The State of GAA Journalism/Media Coverage

Dirty Dingus McGee

Interested to hear peoples thoughts on it.

For me it's absolutely appalling these days, I don't get any enjoyment out of any GAA coverage which is in stark contrast to other sports where there seems to be a bit of liveliness in the coverage of them by the media.

We only get the independent in our house which is frankly appalling.Michael Verney is good to read but Martin Breheny and Joe Brolly are really such a chore and I have no idea how the newspaper thinks either of them are attracting readers.

In todays paper we had an article about goalkeeping from Martin Breheny which was really an article in the guise of having a pop at the state of the game and in tomorrows Sindo we can look forward to the following from Brolly :

Hamsters on a Wheel "Because I had time to immerse myself in the game i learned to revere it.To appreciate it's deeper value.Nowadays I'd be recovering between sessions.Weary.Bored.Tied to a system that leaves no time for the game". Joe Brolly on how Gaelic Football has become less about the release from the pressures of life and ore a necessary chore on the path to the illusion that is greatness.


The preview of his article is basically building up to another article which is the same as every piece he's written from the last 2 or 3 years.Does nobody in the media every think that maybe people might want a bit of variety in what they read and hear and perhaps they should instruct their writers to stop banging the same drum over and over again.

Seeing as how RTE operates with it's coverage it seems like out and out misery and negativity is what the media wants and they seem to think it attracts people to the coverage.I do wonder is this doing a good bit of damage to the game the amount of misery within GAA coverage in general it must be turning people off the games to some extent before you even watch a match.

Maybe people can put up some worthwhile stuff to read in this thread because there hasn't been much to enjoy in the GAA media in a long while in my opinion and it's quiet depressing.

Jayop

It's absolutely cak and easily the most amateurish aspect of the sport.

Even something like a decent inclusive combined fixture list for the few counties in the country isn't done on any of the main media outlets. Go to Manchester United on the Guardian website or countless others and click fixtures and results and you'll be able to see their upcoming games in all competitions in one place. The gaa you have to go to their own website, go to the championship provinces for those games, the all Ireland for the qualifiers or knock outs, league section for those games, and then if you want preseason fixtures then prepare for a good session on Google.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Jayop wrote: »

It's absolutely cak and easily the most amateurish aspect of the sport.

Even something like a decent inclusive combined fixture list for the few counties in the country isn't done on any of the main media outlets. Go to Manchester United on the Guardian website or countless others and click fixtures and results and you'll be able to see their upcoming games in all competitions in one place. The gaa you have to go to their own website, go to the championship provinces for those games, the all Ireland for the qualifiers or knock outs, league section for those games, and then if you want preseason fixtures then prepare for a good session on Google.

The GAA's lack of grasping how important the internet is is infuriating.It's probably 95% of peoples' first call these days when it comes to getting information.

It would be very easy to set up a good GAA website.

For example it is impossible to get archive results and score sheets, surely this should not be that difficult to arrange and should be a basic feature of the GAA website .Even accessing the fixture list on the GAA website is a pain, I find Hogan Stand easier for that.The GAA website looks like a 4 year old designed it.

Also the webiste should have a link at the top of to each county's website and the format of the County's website should be the same as the GAA's main website.

I know the AFL is a bigger sport but just look at how good there website is in comparision.

http://www.afl.com.au/

nice_guy80

Most of the county board website are disgraceful

especially when you compare them to some clubs, who put excellent websites together and maintain them very well with content

Bonniedog

GAA is definitely way behind the curve when it comes to publicity. As Jayop says its almost impossible to get any information on O'Byrne/Walsh/McKenna etc even though O'Byrne and McKenna get as big crowds for some games as for league fixtures. And they put no effort into promoting the league.

On other hand, independent sites have not done well. Even look at boards, there are relatively few contributors and same applies to other sites. Most successful is possibly the one that has the twitter feeds. About only place you can be sure of getting up to date scores on most games.