Midweek GAA show on RTÉ would exist if demand was there

We would wager that our reaction upon hearing that the BBC’s Football Focus is to finish up was not a unique one.

The initial feeling, rooted in the nostalgia of a Saturday-morning soccer fix, is that it is a pity; swiftly followed by mild surprise that it had not already been put out to pasture. Once part of Grandstand, it outlasted its ‘parent’ by almost two decades.

In the modern world, where everything is freely available and so many fans only want to consume content about their teams, a magazine show like that struggles to stay relevant.

When the GAA broadcasting landscape is discussed, the point is often made that one Sunday night highlights show can’t be expected to provide everything we want, given the sheer volume of matches.

It’s a valid point and it is often joined by the suggestion that a midweek programme on primetime television would pick up the slack, allowing room for preview and review in a less-congested fashion.

We have often been a proponent of such a notion, holding the view that a revival of Breaking Ball from the turn of the millennium would tick a large share of boxes.

APPEALING

At the time, it was a fresh and innovative, carrying player interviews that went beyond the usual, “We’ll have to be at our best on Sunday,” along with leftfield features that provided food for thought – for instance, one was with the late Frank Hogan, better known as the man who used to bring the ‘John 3:7’ sign to games.

There were dips into the archives to shed new light on old tales and while getting old players to re-enact seminal moments was a straight copy of ‘Phoenix From The Flames’ on Fantasy Football League, it still entertained.

Initially, Breaking Ball had an 11pm Friday night siting during the summers but the change to the post Six-One News slot took something away from it and the BBX offshoot on a Sunday morning almost felt like overkill.

After the show’s run ended, Páirc Live was on midweek but perhaps too late, while The Committee Room was too conventional. 

At the time that that aired on RTÉ, TV3 also had live games and their magazine show was called, wait for it, Championship Throw-in. It did not have a long shelf life.

Thank GAA It’s Friday was not a title for the ages either, though stylistically it was the closest to Breaking Ball without catching the imagination as much – the marketplace was becoming more crowded and that was a decade or more ago.

There was a championship preview show put together, presented by Echo alumnus and all-round good guy Damian Lawlor, but it was confined to the RTÉ Player rather than being put on ‘normal’ television.

And, unfortunately, that would seem to indicate the cold truth: RTÉ would be falling over themselves to put on a GAA show if they knew it would bring in the viewers, but the fact that shows have come and gone without leaving a mark is proof that the market is simply not there.