I can't speak for anyone else on this thread, but I'd say media coverage does play some role in terms of how well teams and individual athletes prepare for big occasions (as does social media and the reactions of people around you). It's a bit different for professional teams or athletes who are more secluded from the general public (e g., in an Olympic village). But GAA players by and large live amongst their supporters and interact with them every day, and that interaction is influenced by media coverage even if the players themselves are doing their best to ignore it. If you read accounts by managers abd players going back decades, they'll often speak about getting the build-up to a big match wrong and the players losing focus as a result. It makes sense to me anyway - in everyday life, I'd say if you are complacent and not prepared for something to go wrong at work, for instance, it can be hard to keep your composure and quickly readjust when things start going south.
