The Carlow county board have blasted RTE over their scant TV coverage of last Sunday's Leinster SFC opener against Louth. Considering that only two senior football championship matches took place last Sunday and the 'Sunday Game' programme ran for 95 minutes, both Carlow and Louth feel they have been treated very poorly by the national broadcaster who gave just three minutes coverage to their game. Now Carlow chiefs have decided to lodge a complaint with RTE over the lack of coverage given to the Parnell Park clash. "It was skimpy coverage indeed," said Carlow chairman Pat Deering. "They spent most of the programme talking about heroes of the past, and there's nothing wrong with that of course, but what about the footballers of the present? Are they not good enough to talk about? "They made a big deal about getting into the changing rooms beforehand for this big piece they were doing and then we get three minutes. "It's the same old story, we're one of the minnows struggling to make progress, but we are entitled to a day in the sun. Now there is competition on board with TV3, I thought it would have focused their (RTE) minds, but it doesn't appear to have yet anyway." Deering's Louth counterpart Paddy Oliver was equally scathing in his criticism of the national broadcaster. "They looked for permission to do this fly-on-the-wall piece with Marty Morrissey going on the team bus to the match, so everyone thought we were going to get major coverage," he said. "A lot of people were looking forward to it and then we got three minutes. RTE had already given top billing to the Ulster championship during the day so to do that to us in the evening was dismissive. "They effectively told us what they think of us - that we're also-rans." An RTE spokesperson said the station had received no complaints and insisted: "The show was very busy". Tweet

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