Eir Sport may target Dublin
TG4 will continue to have first and second choice pick of games but, from May, and for the next five years, Eir will be entitled to the next best two fixtures if the televised games don’t clash with TG4’s pair.
That is likely to mean Eir will look at weekday and Saturday championship games and competitions like the Dublin SFC and the Galway SHC are believed to be in their sights.
In a statement, Eir Sport said they will show up to 30 club matches this year. “These are matches that haven’t previously been shown, and we are delighted to open them up to a wider audience.
We will show some big clashes within the AIB GAA Club Championships while broadcasting from parts of the country the cameras don’t often visit,” said Eir TV managing director Glen Killane.
Eir already show 23 Allianz League Saturday matches, which conclude with tomorrow evening’s Division 1 and 3 clashes between Dublin and Roscommon in Croke Park and Laois and Longford in O’Moore Park.
Meanwhile, former Hurling Development Committee (HDC) chairman Tommy Lanigan believes a Special Congress is needed to address the game’s competition structures.
The championship reformat, proposed by Lanigan’s group in 2012, seems to be en vogue again with his successor Paudie O’Neill’s committee last night debating it with a mind to possibly proposing it to Central Council. O’Neill has previously backed the idea of home and away provincial matches.
Lanigan and his group devised a system whereby there would be three round-robin groups of five teams (Munster, Leinster and a developing group) with the top two in each of Munster and Leinster qualifying for the provincial finals.
The winners would go through to the All-Ireland semi-finals with the second-placed teams going into All-Ireland quarter-finals where they would face the winners of the preliminary quarter-finals comprising the third-placed Munster and Leinster teams against the top two in the developing group.
Lanigan saw his recommendation shot down by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) but in light of football’s Super 8 from next year and Galway’s difficulties of gaining a home game in Leinster it is now back on the table.
“When people realised there were going to be 19 football championship games in July and August and only five in hurling, it triggered something. Not to make it sound like hurling versus football but that’s the way a lot of people think with the GAA, unfortunately.
“We were looking at the need for more games. The training-to-games ratio is ludicrous. If you had a structure like the one we proposed you will have the best four teams every time.
"I presented the home and away idea to Central Council and I asked when did the kids of Waterford see Ken McGrath play in Waterford in championship. The gentleman from Waterford told me they saw him against Kerry but in fairness they never saw him in Walsh Park in a big championship game.
“Hurling development committees have to be looking a few years down the road whereas every fixture-making body in the GAA is thinking short term. We probably need a Special Congress for hurling. That’s the only way minds will be focused. I’m optimistic change is coming. The GAA is a slow organisation for change but it does eventually.”
