Former Offaly hurler and RTÉ Panelist Michael Duignan was hugely critical of Sky’s GAA deal.

The Sky Sports deal to carry GAA live hurling and football championship games has split opinion across the GAA community.

Croke Park say the deal broadens the horizons and viewership of the game to a more international audience and showcases the best to both codes. For many supporters however, it means not being able to view their national games on free to air TV due to Sky being pay-per-view.

Both Limerick’s Championship games this year against Clare in the Munster semi final and Kilkenny in the qualifiers were both exclusively shown on Sky Sports.

On last night’s Sunday Game Offaly legend Michael Duignan was highly critical of the deal and wasn’t in the mood for holding back.

“Can I just say another thing before we finish? The biggest disgrace of the weekend was on Saturday evening, that Waterford and Kilkenny wasn’t shown free-to-air in this country.

“The Sky deal is so wrong on so many different levels and this isn’t just because I’m in RTÉ working for the Sunday Game. My parents, my father is 83 years of age, a savage hurling man. Why should he have to go to the pub to watch a match? He doesn’t go to the pub,” said the St Rynaghs club man.

“They (Sky) have enough money, how much money do they want? What about the people that supported the GAA all of their lives? I think it’s disgraceful,” said the 49-year-old.

Does Duignan have a point or should the GAA community embrace the deal for what is claimed to be for the betterment of the game?

You can see the full exchange below. Video credit The Sunday Game on RTE.