Who are the Wicklow Senior Football & Hurling Teams Biggest Insta Influencers?
In the age of Social Media we decided to do a little experiment on some of our own Local Sporting Heroes and how well they are followed by Wicklow Sports Fans on Instagram. We decided to see who the biggest Instagram Influencers are on the Wicklow Senior Football & Hurling Teams first. We also threw in a few randomly chosen players from other counties for comparison and found that Dublin’s Brian Fenton has more followers than the entire 26 man Wicklow Senior Football Squad combined while Kilkenny’s TJ Reid can also boast the same stat when placed against the 26 man Wicklow Senior Hurling Squad. The argument could be made that Brian Fenton & TJ Reid are All Ireland winners but the other interesting one was Wexford Hurler Lee Chin having 37K followers while Wexford Footballer Jonathan Bealin has 691 with Lee Chin never having won a Senior All Ireland Title but he is on our tv screens on a reasonably regular basis and it shows the variance of opportunity for amateur players. No doubt there are many external avenues that this exposure generates for players so why should it not be reasonably fair playing field for all players in an amateur game? Is Jonathan Bealin that much less of a talent for the Wexicans that he has over 36 thousand followers less than his county compatriot. He doesn’t get a feature on tv over the summer months, he might get a few seconds as part of the 30 seconds dedicated to Division 4 teams on the Sunday game every so often and that’s a large part of the gap in followers.
With the imminent arrival of a 2nd tier competition the burning question will be how the GAA market the competition and give these players from counties participating in it the respect and coverage they deserve. Tv coverage of these games should be a must with a fair proportion of air time. If the GAA is an amateur organisation then the coverage should be a fair split offering, with the insistence that broadcasters must show an equal amount of games from the new tier as they do for the other and if that means the loss of revenue from the broadcasters so be it. People will still watch a live game once its competitive regardless of grade, the GAA is more than just the top few successful counties after all. Kids in lower tier counties should take up the game with the opportunity of being able to watch players from their clubs and county starring on primetime tv knowing they have also a fair shot of appearing on our tv screens on summer weekends representing their county in the future and that’s how you promote the game in counties where the GAA has not been a success.
In the mean time why not look up our players and give them a follow on Instagram. #CLOSINGTHEGAP
WICKLOW SENIOR FOOTBALL TEAM (Kildare Game)
RORY FINN – 114 Followers
SHANE MOONEY – 155 Followers
ANTO MCLOUGHLIN – 219 Followers
CHRIS O BRIEN – 221 Followers
DAVE DEVEREUX – 319 Followers
MIKEY O CONNOR – 385 Followers
DEAN HEALY – 414 Followers
DANIEL KEANE – 494 Followers
MARK KENNY – 542 Followers
CATHAL MCGEE – 583 Followers
STEPHEN DUFFY – 687 Followers
THEO SMYTH – 728 Followers
EOIN MURTAGH – 790 Followers
ROSS O BRIEN – 839 Followers
FINTAN O SHEA – 869 Followers
OISIN MANNING – 939 Followers
CONOR HEALY – 950 Followers
JAMIE SNELL – 1,029 Followers
CONOR MCGRAYNOR – 1,088 Followers
SAOIRSE KIERON – 1,106 Followers
MARK JACKSON – 1,118 Followers
PADRAIG O TOOLE 1,193 Followers
DARRAGH FITZGERALD – 1,496 Followers
CORMAC BYRNE – 1,579 Followers
(Wicklow Footballers Most Influential Insta Star)
A FEW COULDN’T BE FOUND SO WE ASSUME THEY ARE STILL LIVING THE BEBO LIFESTYLE
DARREN HAYDEN – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
PATRICK O CONNOR – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
WICKLOW SENIOR HURLING TEAM (Derry Game)
JAMES CRANLEY – 0 Followers
CONOR MCNALLY – 54 Followers
CIAN STAUNTON – 108 Followers
BRYAN KEARNEY – 219 Followers
STEPHEN KELLY – 291 Followers
MARTIN O BRIEN – 316 Followers
RONAN BYRNE – 400 Followers
CIARAN BREEN – 407 Followers
PETER KEANE – 444 Followers
LUKE EVANS – 450 Followers
JOHN HENDERSON – 468 Followers
JONATHAN O NEILL JNR – 470 Followers
BOB FITZGERALD – 667 Followers
MICHAEL BOLAND – 785 Followers
ENDA DONOHOE – 828 Followers
GARY HUGHES – 906 Followers
JACK DOYLE – 947 Followers
WARREN KAVANAGH – 1,038 Followers
(Wicklow Hurlers Most Influential Insta Star)
A FEW COULDN’T BE FOUND SO WE ASSUME THEY ARE STILL LIVING THE BEBO LIFESTYLE
BILLY CUDDIHY – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
GARY BYRNE – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
EAMON KEARNS – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
DANNY STAUNTON – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
CHRISTY MOOREHOUSE – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
ANDY O BRIEN – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
EOIN MCCORMACK – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
RONAN KEDDY – STILL A BEBO STUNNAH
Here’s how they stack up against some other GAA players:
Dublin Footballers: Brian Fenton – 22.1K Followers
Kilkenny Hurlers: TJ Reid – 16.8K Followers
Wexford Senior Hurlers – Lee Chin – 37K Followers
Kildare Footballers: Jimmy Hyland – 2,063 Followers
Leitrim Footballers Emlyn Mulligan – 1,499 Followers
Derry Senior Hurlers: Meehaul McGrath – 1,158 Followers
Wexford Footballers: Jonathan Bealin – 691 Followers
Down Senior Hurlers – Eoghan Sands – 632 Followers
