will be games streamed. Semi-finals are on television. They will make a contribution towards a team holiday.
In-game digital clips! A Monday round-up package! GAA.ie Tailteann Cup team of the week! Targeted radio campaigns! Social media specific marketing! It was like an Oprah giveaway, gifts for all. You get promotion! And you get promotion! Profile for all!
To its credit, the competition has been a resounding success. Teams bought in. Games have been streamed on GAAGO. The next two stages are live on television. Promotional head-to-head and sponsored videos have been innovative. Kinks around a North vs South split still need to be ironed out but overall, the juice has been worth the squeeze. Hard work is paying off.
The Joe McDonagh Cup hurling man, a neglected and rare species, would be entitled to look at that package and wonder why he wasn’t afforded the same? And why doesn’t anyone care?
After all, they are both the second-tier championship. The Kerry and Antrim decider last weekend was just the latest prize in a golden competition. 55 scores, 18 different scorers, nine goals. Yellow and black cards, comebacks and penalties. It had it all. The game was a feast compared to the subsequent Leinster final gruel.
Half the games this year finished with a margin of five points or less. Kerry, who finished second, were tied on points with Offaly in third and Carlow fourth. They were just two ahead of Down in fourth.
If a game is a thriller and no one is around to see it, does hurling man still celebrate? There was no Joe McDonagh Cup launch this year. No jazzy videos or promotional campaigns. The only game on television was the final, which went head-to-head with the All-Ireland SFC qualifier between Mayo and Monaghan.
For the third year in a row, Kerry made it to the decider. Antrim won and will compete in the Leinster championship next year. But if Kerry won, they would have to play Tipperary in a promotion-relegation play-off at a neutral Munster venue. This farcical situation was brought about after a move led by Cork to protect their historic provincial championship.
Speaking to RTE, Kilkenny great Jackie Tyrrell labelled the situation a ‘double-standard’ and called for it to be changed. His comments were widely reported. Finally, a conversation had started.
Fintan O’Connor, the previous Kerry manager, was unhappy with this tradition-dictated structure. in 2018, former Kerry hurling captain John ‘Tweek’ Griffin told anyone who would listen how unfair it was. It has been this way for three years. As former Offaly hurler Brian Carroll asked recently, why did it take so long for a conversation to even start?
“Can I make a point,” he told Colm Parkinson on the Smaller Fish Podcast.
“Myself and yourself have been banging on about this playoff for a number of years now. We have constantly said it. Because a bigger fish said it on the RTE podcast, suddenly it has headlines.
“People didn’t want to hear it at the time. Now it might be a possibility. These types of things really annoy me. Some animals are more equal than others. This issue has bothered me for a while now, yes it is important it is highlighted. But they do need to listen to people on the ground and who know the game, who knows how these things affect them.”
Plámás and pretending all is perfect ensure obvious errors are blotted out. Hurling was several years too slow to adopt a cynical foul rule because many could not acknowledge an obvious flaw in the game. Finally, the rule arrived in 2021. The goals per match were the highest in the championship since 2012: 3.5. This year the average stands at 2.9. Change can be good.
We should be able to celebrate a breathtaking game while also highlighting wider failures. Is it not strange that such a great game has failed to spread beyond a single traditional heartland?
After all, it is not a binary choice. Fan or critic? Why not both?
