Women in Sport: Harsh reality keeps lid on excitement over sponsorship

It was at the launch of Lidl's three-year sponsorship deal with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) in Croke Park a couple of weeks ago that any delirium you might have felt about the €1.5 million investment in the women's game in the first year (with similar funding promised over the next two years) was somewhat put on pause after a chat with a long-time servant of the game.

She has been involved with her county’s women’s team for over 40 years, her family steeped in the sport, and such has been her experience, she threw a slightly world-weary look in the direction of the giddy excitement over the deal.

“Well, none of it will trickle down to us, that’s for sure,” she said, and she then gave examples of what has been a distinct lack of progress for the women’s game in her county in her time involved. The usual story: the lack of decent training facilities, and the struggle to find a venue of any quality for their games. And the ceaseless fundraising for the most basic of things, like kits.

“It’s hardly changed in all the years,” she said.

You ask her if she’s being a bit hasty dismissing any hope that this sponsorship deal might make some difference, when the promise is there that assistance will be offered to clubs.

She’s dubious, reckoning the bulk of the loot will go to promoting the ‘elite’ level of the game, the big days out in Croke Park, the side of the sport that suggests all is rosy.

Benefits

But she’d give it a chance, she was prepared to hope that the partnership between Lidl and the LGFA would surprise her, that the grassroots of the game will see some benefits too.

The chat called to mind Newstalk's Off The Ball interview with Cora Staunton late last year, her exasperation evident when describing life as a player, even at the supposedly elite level, in her case, she being one of the greatest female players the game has ever seen.

“You’d be cagey enough to be talking about things when you’re still playing because you don’t want to be upsetting any apple carts, but there are things that definitely need to be changed,” she said.

“We could tell some stories where we were training in early January when there was no facilities at all. I’m talking about you being lucky if you have a dressing room, never mind a toilet. Just simple things like this. You are probably better looked after at times within your club than you are with your county.

“People will say, ‘oh, that’s just women moaning’, but it’s not. All we want is to have basic facilities. People aren’t seeing where we are training in January or February, how we’re trying to fundraise for our own gear. They don’t see that. They just see us out on a football field, and you’re either criticised or praised for your performance on the day and that’s it, but there’s a lot more behind the scenes. It’s not that you’re looking for anything major, you’re just looking for the basics – like training facilities.”

Grim.

Staunton elaborated on it all when she spoke with Keith Duggan of this parish back in December.

She laughs out loud when asked if the Mayo women’s team get to train in MacHale Park very often.

Five-minute walk

“No! God no. We might be lucky if we get it before a Connacht final.” Last winter, they were stuck for a training pitch and were grateful for temporary use of a facility near Ballyhaunis which was a good five-minute walk from the main pitch and changing areas.

“It had two floodlights and no toilets. There were no hot showers afterwards.”

You’d pack it in, wouldn’t you?

Last weekend. Staunton scored 1-6 in the National League opener against Cork, a contribution that helped her county to their first victory over Cork in nine years. She made her debut for Mayo when Cork were still a decade away from winning their first ever All-Ireland senior title – they have 10 to their name now. This is the 34-year-old’s 22nd successive season with Mayo.

The decision to play on wasn’t easy, “the body is still in good shape but I have other commitments in life and it’s getting more difficult,” she told RTÉ.

But on she plays. Despite things not being a whole lot better than when she was first called up to the Mayo senior team when she was just 13.

The purest of love of the game.

A good few years back the manager of one of the leading counties in women’s Gaelic football explained why he preferred coaching women’s teams over men’s. “They do what they’re told, they don’t answer back,” was the gist.

Time to answer back. Time to follow Staunton’s lead.