Hurling & buffering: Two words that don't go together

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