I hope that no other girl who goes on to play football or camogie or soccer or whatever sport for her club, her parish, her county, her country is ever made feel the way that the Galway ladies team felt when they made their way down from Dublin last Sunday evening. On Sunday morning last when I heard that this talented Galway team, the second best in Ireland last year, top top athletes, were being asked to make a mad dash from one place to another to play a game of such importance at a time earlier than they expected, I felt it was utter madness and would end in frustration.
In top level sport, what decides games are inches, mere inches of difference. The capacity of one team to beat another can hinge on such minute events. It was obvious to us all then that neither team could have an adequate and safe warm up. And that the team who were still travelling when the change was made, would have almost next to nothing to prepare their bodies on a freezing cold day in the capital.
The ‘tog out to feck’ attitude that was shown by the game’s administrators was a gross disrespect to the supreme athletes that comprise the Galway team, but to be honest, I would hate if that was done to any team at any level.
It was ridiculous of the LGFA to initially fix the game for Dublin, for a southern and a western team, in a time of pandemic, to have to cross the country, for one to have to isolate in a hotel, when a game of this import could have been held at a venue more accessible to both teams. When the game was changed and given a third venue at an earlier throw-in time, the decision of the Cork players to overnight became a distinct advantage.
On Monday morning, the head of the LGFA said she thought they were “doing great” to secure Croke Park for their game and hadn’t sought more time for their teams to prepare, but it seems they accepted it without properly considering the health and safety of their own players. It was as if they should be glad to be given such a good ground, and that they should be thankful they got it.
In other words, they settled.
And as for the suggestion that Galway spent too long in the dressingroom...give me patience.
Events of course change things — but the LGFA need to make sure that their Plan As have decent Plan Bs, and that a Plan A should not be considered if there is a large likelihood of something happening to scupper it, ie, it was not a major surprise that Limerick would need their stadium in preparation for an All-Ireland Final.
Of course, it is easy for this to be considered petulance because our team lost, but that is not the point at all. Cork are a good team, but they are not ten points better than Galway, as they finished on Sunday. There is no doubt that the events affected the outcome. But I repeat, this is about a bigger picture. This is about people thinking they can mess around with venues and times for games in female sports, as if they were doing them a favour to find them a pitch. Those who promote female sport have to respect it by demanding higher standards.
But nobody should be smug about this — the level of funding for female sport in this country is pathetic, so if our elected representatives think it is OK to pass out taxpayers’ money, then we have to ask questions.
I coach underage soccer players each week, and I would hate if those girls were denied any fairness because of their gender. Or because we as coaches accepted lower standards from them than would be expected from their male counterparts.
Galway have been denied a place in the final because of this; or denied a fair run at getting there.
So much was made of the Can’t See, Can’t Be campaign that has been running for the last year. It was a noble ambition and one which has been achieved with distinction in many other sports. Last year we saw the World Cup and the rugby; a few weeks back, we groaned in exasperation as our national senior ladies team lost out on qualification for Euro 22. And perhaps most notably, our own county here set the flags flying in September last year when they played out a classic against Kilkenny to win an All-Ireland senior title in front of a massive stadium audience and an even bigger TV audience.
This Saturday night, our eyes will focus on Croke Park as Sarah Dervan leads out her charges again. It will be the most novel of circumstances — a final under the late lights at Croke Park, with a throw in time that will enable most of us to watch it.
Sarah’s team, expertly marshalled by the ever professional Cathal Murray have shown they are a force to be reckoned with and they have thrilled this county this autumn as they made their way to this decider. They will lift the hearts of the county if they play as well as they did last year and bring home back to back titles.
We are all right behind them. I am hoping they will bring sunlight at the end of a bleak week.
And that this will be the last time that female sportspeople everywhere have to settle for less.
