Ladies football to consider introducing 'sin bin'

THE INTRODUCTION of a 'sin bin' is to be considered by the Ladies Gaelic Football authorities.

A motion to introduce the proposal will be put to its annual Congress in the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway, this weekend.

As Chief Executive Helen O'Rourke explained yesterday, it is a move put forward in an attempt to cut out needless fouling.

"Sometimes referees have reservations about sending players off. We feel that if a player was dispatched to the sin bin for 10-minutes, the cooling down period would allow her back in to continue with the game. Then if she were to receive a second yellow card, she would have to go. It works really well in rugby and we would like to see if this course of action could enhance our game."

The proposal comes from management and, according to O'Rourke, the point behind it is to keep the game as clean as possible. A few years ago a county board put forward the same suggestion but it was not carried.

Another motion worthy of note is from Tyrone who are demanding that a player can only play in two grades. For instance, up to now a 14-year old could play in all grades, including and above that level. However, if this proposal were to be successful, it would mean in future she could play U-14 and only one other grade.

Plans are complete for the forthcoming ladies Allstars trip to USA departing on April 28, where they will play a curtain raiser to the Connacht All-Ireland SFC tie between Mayo and New York on May 2.

As part of the promotional trip, the party will include three qualified tutors who will take the New York coaches through the new coaching programme.

The tour will also be used to incorporate training sessions with under-age players, thus acting to increase awareness of the women's sport.