RTE DEFENDED not televising the upcoming Allianz Hurling League clash between Cork and Limerick.
The Rebels meet the Treaty County at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Division 1A on Saturday evening.
The TV listings for this weekend’s GAA action was released on Monday, with RTE coming under fire for not showing Cork vs Limerick.
Instead, RTE 2 will broadcast the Division 1 football league meeting of Armagh vs Tyrone on Saturday evening.
In the wake of fan reaction, RTE released a statement claiming that it had wanted to show the hurling but were not accommodated by the counties themselves.
A post on Twitter read: “RTE sought Cork-Limerick in the Allianz Hurling League as our match selection a number of months ago but the counties could not accommodate.
“RTE subsequently chose Armagh-Tyrone.”
The Irish Sun contacted both Cork GAA and Limerick GAA for comment.
The meeting of the two Munster hurling giants will be a rematch from the 2024 All-Ireland semi-final.
On that occasion, the Rebels shocked John Kiely’s men by ending their pursuit of a fifth Liam McCarthy on the trot.
Pat Ryan’s men would go on to lose to Clare in the decider, but started 2025 in style with a commanding win over Wexford in their league opener.
They will look to super-charge their All-Ireland challenge with a team trip to Portugal in March.
Speaking before the game against the Models, selector Brendan Coleman said: “We were in west Kerry last year and we were frozen, so I think Pat has done great work there in getting local business support for a few pounds to go.
“The people of Cork and businesses were keen to give some money towards that too, so that helps.
“It’s important and it’s good for the players.
” They get into that kind of professional environment where we get five days out there, I think, whereas it was a long weekend maybe in Dingle and you don’t get as much done.
“So we’re looking forward to that.”
On their aspirations for 2025, Coleman added: “We did a lot of good stuff last year so that’s the foundation for it.
“Looking at the final and the semi-final, you’re trying to take the learnings from that, both from the mental aspect of it and the tactical aspect of it.
“December to now has been really just looking back at all the good stuff and all the stuff where we have areas for growth.
“Tactically, people talk about our puckout so we’ve tried to maybe add a few extras there.
“Then you’re looking at one or two things in terms of the shape of your team as well from last year.
“We’ll try those in the early games, we’ll see where we are and we’ll take it from there.”
