The other 2001 GAA championships

During this year's senior football championship, Waterford beat Cork by 4-23 to 3-07 and Clare rolled over Kerry. In the other code, Kilkenny held Clare scoreless for an entire championship match, while Galway put six goals past Limerick.

It's life, but not as the average GAA fan knows it.

The camogie and ladies football championships may not grab the headlines in the national media, but the season has been progressing at its usual frantic pace, throwing up its annual supply of novel ties, posting many unexpected results, while being supported by a loyal network of supporters that would put many fine-day men's supporters to shame.

Camogie

With the senior hurling championship looking for new ideas in order to allow for greater competition and more matches, they could do a lot worse than to take a look at the Foras na Gaeilge championship.

The 2001 series introduced a new format, which allowed the losers of the first rounds back in and, in doing so, created more much-need games during the summer months.

Tipperary, who have been guided to their first ever All-Ireland successes over the past two years under the stewardship of Nenagh's Michael Cleary, have set the pace so far with victories over Kilkenny (2-09 to 0-08) and Wexford (4-09 to 2-07) indicating a strong thirst for a hat-trick of titles.

Kilkenny will now take on Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final with an all-Munster clash in the other half, with Cork taking on the reigning champions.

Crucially for the promotion of the game, RT╔ have not forgotten them in their endeavours to show so many men's games this summer and the national station will screen live coverage of this year's All-Ireland final on September 16th at Croke Park.

It is heartening to see the GAA making efforts to promote camogie and congratulations to the 20 primary schools girls who played in front of over 50,000 people at half-time of Tipperary v Wexford yesterday.

Gaelic Football

It was financial concerns that prompted the decision to take the women's football final out of Croke Park. With the massive overhaul to the stadium including the addition of corporate boxes, the costs of hiring the huge arena were considered to be too high to make sense to play the final there. Thankfully, some negotiations between the women's football association and the GAA resolved the issue and the final will be played in Croke Park on September 30th.

There are many GAA stadiums in Ireland that could have adequately coped with the numbers that the All-Ireland final would have drawn. But ladies football deserves to have its most important match of the year played at the principal GAA stadium.

"We've 84,000 members of women's football, in 650-700 clubs," says Helen O'Rourke, general secretary of Cumann Peile na mBan. "The growth in the game in the post-primary sector is staggering." The senior championship is approaching its semi-final stages with Clare emerging as the major success story of 2001.

With the league title already secured, the Clare women overcame Kerry in the Munster semi-final before finally releasing Waterford's firm grip on Munster football, winning 2-12 to 3-5. It was sweet revenge as Waterford have beaten Clare in four of the previous five provincial deciders. The Munster representatives will now meet the All-Ireland champions for the past two years, Mayo, in Ballinasloe for the right to travel to Croke Park on September 30th.

Laois have managed to come out of Leinster for the first time in five years by beating Dublin 2-10 to 2-08 in the provincial final. There certainly seems to be a greater balance developing in the game with the 1990s dominance of Waterford and Monaghan now being truly tested - Monaghan lost the Ulster final yesterday to Tyrone on a 1-7 to 0-9 scoreline.

Women's football also got a huge boost recently with the news that TG4 were to become the official sponsor of both the All-Ireland senior and junior championships for the next three years. Of course, the deal will ensure greater coverage of the games in Ireland, which can only benefit the sport.