And by God did they get their money's worth.
Build it and they will come. The LGFA have gotten to work over the last few years and Ireland has responded. Now ladies football is stronger than it's ever been and it's only getting stronger with each passing year.
They've set out their targets, they've got the right people on board with them and now they're breaking records and they're charting new waters for a habit.
The support of brands like
Lidl and TG4 has brought ladies football to a whole new level and to whole new audiences who never even knew anything about it beforehand.
This whole week, Twitter was dominated by ladies football final talk. TG4 were tweeting hype-building clips out for sport and high profile sport stars, both men and women all around this country were getting wind of it and getting involved in it.
https://twitter.com/LadiesFootball/status/1039853651798511616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1039853651798511616&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsjoe.ie%2Fgaa%2Fjohn-kiely-passed-best-wishes-us-whole-county-behind-ladies-limerick-177070
And then came D-day. Last year, the All-Ireland ladies football final broke records to become the highest attended women's sport final in the world that year.
There were more in Croke Park that day than there were at the Champions League final or at the Rugby World Cup.
And this year they've only gone four thousand better. Daithí Ó Sé announced the official attendance to the giddy crowd in Croker and it went down an absolute treat. They'd gone and broken records again.
https://twitter.com/LadiesFootball/status/1041352398822887425
Ladies football final attendances over last few years
- 2014: 27,374
- 2015: 31,083
- 2016: 34,445
- 2017: 46,286
- 2018: 50,141
And why wouldn't the people come? The junior final may have ended with a one-sided scoreline but the ladies of Limerick absolutely lit up Croke Park with some of the slickest forward play and team moves the stadium had seen in a long time.
Tyrone and Meath traded goals in the intermediate final all afternoon long and by the hour's end the net had been rattled seven times and by seven of the finest green flags too.
And then in the big one you'd Noelle Healy marauding around the Croke Part turf like it's a travelator at an airport. You've Áine O'Sullivan scoring deft goals that wouldn't be out of place in the Premier League.
When you consider that there were 49,696 at the men's All-Ireland semi-final between Tyrone and Monaghan this year, it goes to show the strides the giant leaps these ladies are making.
