There are 19 games in May of Ireland’s favourite sport.
One of them is televised.
Galway’s win over Mayo in Castlebar was the football fan’s lot for the entire month of May as they have to wait another three weeks now to see any more of the championship.
Let’s honestly get this into some perspective.
The GAA is the most popular spectacle in Ireland (save for big Republic international games but, as an umbrella of football and hurling, the GAA draws the biggest numbers consistently). Football is the GAA’s most-widely participated and watched code. The championship is the biggest competition of the nation’s favourite sport. And, for the first four weeks of that tournament, one game is shown on any television channel.
Over 41 per cent of the revamped football quarter-finalshttps://t.co/RZuOFHV77L
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) May 8, 2018
That means that next week’s encounter between two of Ireland’s best sides won’t be seen by anyone outside of Healy Park.
Tyrone welcome Monaghan to Omagh for what is so much more than what’s going to be one of the most competitive Ulster championship battles in years. The winner advances to the semi-final and puts one hand on the Anglo-Celt trophy but the loser goes into the first round of the qualifiers.
One of Tyrone or Monaghan – two of the top six teams in the country – are being dumped out next Sunday and nobody will see it on TV.
That day, the hurling takes priority again and you wouldn’t want those Munster games to go without television coverage either – Limerick v Tipp and Cork v Clare – but because the GAA agreed live TV deals with Sky and RTÉ before they added so many more games to both championships, neither broadcaster is in a position to react when they see a game like Tyrone and Monaghan prop up and, thus, they couldn’t do something sensible like ask that it be played on Saturday so they can show that and the Munster hurling too.
But, instead, what we’re getting on Saturday is God damn depressing.
On the same day that two of the top teams in the country could be playing, RTÉ 2 are showing a double bill of Man With A Plan and a rerun of The Big Bang Theory.
RTÉ 1 is showing Daniel and Majella’s B&B Road Trip.
These are our national games. This is our culture. Daniel and Majella’s B&B Road Trip.
So the public must wait until June 3 to see any more football action when Tyrone or Monaghan will contest the Ulster semi-final in a less appealing clash than their own one – they’ll play the winners of Fermanagh and Armagh.
The week after that, Dublin’s second game of the campaign will finally be on TV but, the day before, none of the Round 1 qualifiers will be broadcast.
Mayo lit up the championship through the backdoor last year but their next game won’t be shown live anywhere in Ireland. That has potential to blow up in the GAA’s face because the list of teams Mayo could face in Round 1 means we could have the game of the championship on June 9, but not have it shown on TV.
We’re also missing Dublin against Wicklow in the Leinster quarters, Kerry’s first outing, a potential clinker between Cork and Tipperary and everything in between.
But in Round 1 of the back door, it could be Mayo v Monaghan/Tyrone or Mayo v Armagh/Fermanagh or Derry again or Cavan and it won’t be on TV. And those unable to go to the game will have to make do with the two-minute highlights package instead. Or Daniel and Majella.
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