GAELIC GAMES:THE WATERFORD County Board will not be changing their senior club hurling championship fixtures from Sunday (to Saturday) despite the women's All-Ireland football finals suffering a significant loss as a result.
Michael Ryan is the De La Salle manager and is naturally committed to walking the line for the 2008 Munster champions against Tallow in their quarter-final tie at Fraher Field in Dungarvan.
Throw-in is 3.30pm so there is no way Ryan can be in Croke Park to witness his three daughters – Louise, Michelle and Sineád – contest the intermediate All-Ireland final for Waterford against Donegal at 2pm.
Ryan is also a member of the Dublin women’s management team, but his influence will, again, be lost to the Jackies as they seek to atone for last year’s agonising defeat to Cork in the senior decider against Tyrone (throw-in 4pm).
He is also one of the candidates challenging Davy Fitzgerald for the Waterford hurling manager’s position in 2011.
The Waterford County Board PRO, Joe O’Cleary, was asked to explain yesterday why the fixture could not be brought forward 24 hours.
“The fixtures had gone out before the request came in (from the Waterford women’s football board),” said O’Cleary.
The Cork County Board did something similar last season that hindered the numbers travelling to Dublin to watch the historic five-in-a-row team. The women’s arm of the GAA cannot but feel they are being hindered in the promotion of their only day on the main stage.
Yet again.
When such a suggestion was put to O’Cleary, the PRO replied: “It is a double header and the other three clubs involved (Tallow, Ballyduff Upper and Lismore) did not agree to a date change when it was put to them.
“We have a 16-man executive committee and we can’t get agreement from them all,” added O’Cleary, who unwittingly gave the perfect example of how the convoluted, and of course democratic, workings of a county board can spoil what may be a never-to-be-repeated day for the Ryan family.
The decision hardly helps the Dublin footballers either.
It appears that the women’s football association didn’t act quick enough to ensure the Waterford club fixtures were switched tor the Saturday. Such a suggestion is held up by their president, Pat Quill, having to be informed of the Waterford board’s decision by The Irish Times yesterday.
“It is obviously disappointing that they couldn’t facilitate it as I would imagine all that was required was to move (the fixture) to the Saturday but obviously they have some reason,” said Quill.
“Maybe the team (De La Salle) we’re playing couldn’t play on the Saturday.”
Quill was unaware what date the fixture change request went in to the Waterford County Board.
“Michael is a man who has done a lot for women’s football, he is also been very involved with the GAA. Of course, Michael is going for the hurling job down in Waterford. It is disappointing,” Quill repeated.
The women’s association are hoping to surpass the crowd of 21,606 that turned up in Croke Park for last year’s finals when Cork pipped Dublin in dramatic circumstances to achieve the five-in-a-row.
That era of dominance appears to have ended, in both football and camogie, with Dublin’s opponents on Sunday, Tyrone, defeating Cork in the quarter-finals, 3-11 to 0-13.
The remarkable football success in Tyrone, as carried on by the male minors this year, is now evident in the women’s game.
They went on to defeat Kerry in a semi-final replay; their epic eight-game run to the final being reminiscent of their male counterparts meandering journey to the 2005 All-Ireland.
“(The men’s success) has definitely influenced us,” said Tyrone’s Gemma Begley this week. “The girls are getting the same coaching in the schools as the boys so they are feeding and developing that interest. It should stand to us in a few years.”
The triple header is completed by the junior final between Louth and Limerick, throw-in 12pm.
