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Turlough O'Brien: "I often say at home if there was a national league of journalists - they'd all be in division four!"

Carlow manager Turlough O'Brien has hit out at the lack of coverage in the national media for sma...



Turlough O'Brien: "I o...
Football

Turlough O'Brien: "I often say at home if there was a national league of journalists - they'd all be in division four!"

Carlow manager Turlough O'Brien has hit out at the lack of coverage in the national media for smaller counties arguing that releasing a few players for choreographed media events leads to repetition in the mainstream media.

He joined Saturday's panel on Off the Ball alongside Paul Rouse and Keiran Cunningham, and speaking to Richie McCormack, he said: "I have always felt this obsession with Dublin, in particular, who are one of the best teams of all time, make no mistake about it and full of incredible talent, I think the whole approach by the GAA in terms of how it's promoting the game and marketing the game is wrong. 

"The concentration on Dublin and Kerry is not doing anything for promoting the game across the country. 

"Jim Larkin said 'the great appear great because we're on our knees' but that applies to us in the GAA as well like. The great appear great because we're not getting a mention, we're not in the story.

"I think there are fantastic stories across the country in every county that are not being covered and I think there's a great opportunity for the national newspapers to get in on this.

"Carlow had a great year and we've had great stories and we've actually embraced the whole media end of it because we want to promote the game but that could happen in any county in Ireland. 

"I just think this concentration on press nights where journalists only have access to two or three players is wrong as well. I think it's not doing anything to promote the game. I pick up the newspapers, I buy a lot of newspapers the day after the press nights and I'm reading the same story in all the papers. That's no promotion. 

"I think the media should respond by going for stories elsewhere because I think you will get them. If they're interested in promoting the game, certainly from a Carlow point of view, we've had so little coverage in my lifetime in the national newspapers that we said we were going to embrace this year and take any opportunity we could to talk about Carlow - we'd talk it up as best we could. 

"I don't break a leg to be in the media but I think it's important that we promote Carlow. You know, I often say at home if there was a national league of journalists, they'd all be in division four!"

Turlough O'Brien: "I often say at home if there was a national league of journalists - they'd all be in division four!"

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