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Aside from last weekend’s blockbuster in the Athletic Grounds, it was a quiet enough opening Championship weekend. Mayo stretched their legs in Ruislip, a few strictly local affairs in Tullamore, Markievicz Park and Dr Cullen Park. Not a whole pile to get excited about.
Which might be why there has yet to be any outrage about GAA+ and their schedule of around 40 live Championship games. We will have to wait a while before the Liveline switchboard lights up over having to shell out a few quid to watch a game — we reckon it will happen in May when they have the audacity to put the sanctity of the Munster hurling championship behind a paywall two weekends in a row.
GAA+ is a fine service, now owned completely by Croke Park after their shrewd decision to buy RTÉ out of their 50% stake in the streaming platform, to the tune of €3million.
And credit where it’s due — they’re providing free season passes to more than 30,000 residents and staff in HIQA-registered private and voluntary nursing homes nationwide. But their choice of games for the opening weekend was a bit bewildering. Mayo romping past London on Saturday afternoon and the annual joust in the Bronx on Sunday night — when all eyes would have been on Augusta and Rory McIlroy.
Surely, as the GAA’s own streaming service, they should be a bit more judicious and provide content for all the association’s members.
Steven Poacher’s young Leitrim side upset neighbours Sligo
Would GAA+ not have better served their subscribers — and the wider membership — by showing the local derby in Sligo, where Steven Poacher’s young Leitrim side were hoping to upset their neighbours?
And while the streaming service will no doubt be getting it in the neck next month, for daring to show the Cork hurlers’ clash with Waterford, their decision to ignore the Cork footballers yesterday didn’t even cause a ripple down south — perhaps just showing how much the Gaelic team remain the poor relation on Leeside.
Yet there is more public interest in the Rebels right now than there has been for some time. John Cleary is building a fine side who were just promoted back to Division 1 for the first time in a decade. Stephen Sherlock and Chris Óg Jones are just the sort of sharpshooters who might ask questions of Kerry in the Munster final.
So, it is not only the small footballing fraternity of Cork who would have appreciated seeing how they demolished Limerick on Sunday. But they had to be content with radio commentary.
In many ways, GAA+ is an impressive service, which should be noted when the outrage cranks up in a few weeks’ time. But as the choice of games this weekend has shown, it is far from perfect. There are still a lot of creases to be ironed out.
To win over any remaining doubters about the validity of this service, they should be making more of a play of showing games — and counties — usually ignored when it comes to broadcasts. Sligo v Leitrim wouldn’t be remembered long into the summer, but had they shown it on Sunday, some would have remembered it.
