GAA president Larry McCarthy says Dónal Óg Cusack’s Tailteann Cup comments were ‘unhelpful’.
Earlier this month, the former Cork hurling keeper branded the second-tier football championship as ‘a sort of Gaelic football Grand National for disappointed also-rans’.
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But as he hopes for the competition to continue to grow, McCarthy said of those words: “To make comments like that about the tiered system we have introduced in football was just simply unhelpful.”
Cusack made the comments about the football competition on the back of lamenting a number of high-profile Munster hurling games not being available on terrestrial TV.
McCarthy frowned at his take as he hopes the Tailteann Cup does not suffer second-season syndrome having added a round-robin stage on the back of Westmeath’s triumph in its inaugural campaign.
Its four groups are made up mostly of Division 3 and Division 4 counties — with New York to enter in the preliminary quarter-final stage.
McCarthy added: “It’s still very early, I would suggest we don’t want to have a sophomore slump.
“I think I used that phrase at Congress.
“I think it’s going well in the context that counties are getting games and that’s what they asked for, and then we’ll see how it evolves.
“It will be interesting to see when we get to the play-offs, and then obviously the final is going to be in Croke Park.”
