Three-time All-Ireland winner and current Clare selector Donal Óg Cusack thinks other sports have stolen a march on hurling in promoting their games to the public.
Cusack's Clare team were beaten by five points by Cork in the Munster hurling final at the weekend, the best attended decider in the province since 2008 with 45,558 attending last Sunday's match in Thurles.
A week prior, a crowd 60,032 watched the Leinster hurling final between Galway and Wexford at Croke Park, the largest ever attendance for a Leinster hurling decider.
Despite these headline figures, Cusack fears that not enough is being done to promote the game and its leading players.
And Cusack points to helmets being one of the major challenges to the promotion of hurling, noting that even serious hurling fans might fail to recognise a multiple All-Ireland winner in their midst.
Speaking to Game On on RTÉ 2FM, Cusack said that the GAA hierarchy haven't appreciated the challenged involved in promoting hurling.
"I'm biased and love is blind but I think that hurling is much of an expression of what we have on the island as any art, be it poetry, song, dance, whatever.
"I do think we've a challenge in promoting the game. I don't think it's probably something that's not recognised at the highest levels within the association. The game needs characters. It needs big names
"And if you look at the game currently, if you're looking at the biggest of characters, you're probably looking at Davy Fitzgerald.
"One of the biggest challenges that our game has is the challenge with helmets. You could meet someone and talk to them who would understand everything about hurling games and results and what happened but they could be sitting beside one of the country's top hurlers and you might not recognise them."
Helmets were made compulsory in senior hurling following the conclusion of the 2009 All-Ireland championship and the rule came into operation from the 1st January 2010.
The wearing of helmets had already been compulsory at minor level since 2005 and at U21 level since 2007.
On the introduction of the rule, the GAA said it would prevent and reduce injuries "specifically related to the head, face, eye and dental regions."
Research published in the Journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners in early 2013 found that head injuries had decreased as a proportion of overall injuries suffered in hurling since helmets were made mandatory.
Cusack does not specifically advocate the overturning of the helmet rule but argues that ways need to be found of better promoting the game to the public.
"I think it'll take a big departure. I don't fully know what the answer is but I know that it's something to be conscious of. Because I would suggest that other sports have taken a march on us in that territory.
"And whilst the games are huge in Ireland and rightly so and are very much part and parcel of every community in the country, we can't take for granted that it'll always remain the same."
