Ciarán Murphy: Daft scheduling leaves GAA fans channel-hopping between games in biggest Saturday of season so far

Donegal celebrate with the Anglo Celt Cup after beating Armagh in last year's Ulster SFC final. Both teams face off in the final again on Saturday. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

There were quite a few complaints about the fact that Meath’s thrilling win over Dublin, which sent them through to this Sunday’s Leinster football final against Louth, was on GAA+ at the same time Liverpool secured the Premier League title with a 5-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.

It was also on at the same time as Cork v Tipperary in front of 43,000 fans in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, which was the game being shown on RTÉ 2 that afternoon.

The floating sports fan missed Meath’s historic day. It’s true that if RTÉ chose differently, they’d have shown the game that breathed life back into the Leinster senior football championship instead of a game that looked over within a minute after Darragh McCarthy’s sending off.

Life is about choices. If both those games had stuck more rigidly to form lines, RTÉ would have been lambasted for turning down Munster hurling in favour of another Leinster stroll for Dublin.

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I don’t really have much truck with the argument. But this Saturday the Ulster football final is going head to head with Clare v Tipperary in the Munster hurling championship, which is daft. Whatever about going up against the Premier League, surely the GAA shouldn’t be taking itself on.

The Ulster final between Armagh and Donegal starts at 5.25pm on RTÉ 2 and BBC Two, while the hurling starts at 6pm on GAA+. In theory, that will allow you to watch the first half of the football, then switch over, watch the first half of the hurling, before switching back for what will end up being the last quarter of the football during half-time of the hurling. You will do this if, like me, you view simultaneous double-screening as too off-putting to bother with.

Also on Saturday, Galway v Wexford in the Leinster hurling championship is on RTÉ 2 at 3.15pm. In the same competition on the same day, Antrim v Dublin is on at 4pm on GAA+.

This would all be fine with me... if the Leinster football final wasn’t the only game on TV on Sunday. If you turn on RTÉ 2 on Sunday at 1.45pm expecting to see some GAA, you’ll be watching The World’s Most Luxurious Holidays. Clones isn’t likely to feature on that show either.

Clare and Tipperary will meet in the Munster senior hurling championship on Saturday. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

The official line is that the Ulster final was due to be on Sunday before the LGFA enquired about the possibility of a Donegal/Armagh double-header a month ago, which is what has come to pass. If the Ulster men’s final was starting at 1.45pm, as had been the plan, the women’s match would have had to start at midday or earlier. So here we are.

It is not unheard of for the Ulster final to be played on a Saturday. But it seems odd to me. Around the same time as the LGFA made their request, a kite was flown about moving the Ulster final to Croke Park, if it featured Donegal and Armagh and their big fan bases.

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness gave the Croker idea short shrift after his team’s Ulster semi-final win, so the idea never got off the ground. But maybe there’s a connection there?

The success of women’s football over the last 30 years has not been built on double-headers with men’s games. They were within their rights to suggest it, but that was with six weeks’ notice (RTÉ announced their TV schedule on March 18th).

[ Darragh Ó Sé: Donegal and Armagh won’t come up short like Mayo did in their use of the new rulesOpens in new window ]

[ Seán Moran: Three out of four not bad as Dublin’s fall adds spice to provincial finalsOpens in new window ]

The idea that you try to squeeze four GAA games into a four-hour window on a Saturday evening, only to then leave one game as a standalone on Sunday, is bonkers.

Saturday evening will provide two textbook examples of what makes the GAA summer so special – two provincial venues packed to the rafters with colour and atmosphere, just as Castlebar was last Sunday.

The football and hurling All-Ireland champions are both in action on Saturday. Seasons will be on the line in Ennis, while in Clones, Armagh will attempt to win their first Ulster title since 2008. The GAA doesn’t provide a never-ending stockpile of these high-stakes fixtures and we’ve put one directly against another.

From the weekend after next, we’ll have the All-Ireland series in football, with four games on the first weekend, four more the weekend after next, as well as the last two rounds of both provincial hurling championships.

They will be the busiest weeks in the GAA intercounty championship calendar. That’s the way we’ve designed the split season. Not all these big games can be shown and I have no problem with that. But this weekend is a massive dropped ball.

There are even Tailteann Cup games on Saturday, one of which could surely have been moved to Sunday prime time. It will fall to TG4 to entertain us on Sunday at 2pm, with Kerry v Tyrone in the All-Ireland under-20 football semi-final. Maybe that’s the least they deserve for missing out to GAA+ earlier this year.

The GAA‘s relationship with TV is moving at a fair old clip. You can watch your county’s minor and under-20 games on TG4’s YouTube channel or on Clubber, but games in the senior intercounty championships, such as Offaly v Galway two weekends ago, are not available to view anywhere, for any price. That’s obviously dysfunctional.

Friday night games can’t be far away, though I can see why it takes a little bit of organising. But Sunday afternoon games at 2pm in the middle of the championship? That’s the least we should expect.

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