Saturday night was all that was good about the game of hurling and we forgot about the too many handpasses - or throws as they're called nowadays - or the weight of the sliotar or the slowness of HawkEye and instead it was all about the passion, the atmosphere, two teams just going at this with all they had for their jersey and it was magic.
If you were there, that is, because if you weren’t, with that excitement came a fair amount of frustration.
Championship hurling and buffering – two words I never thought would be in the same sentence. So let’s discuss the elephant in the room here.
The issue here for me is not in any way, shape or form GAAGO. I think they are trying to do a great job at a great price in getting our games to us as part of the GAA's media rights deal, which sees RTÉ broadcast 31 Championship matches, while GAAGO has exclusive rights to 38 games: 22 football championship games, nine from the hurling championship and seven Tailteann Cup games.
The issue is the technology in its current form and the frustration it is causing people. Peter Duggan is about to pull the trigger from 20 yards out, you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for this moment and then, bang, no, not a goal in live time but rather a little rotating wheel appears on the middle of the screen.
This was an issue for lots of people, in places like my own, where the sight of the National Broadband vans in recent weeks has filled us with pure joy, to more urban areas also.
It would be great if, as well as the app, we could look at making it a channel option on our TVs like BT Sports or Premier Sports is on mine – I don’t have it but if that button said GAAGO I would gladly pay the subscription on my bill to allow me access to it.
For those who do not have the Sky Box perhaps this could be a runner on Saorview with the same premise applying, it’s there as an option but you must pay extra should you wish to use it.
If people could have watched that match Saturday night without any pausing, well then I honestly feel the complaints and issues would be minimal.
I am sitting here now firmly with my hurling hat on and will make no apologies for this either. It is my passionate opinion that hurling is the greatest game in the world. I love all sports and have played most growing up, as the majority of us have, from Gaelic football to soccer to rugby to being obsessed with golf in recent years but nothing ever gets me going or as excited as a game of hurling does.
I am so lucky in my job as a principal to get to go out each day and watch the pupils in our school playing this great game and watch the joy and passion they get from it too.
At club level of all grades right up to our inter-county stars we love this game, case and point here is my father said to me last year that one of the most enjoyable games he watched was a Junior C game between Ballinahinch and Toomevara, that’s right folks Junior C. I asked why and he said – you just have to love hurling when it’s played with that freedom.
The inter-county season is the showcase of this on a national level and then the club game is all that is brilliant about local GAA and I love the split season.
But I feel hurling is getting pushed more and more into the shadows in terms of showcasing our greatest game. Before summer even began Waterford could potentially already be out of the championship.
One of the greatest games in recent history in the Gaelic Grounds and unless you were there there was a chance your view of it was less than perfect. The same is the case this weekend.
I mean if I’m living in certain areas and my interest in hurling is only so-so, I’m not bothered trying to constantly refresh a match on a laptop. We need to show off this game, show children in pockets of our small island just why this is such a great sport and to give it a try and they too could fall in love with it.
The hurling season at inter-county level is becoming more and more condensed and it is something that needs to be looked at. We are becoming less and less of the talking points and more of the frustration topic.
Hurling people are sometimes too nice and maybe now a stance needs to be taken to say we need to be a bigger part of this picture and not shoved into a few spots here and there.
Promote the game by showing the game, by building them up for people, the games that will enthrall us. If I want to get into rugby I’m not tuning into USA V Namibia to do this, I want to see the two top dogs going at it to understand what the fuss is all about: I want Ireland v New Zealand and be able to see it without any hassle.
That is what Saturday night was and that’s why some people are upset.
I really do hope that after this weekend all the chat is about what a great game we had in Cork and how wasn’t the streaming much better now.
But what a game it was Saturday night – I’ll have more of that throughout this year please.
Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast on the RTÉ Radio Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
