Ladies football planning to spread gospel with New York trip

LADIES football is hoping to build on its phenomenal growth with a planned trip to New York next year to play an exhibition game.

They aim to play a curtain-raiser to the Connacht SFC game between New York and Mayo for which permission has already been received by the Ladies Football Association.

All that remains is for the body's Central Council to sanction the trip, the brainchild of progressive Chief Executive Helen O'Rourke.

She confirmed yesterday that the recently announced Allstars team would be one of the sides to travel.

"The game is getting stronger here all the time and we feel that New York would not be strong enough to play the Allstars," she commented.

"We are looking at the possibility of bringing a Rest of Ireland selection, which would be based on the nominations for the Allstars. And, that could be supplemented by picking some players from the New York clubs.

"The concentration there is on trying to build the game up at schools and under-age level," added.

Other than gaining approval for the trip, Ms O'Rourke admitted that coming up with the necessary finance was the priority. "That will be the hard part. But we are working on it!" Arrangements for the finals of the AIB-sponsored All-Ireland club competitions have been finalised. Next Sunday, in Nowlan Park, the junior and senior finals will be decided, starting with the game between Fingallians (Dublin) and Gabriel Rangers (Cork) at 1 o'clock, followed by the meeting of Senchalstown (Meath) and Donoughmore (Cork) at 2.30. The intermediate final, in which another Cork club, Naomh Aban, play Parnells from London takes place the following weekend, venue to be confirmed.