Only for Buff Egan, we wouldn’t have seen a minute of Joe McDonagh Cup action at the weekend.
But that’s not the worst part. Not only did The Sunday Game fail to show any highlights of the second tier hurling competition, the worst part is that they didn’t even mention the results of the three games that took place over the weekend.
As it turns out, with Wesmeath making it three out of three when they defeated Kerry in Tralee on Sunday, the Lake County are now in the driving seat of the competition and on course for a spot in the final.
Just behind them are Antrim, despite their narrow loss to Laois at the weekend, and Carlow, who defeated Meath at Dr. Cullen Park.
In fairness to RTÉ, they have a lot on their plates with round-robin and provincial championship games taking place all over the country these weekends, but surely it wouldn’t have been too difficult for the GAA to strike a deal with TG4 or even eir Sport to provide these games with the coverage they deserve?
Indeed, the only place with footage of the Joe McDonagh Cup at the weekend was on the ‘Hurling Banter Page’ Snapchat, run by hurling enthusiast and social media sensation Buff Egan.
Egan’s reliable and consistent updates as well as his exciting commentary and original catchphrases brings the game to life for many. On Sunday, hurling followers the length and breadth of the country benefited from his updates on the Westmeath Kerry game.
Kilkenny legend JJ Delaney was one of those.
“I think you’re going to have to follow Buff Egan on Snapchat, because he had all the Kerry Westmeath game up, all the scores and that. Only for that, you wouldn’t have seen anything at all,” he said to Colm Parkinson on Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show.
“It was Buff Egan’s tweet that actually alerted me to it (the lack of coverage of the competitions.)”
The Sunday Game havent shown 1 Minute of Action in the Joe McDonagh Cup with 3 Rounds now Played. Why are TG4 not allowed show these games, they do so much Great work Promoting the GAA and would give these players the Respect they DESERVE
— Buff Egan (@buff_egan) May 20, 2018
With this competition being brushed to the side by the GAA, it’s no wonder the majority of football counties are opposing a similar move for a tiered championship in their game.
“We’ve no coverage of it. The big opposition to the football championship becoming two tier is that it’s going to be forgotten about. The evidence is there in the hurling that this is a second tier that’s really exciting,” added Wooly.
“I don’t want to criticise The Sunday Game because I do it all the time, but they hadn’t even read out the results…I couldn’t believe it wasn’t read out.”
Damien Hayes was also disappointed by the lack of respect shown to these teams.
“These guys train just as hard as any of the lads on the top division. The games are close, they’re tight. I feel sorry for these players because we the competition really should be aired,” said Hayes.
You can listen to this chat and much more from Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling show right here.
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