Three-time All-Ireland winner and current Clare selector Donal Óg Cusack says not enough is being done to promote hurling and its leading players.

Cusack watched at Semple Stadium on Sunday as the Banner men fell to a five-point defeat to his native Cork in the most well-attended Munster final since 2008, with 45,558 turning out at the Thurles venue, but the former Rebels goalkeeper still feels the sport is suffering from a lack of promotion.

"I'm biased and love is blind but I think that hurling is much of an expression of what we have on the island as any art, be it poetry, song, dance, whatever," Cusack told RTÉ 2FM's Game On programme.

"I do think we've a challenge in promoting the game. I don't think it's probably something that's not recognised at the highest levels within the association. The game needs characters. It needs big names

"And if you look at the game currently, if you're looking at the biggest of characters, you're probably looking at Davy Fitzgerald.

"One of the biggest challenges that our game has is the challenge with helmets. You could meet someone and talk to them who would understand everything about hurling games and results and what happened but they could be sitting beside one of the country's top hurlers and you might not recognise them."

He added: "I don't fully know what the answer is but I know that it's something to be conscious of. Because I would suggest that other sports have taken a march on us in that territory. 

"And whilst the games are huge in Ireland and rightly so and are very much part and parcel of every community in the country, we can't take for granted that it'll always remain the same." 

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