Will someone think of the hurlers?
Promotion of the game leaves a lot to be desired as sports like rugby and golf take the spotlight
You’d think the League’s return would come with double fanfare
ANOTHER week when the news cycle looked like one extended episode of The
Day Today, the current affairs satire that was the brainchild of Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and that featured Alan Partridge as a roving sports reporter.
All that was missing from this week’s LIV golf promo was Partridge’s comic creator Steve Coogan playing the lead role in the short video put together to highlight the 2024 season launch and more particularly, the bigname signing of Jon Rahm.
The defection of the Masters champ to the Saudi-backed breakaway tour was the ultimate golf disrupter, doing more to undermine the legitimacy of the PGA tour than any other LIV signing.
It came after the gifted Spaniard had played a leader’s role in Europe’s thrilling Ryder Cup win over the US, had genuflected at the altar of Seve and the history and traditions of the tournament. He’d even gone on record declaring his ‘fealty’ to the PGA Tour when LIV first set about buying up shares in golf’s future, suggesting ‘the only appeal I see is monetary, right?’ and that nothing could match the ‘history’ and ‘legacy’ of the PGA Tour.
But this week, after a move believed to be in the order of $500million, he explained the decision behind the name of his new LIV Golf team, ‘Legion XIII’.
‘I wanted to go down the warrior spirit mythology side for the team’s name. The term loyalty is very important for me... During the Roman Empire, there was the iconic Legion XIII Gemina in Caesar’s army. They believed in the credo of faithful loyalty.’
Welcome to golf’s version of The
Day Today.
His warrior team consists of Caleb Surratt, Kieran Vincent, neither of whom have ever had the word ‘iconic’ inked beside their names. Oh, and fellow Ryder Cup star Tyrrell Hatton, whose move was only announced a matter of hours before.
As a mix of bonkers and bombast, it will take some beating. The Lion badge team signature was another lovely understated touch.
PARTRIDGE — whose comical lack of selfawareness is his USP — would have been proud to unveil this new 13th team.
I guess nothing beats the hard sell of professional sport. And Rahm can point to how the PGA Tour sold the players out by agreeing to a shock proposed merger.
The week before it was Netflix and Six Nations: Full Contact, their behind-the-scenes look at the 2023 tournament dovetailing with the launch of this year’s renewal.
If there was an obvious flaw, it was that this latest mirror of the wildly successful Drive to Survive didn’t have much behind-thescenes insight. That was because the Six Nations did the deal with Netflix unions rather who, in than turn, the then individual provided different levels of access. Unfortunately for Ireland fans, there is only superficial coverage of the World No 1 rugby team winning a Grand Slam.
But hey, everybody loves a trier, right? And between the LIV and
Full Contact, reams and reams of column inches have been devoted to golf and rugby.
Meanwhile, back in the world of amateur Gaelic games, the Allianz Hurling League was launched this week.
The phrase ‘launch’ though was a touch ‘LIV’ in the sense of being overblown. It involved a group media Zoom call with Limerick’s Diarmaid Byrnes and Kilkenny’s Richie Reid, two central participants in last year’s All-Ireland final.
It echoed the previous week’s launch of the Allianz Football Leagues with Galway’s Damien Comer and Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor. Both box-office players were generous with their time and answered any question thrown at them in engaging fashion but a Comer hamstring niggle and the quirk of team selection meant that of the only two footballers put forward for interview to promote the GAA’s secondary competition, neither even started in round one last weekend.
Cast your mind back to before Christmas, when the hurling agenda was dominated by the controversial plan by the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee — leaked after a Central Council meeting — to axe five counties from National League participation. Any county with less than five clubs — and that meant Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Fermanagh, Cavan — would be prohibited from league competition from 2025.
Such was the backlash — from the teams themselves, their players and managements, and ultimately their county representatives — that the plan was shelved. At least for now.
Other important contributions to GAA’s Development the former debate National manager came from Hurling Martin the Fogarty justification’ who said for the there proposal, was ‘no financial or otherwise. I spoke to long-time Connacht development officer Damien Coleman who described it as ‘very damaging’ and said, ‘the way to develop any sport is not to abandon playing opportunities’. players deserve from ‘inclusivity’ He these stressed counties and how ‘respect’. Such was the blowback that GAA president Larry McCarthy even set up a new hurling workgroup.
And yet, it’s as if nothing has been learned.
AWHOLE month of blood and thunder and important debate about how best to promote and develop a sport recognised by UNESCO for its Intangible Cultural Heritage – yet not recognised enough by its own association to properly promote the Hurling League.
There was no representative of any other county outside the Munster and Leinster champions.
No representative from Divisions 2A, 2B, 3A or 3B.
Or any of the very counties who were threatened with the axe from League competition only a matter of months ago — but who have their own stories to tell, if the will is ever there to tell them.
No representative from all those counties screaming out for profile and publicity and promotion — whether Antrim or Offaly or Westmeath in Division 1 or Laois and Kerry in Division 2A and so on.
And all this after another debate around the whole competition’s format which is to change in 2025 — to help make the competition more meaningful. This reporter is old enough to remember when the League launches often involved managers or representatives from multiple teams across the divisions.
Twenty years ago the hurling League launch at the Burlington featured four managers — Brian Cody (Kilkenny), Dinny Cahill (Antrim), Humphrey Kelleher (Dublin) and Pad Joe Whelahan (Limerick).
Add in the president and a sponsor’s speech and it made for a proper promotional launch. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern even dropped in for that year’s football launch, which featured a certain Mickey Harte and Dublin manager Tommy Lyons.
How has it devolved to this?
Especially when the split season means the promotional window for inter-county has narrowed — after a near six-month hiatus you’d think the return of the League would come with double the fanfare.
Meanwhile, LIV is inventing its own history. Limited access didn’t stop Netflix feeding off the launch of the Six Nations, with rugby having had an audience bump from the World Cup — Ireland’s group match with Tonga was watched by nearly one million viewers, eclipsing the audience for the All-Ireland hurling final. This column has argued for the need for a director of hurling. A beefed-up version of the role that Fogarty inhabited, with provincial directors reporting in. To protect the best interests of the game.
Because somebody needs to.