As the contests for the championships step up in earnest this weekend, other struggles - no less important to the protagonists - will be hotting up as well, predicts An Fear Rua...

These are the 'battles' between the various organs of the media for the eyes, ears, hearts, minds and - aye - pockets and wallets of hundreds of thousands of GAA fans.

Unlike say twenty, or even ten, years ago, Gaelic games today are 'big' in commercial terms. Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Esat, Eircell, Church and General, Guinness, Tesco, Indigo.... The list of sponsors at national level reads like a veritable 'Who's Who' of the cubs of the Celtic Tiger. Linked to this is the fact that Gaelic games coverage drives newspaper sales - both nationally and for many of the excellent regional newspapers - as well as audience ratings for television and radio.

To many of AFR's younger readers this may seem the natural order of things. But it was not always so. The voluminous coverage of Gaelic games accorded almost on a daily basis by the national newspapers these days was not always there. It has its origins in an old-style circulation 'war' between the Dublin newspapers immediately after the foundation of the now departed - and lamented - 'Irish Press' in 1932. Incredible as it may seem, up until that time, neither 'The Irish Times' nor 'The Irish Independent' carried headlines, photographs nor news reports on their front pages. Right up to the Sixties, the front page of the 'Indo' was entirely devoted to the Death Notices and advertisements by Clerys of Dublin for ladies underwear (Precisely the kind of images that the hero in John McGahern's seminal - if you get my drift - novel, 'The Barracks' used to gaze upon longingly in the solitude of his bedroom). The 'Times' also carried a front page full of Personal Notices. Coverage of Gaelic games in both newspapers could best be described as paltry. Even All Ireland senior football finals were buried away under reports of 'Bohs' playing 'Shels' in some obscure League of Ireland game or Hermes beating Railway Union in Ladies Hockey!

The 'Irish Press', however, in more ways than one, was a revolutionary newspaper. From day one, it put news, headlines and photographs on page one. The resultant growth in readership was spectacular. In a further shrewd move, the 'Press' began to devote a couple of pages each day to GAA coverage - informed, well written and well illustrated. While this didn't knock the Death Notices off the front page of the 'Indo' for many years, it galvanised the other two papers into a response, and so, more extensive coverage of Gaelic games began to develop.

At this stage of the year, it is probably timely, therefore, to run An Fear Rua's shrewd eye over the quality and quantity of current GAA coverage in the national print media and to invite readers to express their views as well. The other night, over a few large bottles of Phoenix ale, in the back 'shnug' of Ma Molloy's famous drinking emporium, a couple of the brighter sparks of Gowlnacalley-John Redmonds helped us come up with 'An Fear Rua's Patent Five Indicators of a Good GAA Journalist'. However, before running this forensic slide rule over the candidates, some general comments are called for.

Sadly, An Fear Rua must express his view that the 'Irish Times' coverage is not all it should be. True, the 'Sports on Saturday' and 'Sports on Monday' supplements give excellent coverage to Gaelic games. In particular, the use of colour graphics, statistical summaries and colour photographs is really good. But for the rest of the week? It's back to the bad old days of the Thirties - paltry coverage, stuck away obscurely with much more prominence given to Cross Channel soccer, golf, horse racing and Ladies hockey. In AFR's view, the only writer on these pages who 'rates' is Seán Moran, but none of them could even be mentioned in the same breadth as the incomparable Paddy Downey, who graced that paper's GAA coverage for many years. Paddy was a Kilkennyman (well, we won't hold that against him, says you!). He knew and loved his hurling through and through. And though a proud son of the Black-and-Amber, his objectivity and neutrality were beyond question and his pellucid prose was worthy of inclusion on a Leaving Cert Honours English exam paper. Paddy, AFR is glad to say, is still on the go. He wrote a piece recently in one of the monthly magazines urging inter-county players to 'pull up their socks' - not meaning that they should play better, but that they should look neater in appearance! Maybe Nicky English will insist on the Tipp lads doing this when they start wearing the long-awaited new 'Louise Kennedy' jerseys.

Some readers may put forward the claims of the current 'Times' journalist Tom Humphries. An Fear Rua would agree that his match reports during that glorious run of Waterford's in the Summer of '98 captured the mood magnificently and he pens the occasional suitably nostalgic column on GAA topics. Humphries, and to an extent Vincent Hogan of the 'Irish Independent,' are the nearest Irish equivalents to a long-established American tradition of sports journalism: lots of colour... plenty of comment... few facts... impressionistic... written with a keyboard in one hand and a Thesaurus in the other... Tom now appears to be on some kind of a sabbatical break in Chicago, writing about baseball and basketball, where he must feel very much at home, and so must be ruled out of contention.

Talking of sports supplements, the 'Irish Examiner's 'Arena' supplement, published every Wednesday, gives excellent in-depth coverage of Gaelic games at certain times of the year, though it is not exclusively devoted to GAA matters. The 'Examiner's' great strength, of course, is the sheer depth and range of its match reports - from every province, in every grade, in hurling, football, handball, camogie and womens' football. Unfortunately, the false impression remains in too many quarters that 'Examiner' GAA coverage is confined to Munster or just the Greater Cork area. On the quality of the analysis provided, however, apart from the estimable Justin McCarthy on hurling, we will draw a veil of charitable silence over the abilities of the other writers.

Looking at the Independent Newspapers Group, let's cut to the chase. In An Fear Rua's view, Eugene Magee is the finest writer on Gaelic football at the moment and is also an incisive commentator on wider GAA issues. At his best, and particularly when the topic is a game of Munster hurling in Semple Stadium, Tipp man Vincent Hogan is a talented 'colour' writer. Martin Breheny is a formidable writing presence, breaking many news stories, and he could be one to watch for the ultimate accolade in the future. Tom O'Riordan's by-line often appears on GAA reports of middle ranking importance, but poor Tom would be better off to have stuck with the long distance running. Liam Horan is ruled out of consideration, because he is no longer a full-time journalists, although he still writes a weekly column on GAA matters. Liam left the Indo's sports pages for the easier task of 'Saving the Wesht' or 'Draining the Shannon' or some such. On the 'Sunday Independent', Dermot Crowe has an uncanny facility for sniffing out strong news stories, though his treatment of them could be improved and he is in danger of being perceived as an uncritical apologist for the cunning stunts of Dónal O'Neill and the GPA.

The 'Sunday Tribune' has never been the same since the unexplained departure of ace GAA writer, Kevin Cashman. Liam Griffin is into his second or third week as a columnist with them. An Fear Rua is a steadfast admirer of the man, but Liam's problem is to avoid writing the same column or making the same speech, week in, week out, that he's been doing for the past three or four years. Elsewhere, on Sunday, as you might expect given it's origins as 'The Title', 'Ireland on Sunday' has a fir