Leaps and bounds.
When watching Dublin and Mayo line out for the All-Ireland ladies final back in September you got the sense you were witnessing something special.
Not just because Mayo dethroned Cork in the semi-final to firmly establish that Dublin and Mayo are at the footballing pinnacle but because of the attendance and the interest in the final.
An impressive 46,286 people flocked to Croke Park for the final. This didn’t only smash the record for a ladies’ All-Ireland final but it was the most popular women’s final in the world in 2017. This is including the womens’ Rugby World Cup hosted in Ireland and the FA Cup final in Wembley.
The scenes in Croke Park on Sunday would make you proud to be Irish but there's so much more to do https://t.co/HEG2ptDON9
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 25, 2017
Speaking to SportsJOE the week of the All-Ireland final, Mayo’s Sarah Rowe said that, although plenty of work still needs to be done, the tide was turning:
“After all my complaining we get food now after each training session. The same fella feeds the men and the women, it’s great that we have that,” Rowe says with a hint of personal pride.
“Some players get more things than others, I’m pretty privileged and lucky enough to be the ambassador for Lidl and Volkswagen as well so I’m lucky that things have come my way but not for everyone else and that’s the thing we’d like to think things would be a bit more consistent in a year’s time.
“Things have changed definitely but the secret to success sometimes is money and I suppose you need to do an awful lot of fundraising.
“But that’s just the difference between the men and the women.”
"When stuff like that happens, you throw your eyes to the heavens" – brilliant interview from Sarah Rowehttps://t.co/wA6HbQmFc2
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) September 24, 2017
There isn’t an equal playing field between men and women in sport, perhaps there may never be. Commercial interest often dictates the treatment of a sport but treatment of ladies football is certainly improving and the behind the scenes documentary Blues Sisters that was shown on RTÉ on Monday gave another great insight to inter-county ladies football.
But that’s all over now, the Club All-Ireland finals are this weekend in Parnell Park but the LGFA and TG4 are teaming up to create history.
Before Cora Staunton’s Carnacon face Mourneabbey of Cork in the Senior final that will be shown live on TG4, Dunboyne of Meath face Kinsale of Cork in the Intermediate final.
And the broadcaster announced that the Intermediate final will be streamed live on their Youtube channel for the first time.
LGFA CEO, Helen O’Rourke, said of the announcement:
“We are delighted to announce that, in conjunction with our partners in TG4, we will be streaming the All-Ireland intermediate club final live.“We are looking forward to a top class encounter between Dunboyne and Kinsale, and it is fitting that as broad an audience as possible has an opportunity to watch the game.“I would like to thank Árd Stiurthóir Alan Esslemont and our friends in TG4 for their help in making this possible.“Viewers can then switch over to the main TG4 channel on TV to view our senior final between Carnacon and Mourneabbey, to ensure a bumper day of final coverage.”
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