Paul Rouse has more than a few issues with the place of women’s sports in the heart of Irish society.

Management loses games, players win them (Great GAA truisms, No 53 in a series). On the bad days, the ditch carps and criticises and moans about the sideline. Lambasts may be the association term. Clueless clowns. On Lewis Road in Killarney, you might catch a carp or two on the odd occasion Dr Crokes lose a game, but it’ll be a brave ditch hurler all the same. Or a fool.

The first time the GAA separates the supporters at a game of hurling or football will be the last time its loyalists can point at itself — as they so often do now — as an exemplary sport whose supporters still conform to the norms of civilised behaviour.

IN the economics of football, this is an undeniable boom period for Dr Crokes.