Throw-in time for Joe McDonagh Cup final has to be the very final straw

Hurling folk are hurling folk.

Laois, Westmeath, Kerry and co. didn't agree to drop down into the tier two Joe McDonagh championship at the beginning of the year. They were forced into it.

"We didn’t really get an opportunity to voice our concerns...There wasn't really any consultation," said Kerry manager Fintan O'Connor on The GAA Hour Hurling Show in February.

As the early rounds of the Joe McDonagh Cup passed, there was no television coverage of the games, there wasn't a peep about the tables or the standings and the attendances dropped as a result. You'd think the first and most important stakeholder in all of this would have been these counties themselves, their players and their management. The GAA didn't see it that way. The GAA didn't even give them a chance to voice their concerns about all of this before they rushed into the formation of the Joe McDonagh Cup. If they had, they'd have met reservations like these from good hurling men like Cheddar Plunkett, who said this in February.

"I will be surprised in three years time if this system is not a complete failure," he said on The GAA Hour Show before the Joe McDonagh Cup even began. "I think there's a real, real danger in this...I'm not so sure if there's been an awful lot of thought put into this. The only thing lads play for is the honour. That can be best served by playing in front of serious crowds. "If this is played out in front of one thousand people, will the top players want to play with their counties anymore?" "I saw no consultations going on with any players on this. Without that, I think it's just destined for failure. To tell Laois, Carlow, Meath and Westmeath that you can't play in your own provincial championships, I think it's an insult to those counties," he said.

It is, and low and behold all of these reservations have come through. After a vow of Joe McDonagh silence, Westmeath and Carlow have emerged from the fog as the last two teams standing in the competition. And to rub salt in the wounds of all the cuts that have gone before, from the low attendances to the reduced coverage, the worst was yet to come. The worst will come on Sunday, the day of the Joe McDonagh Cup final. Instead of it being their day in the sun, yet again it will be a case of these players and these counties getting pushed to the side like nobody gives a damn about them. Their final takes place on the same day as the Munster and Leinster hurling finals. But on top of there being no real focus on Westmeath and Carlow in Croker because all eyes will be on Semple Stadium and the Leinster final, The Joe McDonagh decider directly clashes with the Munster final in Thurles. The Joe McDonagh final throws in at 1.45. The Munster final throws in 15 minutes later. These counties deserve better. These players deserve more for their efforts. This will undoubtedly impact on the crowd going to Croke Park. It will ensure that the TG4 streaming of the final will be largely ignored by wider hurling folk. It will ensure that these hurlers and these counties are marginalised yet again. How difficult would it have been to fix this final for another weekend, for Saturday, so as not to clash with one of hurling's biggest games. The GAA really don't help themselves at times.