The former RTE pundit Pat Spillane was writing in his column with The Sunday World and hit out on Donal Og Cusack for his criticism of the Tailteann Cup.
“After Donal Óg Cusack’s rant and the over-the-top criticism of GAAGO of recent weeks I was expecting more uproar last weekend when the Clare versus Waterford hurling game wasn’t shown on RTÉ.
Yet there was no sign of ‘the Great Hurling Man’ on Liveline or any other media outlet. Would it have anything to do with the fact that the match turned out to be a turkey?
I swear if the ‘Hurling Men’ had their way, there would be a 15-minute tribute to the sport before the Angelus every evening, eulogising Mackey, Ring and Cúchulain’s game..
Anyway, Donal Óg is still at it, still digging in the hole.
His comments about the Tailteann Cup, that it was a Grand National for also-rans, were way out of order.
As a former leader of the GPA, and still its president, it was a cheap shot, demeaning our players, and not helping hurling’s cause in any way.
And by the way, while we are on the subject of streaming, I regularly use Clubber, another excellent streaming service where you can pay to watch club games.
They had five matches available to purchase last weekend – two Munster Ladies Football semi-finals, the Munster Camogie Final, and two Joe McDonagh Cup matches, Kildare-Down and Kerry-Laois.
Did I hear anyone complaining about those games not being free-to-air? Like hell, I didn’t.
Because what we’ve heard over the last few weeks has been selective, opportunist and populist – and I hope now we move on to far more serious issues in the GAA world.”
Well done to Pat .It had to be said.
Pat your a just plain silly..what a goose of a brain..
What annoys me about GAA coverage on radio and tv is a rugby match being shown live on tv (no problem with that) and live commentary of same rugby match on both RTE and newstalk radio, while big hurling and football games are behind a paywall. This happened two weeks running.