Donal Óg Cusack believes that the hurling championship suffered this year due to the media's coverage of Ireland's test series with the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Speaking in RTE's The Sunday Game last night, the former Cork goalkeeper spoke about what he felt was a lack of media coverage ahead of Limerick's tight win over Kilkenny in a classic All Ireland final. And in his opinion, the reason why coverage was so sparse was because newspaper inches were being filled by Ireland's historic test series win in New Zealand.
"Today was an example of how the envelope has been pushed with regards to this game, it’s just getting better and better. Players are getting faster, stronger and the skill levels…" said the three time All Ireland winner.
READ MORE: Limerick crowned All-Ireland champions after holding off fierce Kilkenny challenge
“That performance by Kilkenny would have won a lot of the finals that Brian Cody played in. Now Limerick have taken it on to another level.
“But hurling too often is better to us than we are to hurling. It was a rushed season. Finishing the game now and there being such a distance between the major games is too long.
“We played an All-Ireland quarter-final at 1.30 on a Saturday. This game needs oxygen, as much oxygen as possible. Whoever allowed that to happen is not watching the back of hurling. Was that because there was a rugby game on? Did hurling suffer? I think it did."
Continuing on, the 45 year-old lamented the fact that on the day of the All Ireland hurling final, the sports pages were consumed with articles on Ireland's 32-22 victory over the All Blacks in Wellington. Yet, a person would have to go to page 13 of one particular newspaper before the hurling final was even mentioned.
"I was sitting out in Ballsbridge this morning having a cup of coffee"
"A person opens up a national newspaper and on the front page of the National newspaper, I see the Ireland rugby team."
"And fair play to them, it's obviously a great achievement what they did yesterday," said Donal Óg.
"But then I see him opening up the sports pages, the All Ireland final is on today and not a mention on the front of the sports pages"
"I asked him for a look at the supplement, and it was page 13 by the time there was a mention of hurling," said the Cork legend.
"And there was four pages of hurling compared to the other pages about different sports"
"So while the game is getting better, we can't take our eye off it."
READ NEXT:
Player ratings as Limerick hold off Kilkenny for third successive All-Ireland title
Sligo Rovers goalkeeper Ed McGinty on verge of signing for League One club
Anthony Stokes arrested after evading police for over a year
Holy Grail evades Rory McIlroy as his Open dream turns into a late nightmare
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
