Clodagh McGrath speaks out against ‘archaic’ rule mandating skorts in camogie

Clodagh McGrath says the requirement for camogie players to wear a skort instead of shorts is “archaic” and “just a bit silly” at this stage.

Under the rules, camogie players must wear the skirt-shorts combo for matches but there has been a growing call for change in recent years in favour of shorts.

“I would say if they took a vote of every player in Ireland, I would say there’d be 99 per cent of players [wanting it changed],” suggests McGrath. “If you go down to the training pitch, players are wearing shorts to training. They’re not comfortable, the skorts, it’s such an archaic [thing], it’s so outdated.

“I don’t even think that’s an opinionated view, I think that’s just common sense. Like, nobody wears a skort down in training, I don’t get it, I think it’s ridiculous.”

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McGrath is one of the top players in the country and was named player of the match last Sunday after helping Sarsfields win a fifth consecutive Galway senior camogie title, beating Oranmore Maree 2-13 to 0-7 in the final.

Sarsfields will now set out to try claim a famous three-in-a-row of All-Ireland club senior camogie crowns. They retained the All-Ireland last December, and when they begin the defence of their crown in the weeks ahead the players will do so in skorts.

“I just think in this day and age when we’re talking about progress and everything else, like if I was to go out and play against the Munster champions in the All-Ireland semi-final in a pair of shorts, our club would get fined,” adds McGrath. “I would welcome that being changed, to be completely honest.

“I think it’s a little bit petty. I think it’s just a bit silly.”

Motions looking for skorts to be replaced failed to make the clár at the Camogie Association congress in April this year, with those proposals deferred until the 2024 gathering.

The Thomas McCurtains club in London launched a Shorts Not Skorts campaign in March of this year and are actively seeking to bring about change.

Clodagh – daughter of Galway hurling great Michael Hopper McGrath – has also been observing the ongoing efforts in relation to integration of the three Gaelic games associations – Camogie, Ladies Football and the GAA.

And while progress has been made, she understands it is not a quick fix.

“I think it would be remiss of me to say there isn’t a long way to go,” she adds. “I think there is a lot done and probably a lot more to be done, just so everybody has the same sort of vision for what it looks like. It’s wonderful to see the enthusiasm is there and I think the appetite for it is there on the men’s side of it as well, there seems to be so much support, which is great.

“I think sometimes maybe on the women’s side of it, they might be a little bit wary, I don’t know where it comes from, but that seems to be the narrative with the higher echelons that they might be afraid if it is pooled together they won’t have as much say in the running of their games.

“But I don’t think that would be the case, I think it could be really practical and a common sense thing to all be under the one umbrella.

“There is probably an awful lot of stuff that has to be looked in terms of how do you share resources, how do you centralise power, if you’ve got three bodies under the one umbrella, how do the mechanics of that work? Obviously it’s not easy, there would be a lot of things they would have to iron out but I think it would be welcomed by everybody.”

Anecdotally, the integration of the three codes at club level – especially with regards to juveniles – has been leading the way in terms of the progress that has been made in recent years. McGrath says Sarsfields have always been massively supportive of all players in the club.

“I think we are so lucky, we might be an outlier in terms of our club,” she said. “I can’t stress that enough, our club is unbelievable. The girls are just so supported, and it’s not like that has just come after our success or anything like that, when we were coming up underage there was always the utmost respect, we were always given the same amount of time on the pitches.

“Any fundraising initiatives, there would be a really good ethos amongst people, everybody has the same vision for the club. We’d all support the lads in the hurling and they are brilliant for going to our matches as well. I think it’s probably because it’s such a tight-knit community that there is a lot of overlap, a lot of brothers, relatives, fathers, boyfriends, everybody is pulling in the same direction.

“No, we’ve never felt like we were competing with the lads or anything like that, we’re very lucky in that sense, I know that’s not the case in every club.”

– Clodagh McGrath was speaking at the launch of the 2023-24 AIB Club Championships.