It’s that time of year again. The days are lengthening, the birds have found their voice and there is light at the end of the dark tunnel known as the Irish winter. With the heralding of spring comes the phenomenon known as The League. Ah yes, The League, that child of questionable parentage who is not sure if it is loved or loathed….

De Scribe was surprised, nay almost shocked, when, upon the resumption of The League the GAA populace were bombarded with a blitz of television coverage. A Friday night was when the League started, in Cork, against Kerry. Jesus, what’s going on here? Saturday saw the Dubs entertain Mayo, followed by not one, but TWO matches on the Sunday. Just when the GAA fan had swallowed this rather plentiful meal, along came dessert in the form of another, full 70 minutes, League game on RTÉ. What? Could this really be happening? It’s the first weekend of The League and we are being provided with FIVE full matches, 350 minutes of action; talk about a feast after the famine!

Now De Scribe has an open minded approach when it comes to watching sport – he will watch anything that involves two teams and some shape of a ball. There are many more like him, but there does come a point when the appetite has been so sated that any more consumption is impossible. This may be what is happening to the GAA, in March, before the real action has started.

What has happened so far this season is nothing short of a revolution in the coverage of Gaelic Games. De Scribe can remember as a child that the only live games would be the hurling and football semis plus the finals. Christ, De Scribe can recall the ludicrous situation in 1987 when the Cork and Galway football semi final replay could not be shown live because of some anachronistic GAA rule banning live coverage of replays. What the hell was that all about?!

Today it is the total opposite – anything goes. TG4 have revolutionised coverage of the games, brought hitherto unseen parts of the GAA universe live into our homes. In the middle of November it has been possible to sit by your fireside, Sunday paper on lap, watching thirty men go hell for leather in a mud heap, all for the pride of ‘de parish’.

Now one does not have to leave the warmth/safety of their home in order to savour the delights of the GAA contest. Yet….De Scribe wonders if this is a good thing.

Too much of something soon becomes stale and boring. If we take it that there will be at least three full matches shown every weekend of both leagues (and that is being conservative), then, come the start of the Championship, there will already have been at least FIFTY, yes FIFTY, full matches shown. Think about it. It is safe to say that in the years since television came to this fair land, it took maybe three decades to reach that figure!

Look across the water. In years gone by it was the FA Cup Final that was the one domestic match that was shown live, then slowly more and more began to creep in, until Sky Sports took over and vomited forth a mass of live games every season to receptive sponges. Today, it is not uncommon to find 50% of weekend Premiership fixtures available live on TV. The product has become stale. Attendances at matches are down, figures for Match of the Day on the BBC have dropped alarmingly – in short, there has been overkill.

What we have in The League is a similar scenario. The balance up to now was, as they say in some parts, spot on. The League was given its due, with maybe one, and if there was a Saturday night match, two games shown .The appetite was whetted, not sated. When Championship came around, it was fresh, shining, new again. Now when the ‘Sunday Game’ comes back in May, we may well be burned out, apathetic about yet another game on TV, indifferent to the whole spectacle.

Is the League even worth the coverage it is getting? Make no mistake about it, this competition is still not treated with the respect that Leagues receive in other codes. You don’t believe me? Take a look at the happenings in Thurles last Sunday. What was the attendance there? Did it trouble the 2,000 mark? What kind of a showcase was it for the GAA to show the viewing public a halfhearted contest in a stadium that is accustomed to the full throttle of big Championship days, not the half arsed whine of a League ‘match’.

Pad Joe declared that he was ‘not a league man’. Is the GAA a league association? It is ironic that the lesser of the association’s two main intercounty competitions may receive more media coverage (in terms of live/deferred matches) this season. The League does not represent the best of our games, the true spirit of them. By allowing so much coverage of them before the real deal of the Championship, the GAA is presenting a false image of its product. Dara O Sé in February is not Dara O Sé in July, at the height of Munster Championship time. DJ Carey in the muck and mud of Nowlan Park is not the DJ Carey who dances around the hallowed sod of Croke Park in the heat of Championship battle. The spotlight is being focused when the show has not even started.

Message to GAA HQ – sometimes less is more. We wait for the real games to begin…

It’s that time of year again. The days are lengthening, the birds have found their voice and there is light at the end of the dark tunnel known as the Irish winter. With the heralding of spring comes the phenomenon known as The League. Ah yes, The League, that child of questionable parentage who is not sure if it is loved or loathed….

De Scribe was surprised, nay almost shocked, when, upon the resumption of The League the GAA populace were bombarded with a blitz of television coverage. A Friday night was when the League started, in Cork, against Kerry. Jesus, what’s going on here? Saturday saw the Dubs entertain Mayo, followed by not one, but TWO matches on the Sunday. Just when the GAA fan had swallowed this rather plentiful meal, along came dessert in the form of another, full 70 minutes, League game on RTÉ. What? Could this really be happening? It’s the first weekend of The League and we are being provided with FIVE full matches, 350 minutes of action; talk about a feast after the famine!

Now De Scribe has an open minded approach when it comes to watching sport – he will watch anything that involves two teams and some shape of a ball. There are many more like him, but there does come a point when the appetite has been so sated that any more consumption is impossible. This may be what is happening to the GAA, in March, before the real action has started.

What has happened so far this season is nothing short of a revolution in the coverage of Gaelic Games. De Scribe can remember as a child that the only live games would be the hurling and football semis plus the finals. Christ, De Scribe can recall the ludicrous situation in 1987 when the Cork and Galway football semi final replay could not be shown live because of some anachronistic GAA rule banning live coverage of replays. What the hell was that all about?!

Today it is the total opposite – anything goes. TG4 have revolutionised coverage of the games, brought hitherto unseen parts of the GAA universe live into our homes. In the middle of November it has been possible to sit by your fireside, Sunday paper on lap, watching thirty men go hell for leather in a mud heap, all for the pride of ‘de parish’.

Now one does not have to leave the warmth/safety of their home in order to savour the delights of the GAA contest. Yet….De Scribe wonders if this is a good thing.

Too much of something soon becomes stale and boring. If we take it that there will be at least three full matches shown every weekend of both leagues (and that is being conservative), then, come the start of the Championship, there will already have been at least FIFTY, yes FIFTY, full matches shown. Think about it. It is safe to say that in the years since television came to this fair land, it took maybe three decades to re