A year on from announcing that he would be stepping down as presenter of The Sunday Game, RTÉ's flagship GAA highlights show, Des Cahill has no regrets about the decision.
The move allowed Cahill to focus on his role with RTÉ Radio One, including presenting the Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport shows along with the sports bulletins on Morning Ireland. He was replaced as presenter of The Sunday Game by Jacqui Hurley.
"I did an interview last year and I said I felt The Sunday Game was broken," Cahill told Virgin Media show Living With Lucy.
"That became an issue in all the sports columns, programmes and podcasts. Broken in this sense: Years ago, [when] Michael Lyster [was the presenter], they'd initially show one game, this was at night time, then they started showing two.
"And then it grew more ambitious, and in my time we started showing every single game, covering every game. The lads had loads to say and they had no time. Everyone was frustrated.
12 August 2018; The Sunday Game panel, from left, Ciaran Whelan, Michael Murphy, Des Cahill and Colm Cooper arrive prior the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Monaghan and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
"They might say something really interesting and there’s an obvious follow-on question and I’m being told in my ear ‘Move on, we have to move on to the next match.’ I said it needs to change. I said I wasn't happy.
"The other big issue was 9:30 to 11:30 on a Sunday night, you get home at 12:40, but a couple of mornings later, I'm getting up at 4:40 for the early shift. The contrast of early mornings and late nights, I don't think the bosses fully understood that was tough.
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"I feel thrilled I'm finished. Some people [say], 'The Sunday Game, a big television programme' [but] I've done that. Life has far more things in it for me. Just being on TV isn't the only thing."
Cahill said that he received some affecting letters after the announcement, including one telling him, 'You were part of our family for 15 years'.
He added that during his time as Sunday Game presenter, he enjoyed working with the "strong personalities".
"I really liked (Joe) Brolly. I missed Brolly off the programme," Cahill said.
"One day, he was there too early. It was like having one of the kids. He needed to be running about busy.
"He goes wandering out to the sets and the props and then I heard this music coming. He was playing classical music on the piano, amazing stuff. He was an extraordinary guy."
