Camogie president calls for more co-operation

Fresh from her attack on TG4 over their coverage of Camogie, the Camogie Association's President Liz Howard has called on the GAA to show better co-operation after today's All-Ireland Hurling championship launch directly clashed with the launch of the Gala Senior and Junior Camogie championships at Croke Park.

This was met with disappointment by Howard as the Camogie Association had firmed up the date months in advance, before the Hurling launch was mooted.

The integration process needs to be embraced more, according to the Tipperary native.

"We must look at the integration process as greater co-operation between us all in the GAA family," Howard said.

"There are things which we have to look at though. Today's Gala Camogie launch and Hurling launch took place at the same time. You can piggyback on certain things but I think it was unfortunate that we had a clash.

"I think the GAA can work on certain things with us, particularly in terms of sponsorship, media coverage and TV rights. That's where I would like to see the GAA working with the Ladies games.

"Integration may come with time but what I'm looking for at the moment is greater cooperation," she added.

However, Howard believes that the small ball sport is in a healthier state than it has ever been as more counties strive for silverware at the top level than ever before.

Speaking at today's launch, the Camogie President was high in her praise of the standard of camogie across the county at present.

"I am very pleased with where we are at, at the moment. Camogie has been reenergised since the Centenary year of 2004 and we have built on that with tremendous League finals in the past two weeks and some of the best games of camogie I have ever seen," she admitted.

The former Sunday Game analyst is not just pleased with the progress being made at the top level - she is also delighted to see major strides being made in the non-traditional counties.

"What particularly pleases me is that in the likes of Kerry, Mayo and Donegal we are making great progress.

"Kerry has six clubs at the moment and it's going well in the northern counties also and we are very strong too at Cumann na mBunscoil level across the country, which is also very important for the development of our games."