Ambitious Plan By Waterford Ladies Football County Board

The Ladies Football and Camogie County Boards across the country are often at the mercy of the G.A.A. and G.A.A. Clubs around the county to make their facilities available to them to make facilities available to them to play their games.

Not like across the country the same applies here in Waterford.

To the credit of County Boards and indeed to Clubs, facilities are made available to their sister organisations as much as possible for the playing of games.

Here in Waterford, both County Boards are extra lucky as the excellent facilities owned by Waterford Institute of Technology at the WIT Arena at Carriganore are also available to both Boards if they are needed and are of course available.

Sometimes however the Ladies Football and Camogie associations are not as lucky when it comes to the playing of its games.

In 2015, Offaly played against Limerick in the National League Division Four Final.

Both county boards were given the opportunity to play the final at Parnell Park in Dublin, in front of the TG4 cameras and the game shown live on that station.

But there was a but to the offer, a very big BUT.

If the game was to be played at Parnell Park and the game shown live on TG4, both sides would have to give up the right to use the dressing rooms at the North Dublin venue.

They could have used played the game at another venue, one more central to both counties, where they would have the use of dressing rooms and whatever facilities were available at the ground, but the game would not be shown live on TG4.

The reason why Offaly and Limerick could not use the dressing rooms at Parnell Park was that the game would be the curtain raiser to that years All-Ireland under 21 Football final between Tipperary and Tyrone.

Because of the growing size’s of Inter county panels and management teams as well as those that work in the background to these teams, all the dressing rooms at Parnell Park would be assigned to the two under 21 teams, and it was up to the ladies teams to find where ever they wanted to tog out and tog off and to shower after their games. You could well say that the G.A.A. were making the two ladies sides very much second class players (at best). It was like if their game did not matter.

Offaly used the facilities of a nearby school to tog out for the game, while their opponents used the facilities of a nearby club.

Both sides did their pre-match warm up where they togged out and then returned to the dressing room area which they were using to gather their gear and clothing and got on board their team coach and made the way to Parnell Park.

The sides on arriving at Parnell Park were shown into two small function rooms where they were allowed to leave their gear and clothing during the match. Both sides had two options. Use the small rooms or else leave their gear on the bus and remain on the field at half time in belting rain and cold.

After the game, one side cold, wet and delighted, the other cold, wet and disappointed headed back to the small function room, collected what they had left there, get on board their coach and head back to where they togged off and warmed up to shower and change into dry clothing.

Is this what the G.A.A. should be about? Should there be a first or second class player? Should the often referred to elite player be treated to any other player?

The answer of course is very much no to all of these questions.

With some time now, the officers of Waterford Ladies Football Board are working hard to try and ensure that they are not relying on anyone to play their important games.

Ladies Football and Camogie County Boards from North to South and East to West have tried to purchase their own grounds and the Waterford Ladies Football Board are trying to become the latest to do so.

If and when the Waterford Ladies Football County Board does purchase and develop their own grounds it will prove to be a very valuable asset.

To do this is not going to easy, and the hard work begins in earnest this coming weekend.

The County Board are holding a “Night at the Dogs” on Saturday evening at Kilcohan Park in Waterford.

Tickets for the night are available from all of the Ladies Football Clubs in the county and i am sure that they are also available from the County Board Officers.

Tickets cost €10 each and there is also the option of purchasing a family ticket for €20 which admits two adults and two children.

The gates at Kilcohan Park open on Saturday evening around 7pm with the first race of the evening getting underway 50 minutes later.

Standing to be corrected on this, but it is usually the case when such nights take place, the organisation which benefits on the night usually only do so with pre-purchased tickets and they get little if any of the takings taken up at the gate on the night, so if you are interested in Ladies Football and would like to see the Board own and develop their own grounds in the county, why not purchase a ticket as soon as possible, even if you cannot go on the night.