TV coverage or lack of it is a major talking point for fans when they should be talking about the games

For the majority of Cork supporters, their experience of a famous victory over Donegal was an afternoon of local radio followed by an impatient wait for The Saturday Game to materialise.

The fact that the highlights show didn’t appear until the early hours of Sunday morning, and wasn’t accompanied by any analysis, didn’t quite satisfy the appetite.

Had it been a schools’ match, an under-age final, a junior decider, or a Christy Ring Cup tie, you could pay your few bob and tune in on Donegal GAA TV.

Yet, a 17,000-capacity sold-out senior inter-county championship match involving the All-Ireland co-favourites and a county with 75,000 paid-up GAA members, some of whom happen to live a 1,000km round trip away from Ballybofey, couldn’t be viewed anywhere until several hours after full-time.

Marty Morrissey even seemed to give a nod to the dearth of coverage when his commentary was finally aired.

“A game that (for) many people was going to be a dead-rubber, of no interest to the country, now it has interest to the people of Ireland and abroad,” he said. 

“History before your eyes!” 

Now, we’re neither arguing that it should’ve been free-to-air amid some worthy contenders, nor that GAA+’s army of pundits needed to descend on MacCumhaill Park, but there remains a stark contradiction between many of the Association’s niche fixtures receiving excellent local coverage, and those of national interest being hidden away.

Kerry and Dublin emerged unscathed from their make-or-break showdowns, yet there would’ve been some recriminations over the lack of broadcast coverage had either been eliminated.

Of the eight games this weekend, four sold out. Two were broadcast, two were not. 

It seems the ticket sales have been strong regardless of TV coverage.

For that matter, as all those venues were staffed with cameras, why not make the full footage available post-match on the RTÉ Player? 

Would that not serve a genuine public interest at negligible cost to the State broadcaster?

Given that the Saturday Game featured no extra analysis, the argument against uploading the raw footage is surely diminished.

For some weaker counties, RTÉ holds a couple of hours of match footage and will only ever broadcast a few minutes of that vault. 

There is a wasted opportunity in the people who would wish to watch those games and the publicity they could generate through social media clips for their county boards.

There isn’t much of a sales pitch required to push this All-Ireland Championship now. 

Who would ever have selected Cork, Louth, Galway, and Tyrone sitting comfortably in their armchairs next weekend, watching who gets to join them in the quarter-finals?

When the Rebels defeated Meath, the immediate sense was that Donegal, who had just demolished Kerry, were the dud draw. 

John Cleary speculated that Cork could still get a harder path to the quarters than the Royals. Chris Óg Jones namechecked “Donegal away” as the ultimate example of a tough test.

So to get that draw, to face into it without your star midfielder, and to emerge victorious is the ultimate commendation of what Cork have achieved this year.

When Ian Maguire missed the Derry league trip, they were steamrolled to the tune of 20 points. 

This time, missing Colm O’Callaghan’s considerable talents, Cork came up with a game plan to gain possession, preserve it, and strike from beyond the arc.

It still required some off-script shooting with Luke Fahy’s two-pointer followed by Tommy Walsh’s incredible orange-flag effort for the impetus to get over the line. Six doubles to none was the winning of the game.

Having made the last eight in John Cleary’s first two seasons, they are back in the mix after two seasons falling short at the previous hurdle.

The last seven times Cork teams have reached the last eight, they haven’t advanced to the semi-finals. 

Now that they are there, and have the competitive edge of not having to play three weeks on the trot like their opponents, they need to press on.

From here on in, it’s all knockout football. It’s all matches broadcast on one platform or another. 

In Marty’s words, it’s every game of interest to the people of Ireland and abroad.

With repeat provincial final pairings avoided, meaning Kerry are out of the equation regardless of next weekend’s results, Cork don’t have too much scar tissue against the other potential opponents. 

They will also avoid meeting Donegal or Meath again in the quarters, having faced them already.

The head-to-head record against Dublin is poor, but they are in a rebuild. 

Any other pairing would have a fresh feel.

Plus, no team is invincible in this championship. Westmeath were the last unbeaten team standing until Galway took them down, just an hour after Armagh fell to Louth.

This championship is truly wide open.