GAELIC GAMES: The busiest weekend of the GAA year got under way last night in controversy with the refusal of the Cork hurlers to speak to RTÉ pending the resolution of a disagreement with the broadcaster over the product placement of an energy drink during post-match player interviews.
The drink's manufacturers - who sponsor the Gaelic Players' Association - have offered €500 to any player who displays the product on camera during such interviews. RTÉ have refused to allow this in recent weeks leading to some players - including Dublin's Alan Brogan and Kilkenny's DJ Carey -refusing to talk to the station after matches.
Talks between RTÉ and the GPA have been taking place over the past few weeks and it is hoped that the matter can be resolved at the next meeting this coming Tuesday.
At last night's Cork hurlers' media conference, ahead of the Munster final, Pascal Sheehy of RTÉ was told by the team captain Seán Ó hAilpín: "We as members of the Cork senior hurling team have made a conscious decision not to co-operate with RTÉ for the time being until the issue with the GPA has been addressed properly."
Team manager John Allen backed his players' stance. RTÉ Head of Sport Glen Killane responded last night that the broadcaster was bound by legislation and EU directive.
"With regard to drinking on air, our hands are tied," he said on the RTÉ news. "We're hoping we can talk to the GPA about coming up with some sort of a solution in the near future."
On the playing front, the GAA is facing its busiest weekend of the year with the first round of the All-Ireland qualifier series in football and hurling taking place.
This means that there will be 10 qualifier matches, along with six football championship ties, as well as two Christy Ring Cup and six Nicky Rackard Cup fixtures.
The biggest crowd of the weekend will be at Croke Park tomorrow for the Leinster football semi-finals double bill
of Laois-Kildare and Dublin- Wexford. A sell-out of over 80,000 is anticipated.
As of yesterday, only a few thousand tickets were left on sale at the Leinster Council offices in Portlaoise and Croke Park.
"We gathered around two and a half thousand tickets this morning," according to Leinster secretary Michael Delaney. "If there are any left they will still be on sale tomorrow (Saturday) and in the afternoon we'll be making a decision on whether there'll be any sales on Sunday.
"Demand has been higher than I would have expected, but Laois have been buying more than they did for the last round and there's been a big upsurge in both Dublin and Kildare. Demand in Wexford has been a bit disappointing with only 4,000 tickets gone out."
The full house isn't the only thing keeping Croke Park busy as the 24 fixtures, some of which admittedly are on double bills, have to be serviced by the GAA media office.
"There's a huge demand for match programmes," said Danny Lynch, the association PRO. "Putting them together seems simple, but it means chasing up a lot of teams and all games have to be treated properly. Then you've to organise printing and the distribution network."
Dublin county board chief executive John Costello said the county's allocation had sold out early. "We had to ask for more and, in the end, I'd say we shifted between 35,000 and 40,000.
"On Thursday morning in Croke Park where we organised our sales there were up to 1,000 people for the last of the tickets. We were restricting people to two each, which was causing some ill feeling, but there wasn't much else we could do given the phenomenal demand."
This evening in Clones, Armagh play Donegal in their Ulster replay, which will be televised live on RTÉ 2.
Tomorrow sees a triple bill of matches being broadcast in full: All-Ireland finalists Mayo play Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final, All-Ireland champions Kerry take on Limerick in the Munster semi-final and showing as a deferred broadcast after the matches have ended, the Dublin-Wexford Leinster semi-final.
