Gary Brennan: It's so frustrating living in a female-dominated sports world

Taking a walk in her shoes

NEED FOR SPEED: Cork’s Shauna Kelly bursts forward during last weekend’s Ladies Football National League clash against Dublin. Our columnist wonders how the GAA world would look if female sport got the bulk of the attention and was in receipt of preferential treatment routinely enjoyed by men. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

For as long as I can remember, I have been playing football and hurling. Most of my childhood was spent kicking a ball up and down the back garden. My father made goalposts for my brothers and I, and we kicked and played until light would fade.

The only interruption was when we decided to rattle a sliotar off the gable wall, my mother tapping the window whenever she noticed me switching hands on the hurley to make sure I kept my strong hand on top. Football and hurling made me feel as if I could do anything, as though I could be whatever. The feeling I would get when the ball sailed over those posts...it was magical…as if I were in flight myself, the potential was limitless. I could go anywhere, do anything.

I loved to watch matches on the Sunday Game every weekend. Of course, in those days, it was only Ladies Football and Camogie that were shown – the All-Ireland for the men was televised in September but that was it.

Luckily for me, my parents brought me to Croke Park for some of those finals, and I got to see players like Liam McHale and Jason Sherlock in the flesh. That made me dream again, but it was just once a year, and I never understood why the stands weren’t packed, the way they had been for the women’s finals just a couple of weeks before.

I’d return to school the following day and most of my classmates didn’t even know the match was on. The girls would laugh and make jokes about it. There would be small reports of men’s games from time to time in the papers but they never covered the back pages or billboards like Cora Staunton or the Downeys.

I played with my local club as soon as I was allowed. I was skilful and quick, so often I was picked on the girls’ team as well, I even won an U14 Féile playing with them. In primary school we had a team, but we never played as many matches as the girls. The Ladies Football and Camogie association sent coaches into the school. They took us boys as well but I always wondered why there were never any male coaches.

When I went to secondary school, I realised that there were others worse off than me. Some of them hadn’t even played in primary school. At least my local club had a ‘one club’ model – we had the same name and played in the same colours as our women’s teams, but for lots of boys, there was no club in their area. They had to travel to different areas to find a team. Some others played for their local team but they had different names and colours to their women’s teams. 

When I progressed to secondary school in the town, we had a good team. We won Munster and played in the All-Ireland A final. And yet, when we trained, it was on the ’football and hurling’ pitch. The senior Ladies football and camogie team always got to use the ‘good’ pitch – the best surface, lined, nets on the posts and behind the goals, grass freshly cut. Our pitch had posts that were falling over.

During my Leaving Cert year, I was picked on the county minor panel. I was so excited. I, like everyone else, had watched the All-Ireland minor finals before the Ladies Football and Camogie finals and I’d seen girls from our school who were county minors strutting around the place in their new gear.

I was picturing myself with my new tracksuit and gear bag, but the reality was a bit different. First off, we often struggled to get a pitch to train on. We were in a different venue every night. We’d train for an hour in the freezing cold and then get straight back into the car and head home – no dressing rooms. There would usually only be one single toilet for the boys so there was always a queue before training or matches.

After school, I was asked onto the county senior panel. Things improved a little bit. We started to get some food after training (a cup of soup and a sandwich – some nights) and had access to physio and a Strength and Conditioning coach came on board, but when I met my wife, I soon realised how much easier it was for the women.

They had gym memberships so they could access the gym whenever they wanted, they had full use of hot showers and dressing rooms, they had a nutritionist and sports psychologist. She could claim mileage expenses for her journeys. We would come home at the same time and once showered, I would have to cook dinner for myself while she put her feet up in front of the telly and tucked into the dinner they had been supplied after training. 

They got new boots every January and a replacement hurley any time they broke one. We had to run our own fundraiser at the start of every year (when we should have been training) to help pay for buses to matches. And as for the bag of gear they got every year…tracksuit, training tops, skorts, socks, jackets, hats. We got one tracksuit and we paid towards it.

Fixtures are an ongoing issue. The Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie Association are one joint body, so they collaborate on fixtures. Club championship games are on alternate weekends and intercounty championship games hardly ever clash directly. Because the Gaelic Football and Hurling Associations are separate bodies, we’ve had weekends where we’ve played two championship games in as many days and there is very little joined-up thinking.

To be fair, some small improvements have been made in recent years – our players’ associations have merged and offer equal support to both male and female players, there is more frequent coverage of our men’s games, more visibility of our role models, and our own associations have done some great work on rule changes and sponsorship initiatives.

But despite all this, I’ve still felt like an outsider. I’ve looked at the Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie Association and I can only wonder – why, in 2022, are we not all one body, working together to achieve a better future for all our codes and members? There are aspects of the women’s associations that I would love for our own, but equally, I think we could add huge value to what they already have.

And so, I watch with interest this weekend as the Gaelic Players Association’s motion for a merger of all Ladies Football, Camogie and GAA goes before Congress. I know that passing this motion won’t solve everything. Our own Gaelic Football & Hurling Associations would have to agree, for a start. Yet I can’t help but think that it would be a massive first step, a show of leadership and a commitment to equality. I grew up male in a female world but that doesn’t have to be the case for the next generation. 

I’d like my children to grow up in an equal GAA world. Though there will be some men in the room, it will mostly be women who decide the fate of that motion. I can only hope that they take some time to stand in my shoes and walk around in them before they make their call.