Joan O’Flynn: Pitches a camogie headache

Camogie chiefs were forced to contact 31 different clubs and counties in attempting to secure a venue for last year’s All-Ireland Club Intermediate semi-final, Ard Stiúrthóir Joan O’Flynn revealed.

The fixture involving Waterford’s Lismore and Liatroim Fontenoys of Down had to be postponed by a week as the national fixtures committee were unsuccessful in securing a pitch.

In her annual report ahead of this weekend’s Congress, O’Flynn says pitch availability is one of the leading problems facing the Camogie Association as they continue to survive off the generosity of their GAA counterparts.

“From time to time, pitch availability is harder to secure until very shortly before a fixture. This severely impedes the capacity to promote the fixture and can impact negatively on pre-match preparation also.

“On one occasion last year, a pitch for an All-Ireland semi-final was only secured following 31 different requests to clubs and counties. Ultimately, the game was excellently hosted by Crettyard GAA in Laois, but this followed the postponement of the fixture by a week as a venue was not available for the original fixture.

“More recently, a venue for an All-Ireland semi-final was only secured following requests to 17 different clubs/counties by the national office for a ground.”

Increasing attendance figures at inter-county games, says O’Flynn, is another outstanding challenge facing the Camogie Association.

Attendances at the All-Ireland camogie final triple-header have fallen annually since the decision in 2009 to end the practice of playing alongside the U21 hurling final each September.

17,280 filed through the turnstiles for the 2010 camogie finals, with just 12,476 attending the 2014 deciders.

This compares poorly to the 27,374 crowd at last September’s All-Ireland ladies football decider.

“Increasing the number of people who regularly attend camogie games remains an outstanding challenge,” O’Flynn states in her report ahead of Congress this weekend.

“We need to have a better understanding of what actual and prospective fans think of the game and what motivates them or stops them from attending camogie games.”

Market research commissioned by camogie top-brass last summer highlighted that little over a quarter of hurling supporters had previously attended an inter-county camogie championship game.

The findings also revealed that two-thirds of club camogie supporters attend a maximum of two inter-county fixtures each year.

Continued O’Flynn: “Convenience of fixtures, access to matches and lack of ‘hype’ were reported as the strongest barriers to attendance at games for camogie club supporters, while convenience and lack of hype were predominant amongst hurling inter-county supporters .

“Club fixtures clashing with county games, distance to travel to county games and lack of notice of fixtures were also cited.”