Kilkenny Boss Derek Lyng Took Aim At RTÉ After Thrilling Win

The best bout of hurling entertainment came in the Leinster Championship this weekend as Kilkenny beat Dublin 5-19 to 3-21 in a thriller.

While the Munster Championship is rightly lauded as the premier provincial hurling championship in the country, it did not live up to its usual hype this weekend.

Limerick hammered Cork in a one-sided affair while Tipperary ran out nine-point winners over Waterford in Thurles.

Instead, it was The Cats - who are typically going about their business well in Leinster - who entertained and kept a spirited Dublin fightback at bay.

Speaking after his side's latest win, Brian Cody's successor shared his belief that the game would have gotten more hype had it been a Munster clash.

RTÉ opted to show both Munster fixtures back to back instead of Kilkenny's duel with Dublin, meaning the latter was only available to watch via the GAA+ streaming service.

Maybe if this was a Munster Championship, we'd be talking about it. It was a fantastic game - not for me, but I'm sure for the neutral.

"But we're talking a lot about promoting the game at the minute, and there's a lot of work going into it. We're definitely not helping our cause by having three games crossing over. I said the same last week. One of them should have been yesterday evening or something with television.

"Again, we want to promote the game. We should have access. Every hurling supporter should have access to all these games.

"And everybody interested in hurling would have an interest in today's game and the two games in Munster. So it's just a little bit of joined-up thinking. I know it's easy to say that, but that would be a good starting point."

Thrilling hurling encounters being behind a streaming paywall is not a new issue and a national broadcast undoubtedly would've been a good boost for the Leinster Championship.

The competition made headlines for the wrong reasons a few weeks ago after poor attendance figures were revealed at Nowlan Park for Kilkenny's opener against Galway.