It might have passed you by but the other day, when nobody was paying attention, RTÉ revealed that for the next three weeks The Saturday Game will only be broadcast on its Player, the national broadcaster’s infamously glitchy streaming service.
This matters because in the condensed inter–county season, where championships are played off at a rate of knots, The Saturday Game has become an important component of GAA broadcasting – and is fast maturing into an equal, if not a superior, to its more established and famous sibling on Sundays.
But this weekend, it matters even more because the GAA, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that two of the football Championship games not worthy of live coverage this weekend are… wait for it… the games involving the reigning All–Ireland champions and the team who are favourites to take their crown. Go figure that one out!
And it just so happens that the third game deemed not worthy of live cameras is a vulnerable Dublin side travelling to Breffini Park to face Cavan on Sunday afternoon, with the added drama of their manager Ger Brennan being released from his 12–week purgatory. Again, the logic behind not broadcasting that is questionable.
Tuned out: Neither Kerry nor Donegal will be on our screens this weekend
Of course, we know all the arguments. Every game can’t be broadcast live. But as we enter the final straight of the summer, with eight Championship games on this weekend – and each of them appealing in their own right – our question is why can’t each of the games be broadcast now?
For years, the GAA’s distrust of the medium of television had been rooted in the effect it would have on attendances – the fear that people would not bother showing up to the live action if they could watch it in the comfort of their own homes.
When the first All–Ireland football semi–final between Kerry and Dublin was shown on Teilifís Eireann back in 1962, it was broadcast on the same afternoon as club action around the country – leading to an outcry among counties.
Tyrone claimed that they had been given insufficient notice to change fixtures while Leitrim said the attendances for their county football semi–finals, on the same day, had fallen by more than a third and demanded some kind of recompense from the GAA.
And that’s how television was viewed for years. With suspicion and distrust, that they would drag the match–going supporter away from the game and keep them in their own living room.
‘If we wipe out the club by allowing television to harm their affairs, we will not exist in 10 years’ time,’ Louth central council delegate Seamus Flood suggested during one of the many debates about how the Association could use the medium.
And this sort of argument would continue for decades.
Even the McNamee report of 1971 proposed doing away with live coverage of All–Ireland semi–finals, and not broadcasting provincial finals, as a means to preserve attendances at club and county games.
Box office: There is a sold–out sign outside Pearse Stadium in Salthill this weekend, as Mark McHugh’s Westmeath bandwagon rolls down from the midlands
Around the same time, there was a rump of GAA people who started to see the endless possibilities that existed with telly and how, through the Association’s own conservatism, they were getting a raw deal while the likes of ‘soccer, snooker, racing and rugby’ were all being shown on RTÉ.
It felt that debate had died, especially since the GAA had entered the technological age with its own streaming service. But here we are, this week, with three of the highest–profile football teams in action and nowhere to see them live.
And the argument, which was always a flimsy as a wet paper towel, that live television would affect attendances can no longer be held up.
There is a sold–out sign outside Pearse Stadium in Salthill this weekend, as Mark McHugh’s Westmeath bandwagon rolls down from the midlands, and that is one of the matches being broadcast.
Donegal’s home game with Cork is also sold out, but that was always likely to be the case given that the Ulster side are back in the creature comforts of a refurbished Seán MacCumhaill Park. Big draw:
Big draw: Donegal’s home game with John Cleary’s Cork is also sold out this weekend
Indeed, such was the demand for tickets that the lack of live coverage has become a real grumble across the county, with fans, councillors, pubs, and cinemas all joining a campaign to get Croke Park to reconsider.
However, the fact remains that any Donegal, Cork, Kerry or Kildare supporter who pays their €160 annual licence fee or the annual €95 subscription for GAA+ have nowhere to watch their county in action on Saturday afternoon.
And the same is true for Cavan and Dublin supporters 24 hours later, unless they make the trip to Breffini Park.
Croke Park have countered that Donegal have been broadcast more than any other county so far this season, with 10 of their ten League and Championship games either streamed or televised.
But now, at the business end, they are being snubbed – and it will be especially difficult for Cork supporters from their footballing heartland in the west of the county, who are more than six hours from Ballybofey.
It’s back to the old days of tuning into the wireless and local radio to hear what is going on, but the supporters don’t even have the benefit of switching on RTÉ 2 for the highlights that evening.
Showdown: Jim McGuinness’s Donegal will be back in the creature comforts of a refurbished Seán MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey this Saturday for the visit of Cork
They have to navigate the RTÉ Player to find it, because of the big jamboree kicking off across the Atlantic. And for those technophobes who can’t find The Saturday Game, there’s always the consolation of Qatar v Switzerland.
One local pub, the Bridge Inn in Dungloe, has been trying to make the best of a bad situation by offering free pints for a ‘match–day hero’ who provides a live stream from MacCumhaill Park. That’s one way around it.
But in this day and age, a time when the GAA have long lost its distrust of TV, to the extent it now has its own channel, surely all eight matches should be available somewhere?
