Clare hurler Shane O’Donnell, a star on their path to this year’s Liam McCarthy triumph, has criticised the use of imagery of intercounty players without their consent, particularly in relation to GAA GO.
Speaking on the BBC GAA Social podcast, O’Donnell spoke of his dissatisfaction regarding his image being a part of GAA GO’s marketing campaign, as well as the pay-to-view platform more generally:
“I think they should just be swallowing the cost of promoting the game. I don’t think that’s something out of their budget.
“Then I see on the GAA GO website all year that they’re selling the season pass with myself and three other players, just right above the part where it says ‘Buy for ‘X’ amount of euro’.
“We wanted to win a trophy, we wanted to do Joe and his family proud and give them something to be happy about...” Antrim champions Carey Faughs carry torch for Joe Hegarty into Ulster Hurling Championship clash
A hurling island in an ocean of Tyrone football... Red Hand champions Carrickmore set out on Ulster campaign
“To think that we’re endorsing that or giving our explicit consent that we would be put up there….and that’s just not the case. Like, we weren’t even asked.”
Co-host Oisín McConville also suggested that players aren’t benefiting financially at the very least given their image is being used without their consent, but O’Donnell claims he is not interested in financial reward:
“I don’t even want to benefit financially from that. I don’t want to be endorsing GAA GO because I don’t agree with it.
“So really I just want them to ask me: ‘Can we put your image up there?’.
“’No’.
“’Ok, next person’.
Éire Óg clubman O’Donnell is nominated for the 2024 Hurler of the Year alongside Darragh Fitzgibbon of Cork and Limerick’s Kyle Hayes, with the All-Star awards taking place in the RDS on Friday.