Briege Corkery unsure if Aussie Rules would have lured her

Cork's Briege Corkery lifts the Brendan Martin Cup in 2015. Picture: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE

Dual star Briege Corkery has welcomed the success of ladies footballers in Australian Rules — but is unsure whether she would have tried the sport herself.

In recent years ladies football stars such as Cora Staunton and Sinéad Goldrick have enjoyed success Down Under, and Rebel icon Corkery says she isn’t surprised they’ve done well in Australia.

“The players that have gone out have been savagely talented players,” said Corkery.

“You look at Cora (Staunton) and Sinead Goldrick, and they were players who always did it for their counties, Sarah Rowe was always excellent for Mayo, Aisling McCarthy the same (for Tipperary) so I’m not surprised they’re doing so well.

“Now it must be hard to get used to the oval ball and the different rules, but it’s fantastic to see it.

“The year (season) is short in Australia so it’s not too bad, but if it got longer and we started losing them from ladies football it would be an awful shame. We want to keep the standard as high as possible in ladies football, so you’d be hoping the season in Australian Rules would stay short, there’ll be no issue then.”

Corkery, holder of 18 All-Ireland medals in camogie and ladies football, can’t be definitive on whether she would have tried the sport herself: “I genuinely can’t give a straight answer because I don’t know if I’d like to be a professional sportsperson — but then, if the opportunity had been there, would I have gone? I can’t give a straight answer as to whether I’d have gone or not.”

For her part, Corkery would like to see ladies football, camogie and (men’s) Gaelic games all under one umbrella in terms of organisation, which would cut out fixture clashes.

I’d love to see them all under the one roof. When it comes to clashes, from my past experience and talking to the present players, they don’t want a week — they literally only want 24 hours between the matches.

“On top of that there are a lot of games now in the championship. Before there was just the round robin in camogie, then quarter- and semi-finals; in football it was the Munster championship and knock-out from there.

“Now there are a lot more games in football so there are more clashes. It’s a fine line but I feel if they were under the one umbrella and talked things through... I don’t think girls — or fellas — should have to make those choices on which sport they want to play. I think they’re entitled to play both if they can do it.”

That raises another question — how far off equality with Gaelic games are ladies football and camogie?

“If you think about it, ladies football is only there with 45 years. We’ve a long way to go to catch up with the GAA as it is, but it’s improving every year.

“I don’t think we should be too worried about expenses yet. We should go back to basics and worry about no more games clashing, that would be the first step.

“I’d like to look at how to get people to the quarter-finals and semi-finals (of the All-Ireland) as well as just the final, the big game.

“I think there are bigger things to be looking at than expenses and stuff like that. That’s where we need to start — whether that’s counties trying to get clubs to organise buses to go to those games as if it is an All-Ireland final.

“It shouldn’t be just the final where people see their clubmates play, these are players they look up to and the sport needs to be developed more that way.

“That’s probably more important. I know girls are spending a fortune on treating injuries and on driving up and down the country, but that was something that never bothered us when we were playing. That’s why I think there are more important things to look at.”

- Briege Corkery is on Laochra Gael this Thursday at 9.30pm.