One step forward, 19 steps back.
You know, you’re almost at risk of someone telling you to give it a rest. It can sound like you’re beating a drum to exhaustion when you continuously highlight all these depressing landmarks in female sport in Ireland.
The international women’s team’s strife was well documented and it was grim but this sort of thing is happening at local level seemingly every single week.
- Dual camogie and Gaelic Football players in Westmeath weren’t able to represent both codes at big stages.
- A ladies football final in Limerick was scheduled for 9am on a Saturday morning.
- Another game was decided by free kicks in the darkness.
And the truth of it all is that, if someone told you to give it a rest, it’d be bloody ridiculous. Imagine even thinking you should quieten down about any of this when it only seems to get worse and worse.
Well, just last week, things took another nosedive.
The Kilkenny United Women’s Football Club had made the trip into Kilternan in Dublin to take on UCD Waves at Jackson Park for a National League game and they were all set to go.
Team sheet for @KilkennyWFC v @ucdwaves @OtooleDesigns @FAI_WNL @kclr96fm @CaseyMgl @theWNLShow @sportswomenIRL @ExtratimeNews pic.twitter.com/K0uWhsxUoQ
— KilkennyutdWFC (@KilkennyWFC) September 24, 2017
The team was named, the admin was done, the warm-up was completed and the girls were left waiting.
Whilst the rules state clearly and with no nonsense that the team sheet must be handed to the referee at least an hour before kick-off, there was just one problem.
There was no f**king referee there to give the sheet to.
Game is off due to No Refs for game
— KilkennyutdWFC (@KilkennyWFC) September 24, 2017
Match is off no officials
— DLRWaves (@DLRWaves) September 24, 2017
Yep. After a delay, after more waiting, no official made the trip there and that was that.
Instead, the teams had to play merely a practice game and Kilkenny had to hit the road for home with what must’ve felt like a wasted exercise.
These girls train as hard as any men’s team but never get respect they deserve refixed date was announced over 10 days ago
— Aaron Clarke (@Aaron_c91) September 24, 2017
And this on the same weekend that the ladies football final at Croke Park broke viewing and attendance records.
No refs allotted for @FAI_WNL game. @KilkennyWFC & @ucdwaves ready to play. Historic weekend for Women's Football? #prdepartmentonstandby
— Casey Mc Quillan (@CaseyMgl) September 24, 2017
Things still need fixing from the bottom up. Urgently.
This is not good enough.
