Talking Sport
Shutting out the media will damage GAA in the long term
Talking Sport – Stephen Glennon argues change in attitude towards the press is detrimental to the Association
Former Cork goalkeeper, All-Ireland winner, All-Star and Sunday Game analyst Donal Óg Cusack wrote a very interesting article over the Summer regarding the decline in the relationship between the media and GAA players.
His On The Line piece, which featured on the official GAA website, offered plenty of food for thought and cited a couple of examples where the media – or the national press to be more specific – had used a throwaway remark by a player to create a controversy.
One of the examples he alluded to was Joe Canning’s comments about Kilkenny and Henry Shefflin following the 2012 All-Ireland drawn final, which some journalists – national journalists, I might add – decided to put their own interpretation or spin on.
Basically, Canning said the Cats, and Shefflin, were a bit cuter when dealing with the referee. Questioning the “sportsmanship” of remonstrating with the man in black – as most do – the Portumna sharpshooter noted Kilkenny were simply using their experience to get something from the game.
Next thing, though, a media storm had erupted – Canning v Shefflin. Cusack believed the “debacle” was an attempt to cause a “blood feud” and he asked: “So why would Galway players make themselves available [for interview] again?”
Cusack said it was because of contrived controversies like that one which caused a distrust between GAA players – and, indeed some managers – and the media. And he was right. The chasm between both sides continues to grow with every passing year and it is not good for the game.
It’s not only at national level. At local and provincial, there is also a gap emerging. It is not necessarily – at least I would hope not – borne out of distrust but, whatever the reason, the whole dynamics between the media and local GAA has begun to change.
Throughout my 15 years so far as a local ‘hack’ – having also played the game and coached hurling and camogie sides in that time – I have always had a good relationship with managers and players across the GAA spectrum but, in recent times, it has often become a song and dance to get a quote or team news.
God be with the days when the local newspaper could ring the manager or a player and they would be genuinely excited to be doing a piece. Or, if you called out to a training session – pre-arranged with the club – how they would be so enthusiastic and embraced the arrival of the local press as part of the fanfare of the county or All-Ireland final build-up.
For clubs like Portumna and Corofin, it can become somewhat repetitive, but hopefully they still recognise the role the local media plays in promoting their club and the game, in enhancing the sense of occasion, and, from a newspaper perspective, having this moment in time recorded for posterity.
Over the past year or so, though – and colleagues here and reporters in other media outlets have remarked on this – the relationship between the local media and the GAA has begun to alter.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune
Connacht raise the roof again with magnificent late heroics
Inside Track with John McIntyre
THE dramatic finale at the Sportsground on Saturday ought to have made the RTE Six One News sporting headlines, but there wasn’t a mention of Connacht’s extraordinary late heroics against Gloucester which keeps the province’s hopes of reaching the European Champions Cup quarter-finals alive.
Instead, the rugby spotlight was on Munster’s away defeat to champions Saracens. Later during the sports segment on the Six One News, Connacht’s never-say-die comeback was relegated to the last match of the Champions Cup wrap up. RTE, in their wisdom, believed that Munster’s 15-6 loss and Leinster’s routing of a makeshift Northampton on the same day were somehow more meritorious.
If Leinster or Munster had achieved what Connacht did in the latest round of European pool matches, can you imagine how gushing RTE’s coverage would have been? When a Tipperary man with a strong GAA background starts taking offence over Connacht not getting the coverage they are entitled to, it does give an insight into why rugby in the West feels hard done by in terms of national acclaim.
For all that, last Saturday was another thumping experience on College Road. With their European Championship knock-out ambitions on the line, it was victory or bust for Caolin Blade and company. But when Connacht trailed by 24-13 with less than six minutes remaining, it was impossible to see how they could salvage a result.
A pragmatic Gloucester already had the four-try bonus point in the bag. They may have trailed 10-7 at the break having faced the elements, but tries from Mark Atkinson (two) and captain Lewis Ludlow turned the game on its head. Connacht were remaining competitive but the breaks were going the way of a team they had never previously beaten.
