Women's football/Camogie player awards: The women's football and camogie associations both expect to be fully integrated into the Gaelic Athletic Association by 2007, writes Gavin Cumminskey.
Speaking at the Vodafone football and camogie player of the year awards in Dublin yesterday, the presidents of both bodies endorsed the rewriting of the GAA rulebook. "It would have been one of my chief objectives when coming in as president, to move forward the integration," said camogie president Miriam O'Callaghan.
"To be fair, it did take a step forward at the Special Congress of the GAA at the end of October - albeit it has been pushed out in terms of the time-frame. We had hoped it would come before the respective Congresses in 2005 but unfortunately that won't be the case."
Although the process is clearly taking place at club level, several obstacles, like membership issues and pilot integration projects in various counties, have pushed the process back.
"It's best to get these things right than hurry them I suppose," O'Callaghan continued. "We have waited a long time and there is a time-frame set for 2007. We will have it on the clár and it will be signed off at that stage. To be fair, at county boards it is happening but not to the degree perhaps that we would like."
The pilot projects are taking place in eight counties, two in each province, with varying success but enthusiasm at county board level is imperative for any successful amalgamation.
"A lot of work went into places like Tyrone, Limerick and Wexford where the county boards got involved with both camogie and ladies football," said football president Geraldine Giles. "A lack of communication will always happen but it would be nice to recognise at the end of the day we are the same GAA family with the same objectives: to promote Gaelic games."
GAA president Seán Kelly stated last month to the Oireachtas Committee for Arts, Sport and Tourism that the door was open for formal integration though it was vital the two associations remain autonomous at national level.
To be completely under the GAA thumb, Kelly argued, would decrease their importance and diminish the opportunity to arrange separate sponsorship and television deals.
"There is a perception in the public mind that we are already in the GAA and in fact that can inhibit our sponsorship negotiations. It's more about the formalisation of arrangements in terms or pooling our resources and having the framework for development of the three codes," said O'Callaghan.
Meanwhile, the player of the year award in camogie went to Una O'Dwyer, who collected a fifth All-Ireland medal this year. It was a busy day for the 23-year old as she also collected a Texaco award last night.
The football recipient was Galway captain Annette Clarke, whose magnificent performances from midfield ensured her county brushed aside favoured Mayo and Dublin sides to win their first senior All-Ireland.
The camogie All Star nominations were released yesterday with Tipperary leading the 15 counties represented with 11 nominations. The awards will take place on December 4th, the football awards will take place on Saturday, both in Dublin's CityWest hotel.
The final event in camogie's centenary year celebrations will be the book release of the association's updated history, written by Joe Golden, while on Saturday in Croke Park they will receive strategic plans from all 32 counties.
