Joanne O’Riordan: Kerry’s women show what could be achieved with even more investment

At the age of 28, Selina Looney made history when she was elected the first chairwoman of Kerry LGFA. This followed a stint as fixtures chairperson on the committee, where she advanced structures for underage girls and set up underage district leagues.

During her tenure as chairperson of Killarney Legion ladies, along with her colleagues in the men’s part of the club, she merged the men’s and women’s aspects of the club, making it the first GAA club in the country to have a universal constitution for both the men and women.

Looney, now 30, is a breathwork coach and personal trainer and has three young boys at home. Her spare time is devoted to making Kerry ladies football the best it can be. In fact, her time spent improving Kerry ladies football is a small joke among her three boys.

“When their dad comes home and asks them how their day was, if it has been a busy football day they’ll always say that mum was on the phone to Nora [Fealey, Kerry LGFA secretary] all day,’” says Looney. “At times, it’s hard to hear it but these are the things people don’t see behind the scenes, the hours spent on the phone with members of the board, sponsors, clubs, people looking for guidance and all the other things that go into not only an intercounty set-up, but everything else too with day-to-day business of Kerry LGFA. This is the same for our players and managements.”

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It’s been a whirlwind season for Kerry. Winning Division 1 as a newly promoted team cemented their status as serious contenders. A bump in the road arrived with a defeat to Cork in the Munster championship but they bounced back with championship wins over Dublin – whom they meet in the All-Ireland final on Sunday – and Meath.

Off the field there have been some hiccups beyond the team’s control, notably the loss of Síofra O’ Shea to a cruciate ligament injury the Sunday before Kerry’s All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. Not to mention the threat of a strike and protests throughout the season as the Gaelic Players Association called on the LGFA to sort out a centralised players charter for all teams. Looney has the best vantage point, as a club player and coach and now a county administrator.

“A lot of people don’t realise the ins and outs of running an organisation such as Kerry ladies,” she says. “We’re a very small unit with a small amount of invested and amazing people on our executive. But let’s call a spade a spade, revenue is needed. Financial stability is the key to ensuring the viability of the organisation so that we can invest a vast amount of resources back into the county. That is fundamental in ensuring a bright sustainable future for Kerry ladies”.

Looney explains that there are three types of revenue and investment streams. The obvious one is sponsorship, with Kerry Group sponsoring both the men’s and women’s teams.

Secondly, all teams rely on fundraising initiatives, which can mean anything from a night at the dogs to bucket collections and GoFundMe pages. And then, the most important revenue stream to target – bums on seats.

“Bums on seats is what is needed to see a huge growth in ladies’ football. People in the grounds, at matches, at events. Not just in this county but overall in the country. We need to get behind our women.

“We, the people, in each corner of the country, we can do this by showing up. In Kerry, we have seen a huge increase in new faces at our games this year, which is incredible and I thank each and every club in Kerry for laying the foundations and driving that commitment, but we can’t stop here.”

“The more we support the growth of ladies’ football, the bigger the LGFA gets, the more the organisation grows, the more we see the players benefit. More people attending games. That is how the game grows.

“I’m really passionate about the growth of Kerry Ladies and this is a shared vision of the executive. I would love for every single person involved with Kerry to be known county-wide and nationwide. I love hearing conversations around the county about our teams, players, managements and games.

[ Síofra O’Shea helps show Kerry the way even though she can’t play ]

“It creates this sense of community, which is what ladies’ football is all about. We need to continue these conversations. Our senior players and management have put in an immense amount of hard work, commitment and dedication to the green and gold and I can’t thank them enough for being incredible role models and inspirations and wish them the very best of luck on Sunday.”

The intercounty season may end on Sunday when Kerry take on Dublin, but this crop of Kerry ladies footballers are just getting started.