The home fans in the crowd of 6,800 were understandably resigned to the worst. The yellow carding of Ludlow for a deliberate knock on meant Gloucester were reduced to 14 for the closing minutes, but nobody at the Sportsground thought much of it. Connacht were 11 points behind with time running out. They needed a miracle.
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Connacht Tribune
Being backed into a corner could help to ignite the Galway hurlers
Inside Track with John McIntyre
MICHEÁL Donoghue faces the biggest challenge of his management career so far after Galway’s latest subdued display of 2019 at Pearse Stadium last Sunday. A lot of the same personnel are still there from the team’s magnificent All-Ireland triumph of two years, but the form of a number of influential players has nose-dived since last September’s championship loss to Limerick.
After a late collapse against Waterford in the National League quarter-final, Galway had some questions to answer ahead of their Leinster campaign and not withstanding their significant injury problems over the past few months, the Tribesmen’s stock has continued to decline judging by this month’s displays against both Carlow and Wexford.
Though it’s far from a full-blown crisis and we must keep a sense of perspective, there’s no point being wise after the event. On the evidence of what have seen to date this summer, Galway are dicing with an unexpected premature exit from the championship unless the squad can rediscover the hunger, intensity and quality which characterised many of their performances in 2017.
The continued absence of Joe Canning – and it is a mighty blow – can’t explain everything. Sure, Daithí Burke, Joseph Cooney, Jonathan Glynn, Adrian Tuohey and John Hanbury, an important introduction against Wexford, remain short of competitive action, but as a package, Galway should still be better than this.
Failing to find the net against either Carlow or Wexford, together with the lack of fluency and sharpness, has some local alarm bells ringing, leaving the team management with plenty to ponder on ahead of Sunday week’s big collision with Kilkenny. Lose that and Galway’s season will hang on getting a result at Parnell Park – an unforgiving venue at the best of times.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
CITY TRIBUNE
St Thomas’ man behind the scenes typifies why club is going so strong
Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon
WHAT was meant to be a few minutes of soundbite ahead of St. Thomas’ All-Ireland senior club hurling semi-final clash against Cushendall on Saturday has metamorphosed into a full-scale Talking Sport interview. Simply, because, Claude Geoghegan is an interesting guy.
For the past decade, Geoghegan has been the man behind the scenes and in his own inimitable way he has contributed just as much to St. Thomas’s success story as anybody else in Kilchreest and Peterswell. Perhaps, even more so.
As club secretary, he presided over St. Thomas’ historic county and All-Ireland club victories in the 2012/2013 season while, in the past three years, he has served as selector under managers John Burke and Kevin Lally, winning a county senior crown with each in 2016 and 2018 respectively. It is a proud record.
“I have held a few positions alright over the best part of a decade now — four or five years as secretary — and this is my third year involved now with the senior team. It is a way of life, I suppose, more than anything else,” begins the 31-year-old.
“When you are from a rural locality, it is what you are brought up with. It is what you know. If I wasn’t involved in the club in some capacity, I would feel I had a bit too much spare time on my hands. I would feel a bit odd without it, being honest.”
A history teacher at Presentation College, Athenry, Geoghegan explains his family are steeped in GAA tradition. His father Seamus hurled with the club before managing the intermediate team, as it was back then, while his older brother James has also done his duty as club secretary.
“Also, when the club amalgamated in 1968, my father was on the U14 team that won the county championship that year. We actually haven’t won the ‘A’ championship at U14 since. We have won plenty, but not that.”
Indeed, three SHC county titles in the last seven years would suggest that St. Thomas’ is a very special club but Geoghegan argues they are no different to any of the other clubs around. “Every other club is putting in the time that we are putting in. We are not special in any way in comparison to anyone else but we are incredibly fortunate to have a special group of players who have come together at one time.”
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.