Michael Moynihan: Are women’s sports better off independent from their male counterparts?

Having an organisation dedicated to a women’s sport is a concept that has much to recommend it

2020 AIB All-Ireland Junior B Club Camogie Championship Final,  Knockananna vs Naomh Treasa: Naomh Treasa's Aoife Morgan celebrates with Cara Little

DURING the last week we saw some back-and-forth between women’s rugby players past and present on one hand, and the IRFU on the other.

Statements. Responses. Soon enough we were into ‘climbdown’ and ‘u-turn’ territory, which was enough to bring on a shudder of recognition from this battle-scarred veteran of a few troubled stand-offs in the past.

A word of advice for all from this particular battle-scarred etc., etc., one to save time in the future: once players start releasing statements, it’s all over. Done. Cooked.

When that happens you need to start looking around for some class of a negotiated settlement that suits everyone, because it’s only going in one direction anyway. I’d go further and cite Moynihan’s Second Law, which holds that the more players put their names to the initial statement, the sooner the other side caves in.

(Moynihan’s Second Law revolves around my advice being available at a competitive if unreasonable cost to all interested parties.)

However, that’s not the big takeaway from last week’s controversy.

Control and autonomy are tricky areas with players and officials, and despite some feeble suggestions of harmony existing in the golden days of the past, the truth is that this has always been the case. There is hardly a sport in the world where aggressive, competitive young people accustomed to winning haven’t had some kind of generational conflict with others who are slightly, or much, than them.

The interesting extra wrinkle here, of course, is gender, though not in an everyday sexism way. The IRFU - and the FAI, come to that - are in charge of their sports in the country, and they have the ultimate responsibility for men’s and women’s activities alike.

The GAA doesn’t, as the Camogie Association and the Ladies Gaelic Football Association run their respective sports, and despite the noises about Gaelic games all coming under the one banner at some future date, the question to ask is an obvious one.

Are women’s sports better off keeping an arm’s-length independence from their male counterparts?

When it comes to answering, the cases of rugby and soccer make for an interesting comparison with ladies football and camogie. The advantages of alignment are obvious - greater power as part of a bigger overall body, not to mention the streamlining effect of consolidated administration.

But the advantages of separation of powers are also clear. Autonomy, for one, and perhaps a stronger, more separate identity.

This isn’t to say that ladies football and camogie are run perfectly. Every summer there’s some disastrous clash of fixtures in those sports; the apparent lack of co-operation between the two governing bodies which leads to those problems often appears to be a strong argument on its own for the amalgamation of those bodies.

Still, having a organisation dedicated to a women’s sport is a concept that has much to recommend it, particularly when it comes to one of the primary goals of such sports — encouraging girls and women to take up and remain involved in that sport.

That’s the driving force of all of these governing bodies, surely.

On that basis alone it makes sense to conclude that the women advocating for, participating in, and facilitating women’s sport are doing more for female sports participation than women advocating for and facilitating men’s sport. As a consequence, would those who signed the letter sent to the IRFU last week be better off talking to the WGPA about the relationship ladies football and camogie have with the GAA as maybe a pathway forward for them?

Depopulation and its results

Kudos to the South Kerry GAA board for its detailed account on social media of a minor football replay over the weekend, though I doubt one of the goalkeepers involved will relish the report that one of the goals scored on the night went through his legs.

Or that that suggestion was circulated on the internet, at least.

That wasn’t the eye-catching aspect of the game, though. The full-time score was Sneem/Derrynane/Templenoe/Tuosist 2-16, St Mary’s/Renard 2-14.

The fact that a couple of amalgamated teams featured in the final is hardly a shock, particularly in a part of the country that is relatively sparsely populated.

But the fact that Cahirsiveen, where St Mary’s are based, can’t raise a minor team on its own gives one pause.

In the other corner, the detail is even starker. It takes over an hour to drive from Derrynane to Tuosist: It means a 40-mile sweep of the locality is needed for four clubs to round up a full minor team.

That’s a frightening prospect for the GAA. Social scientists both real and pretend can amuse themselves with the reasons for this dearth of players. The accelerated eastwards pull in the country, the legacy of austerity, the pandemic — there are explanations available everywhere you look.

Pity there aren’t as many remedies on hand.

My quest to get to an NFL game

Interesting snippet in The Athletic about American football teams being allocated territories in which to market themselves.

Territories outside the United States, that is.

“Nine teams were awarded the right to market in Mexico, the NFL’s No. 1 foreign country,” writes Daniel Kaplan. “The Cowboys, Texans, Raiders, Chiefs, 49ers, Rams, Steelers, Broncos and Cardinals. The league originally was going to award six, but demand was so high it added teams.

“The Dolphins were awarded Brazil and Spain (the Bears also have Spain). The Jaguars will now compete in the United Kingdom with the Jets (whose owner is a former ambassador to the UK), the Dolphins, Bears, Vikings and 49ers. Germany attracted the Patriots, Chiefs, Buccaneers and Panthers.

“The Vikings and Seahawks have Canada. The Rams took China and Australia.”

Hang on a minute. Wasn’t Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers the US ambassador here a couple of years ago? More Irish influence — Wellington Mara was the owner of the New York Giants (Kate and Rooney Mara are his granddaughters)? Even (swallows hard) Tom Brady of—

Ed: You won’t stop until you get to an NFL game, will you?

Me: And everyone will have to listen to me until I do.

All about Eve

Sorry to hear of the passing of Eve Babitz, who designed album covers for Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield during the sixties, and who was long believed to be the inspiration for The Doors’ LA Woman.

More to the point, Babitz was a terrific chronicler of Los Angeles - if you want an enjoyable read over Christmas you could try “Eve’s Hollywood,” a memoir, or the essay collection “Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and LA”.

She is also a hero to your columnist because of the legend of what happened to the advance for her first book. She spent it all on a slap-up meal at her favorite restaurant, Musso & Frank Grill (the restaurant in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, movie fans).

At the end of the meal she ordered the caramel custard dessert for everyone who was in the restaurant.

Now that’s a classy touch.

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