The live streaming website that is changing the face of local GAA

Bigger coverage equals bigger gates.

The GAA is not under threat by companies like Local Streaming who are providing top class coverage of games in football, hurling and camogie that would otherwise go uncovered in visual broadcast circles. The camogie finals recorded their biggest ever attendance in 2017 for club deciders and this is with the games being streamed online in the build-up to and during the final. The AIB GAA All-Ireland intermediate and junior club finals seemingly received much more traction this season than years gone by. Over 9,000 people made the trip to Croke Park to watch Kerry and Mayo outfits reign supreme. Over 84,000 have already watched the games on AIB's YouTube stream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e802AT-5Ac The hurling club junior and intermediate clashes likewise have seen over 45,000 click in to watch. GAA games of every variety are on a different level now because of this coverage.

"We think it contributes to the glamour of the games," Local Streaming co-founder Liam Horan spoke with SportsJOE about the 21-month old project that is taking the GAA community by storm. "It contributes to the appeal. In any community, say there was a 1,000 people interested in a match - the fact that it's going to be on a TV means that there may be 2,000 now interested. It brings it to a whole new level."

Horan hails from Mayo, a small town called Ballinrobe in the south of the county, and all this has been in the making for some three decades now if you consider that he's been recording and commentating on his own club's games for over 30 years. Anthony Moran was doing the same thing in Aghamore, capturing all his club's activities, and the pair eventually got together to sit down and talk Local Streaming - a service for any school or club the length and breadth of the country that's interested in having their action shot.

"It started off streaming for local clubs for semi-finals and finals and it kind of took off from there," Horan explained. "In the 2016/17 season, we've done more games in the Mayo championship, then under-21 games with Mayo, then the camogie at national level and we've done six games at Croke Park now."

With the football and hurling junior and intermediate clashes and last weekend's camogie deciders, Local Streaming's YouTube page is fast becoming one of the most popular tools on the internet for Gaels to use. Not only is it making Gaelic Games accessible to those who might not be able to travel, to those who are exiled and even those doing analysis, the featured matches are recorded live, shot live and then they sit there in the archive for anyone to relive the glory or misery.

"In Mayo, where we'd be best known, we'd get messages every week to ask what we've covering next," Horan said. "The pubs are all organised now to have the thing Chromecast or whatever. If there's a game on down here, any of the serious GAA pubs around Mayo would be ready to go with it, you wouldn't even have to inquire. "Toby's in Westport ran a replay of the intermediate football final again on the Monday but right around Mayo that Sunday, we were getting messages from Kiltimagh, from Ballinrobe and places to say there was a crowd in to watch the game. "We had a game from Glenbeigh-Glencar who works in the local PC shop there and he sent us the name of the four or five pubs where he was on the Sunday morning to wire them all up for the junior final because they all wanted to watch it."

As the service gets bigger and used more widely, the gospel spreads and GAA at all levels becomes more accessible to everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkzpFT3mCjA Horan can literally see the word of mouth spreading in real time too. During the game, spikes in audiences are sharp and obvious whenever the tie gets tight. People hear what's going on, they log on to see for themselves. And it's becoming easier and easier for everyone too. The Mayo man talks of elderly folk who aren't IT savvy at all but able to hook up the games for themselves. He talks about a group of lads watching a game on a sideline, but bunched around a phone to watch a second game at the same time via Local Streaming. The times have changed and services like this have made sure the GAA is able to change with those times. Next up, it looks like the service is hooking up with the camogie to stream more games on a national level and they're still holding out hope of getting to the colleges finals on Saturday but they might not be a double header. The small team is ready to go at short notice though and, in such small turnaround times, they broadcast to thousands all over the world. They keep everyone in touch. They keep everyone's hearts at home.