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Cora Staunton believes that the Cork and Galway footballers were treated like second-class citizens at Croke Park on Sunday, and the former May star has called for the three Gaelic Games associations to merge under one umbrella.
Sunday’s semi-final was originally scheduled for Limerick, but was later moved to Parnell Park in Dublin. However, the court was unplayable due to a frozen surface and the game was subsequently moved to Croke Park.
Both teams were contacted at 11 am by the LGFA and agreed to the change of venue after receiving guarantees that there would be enough time for the team to warm up.
But as things turned out, Galway was not given enough time to warm up on the field as the serve time moved from 1:30 pm to 1:00 pm, with manager Tim Rabbitt calling it “disgraceful” and He added that he wishes he had. he took his team off the court in protest.
Staunton said it’s very disappointing that this is still happening and that female athletes still feel disrespected in 2020.
“It is very disappointing that on a Monday morning we are not talking about Cork’s fantastic performance and that the news is about this debacle and this farce that happened yesterday,” Staunton said, speaking on RTE News at One.
“I’ve been playing the game for a long time and what happened yesterday has been going on for the last 10-12 years, so it’s really disappointing that these things are happening in 2020.
“I heard [LGFA president] The Marie Hickey interview and, at times, the interview blamed Galway for not getting out onto the field on time, and spoke about the well-being of the players.
“That is not player welfare. The Galway players arrived on the field at 12:30 pm and the game was expected to start at 1:00 pm. I think the game started at 1:09 pm.”
Staunton said that if the same situation happened in a men’s game, there is no way they would be treated the same.
“Absolutely no way [would that happen]”Staunton said.
“In my knowledge of women’s soccer, the field inspection is done much earlier and you always have a back-up field, especially for a championship game.
“So girls would come in cars and be late to the field and were treated like second-class citizens. It’s really not good enough in this day and age.”
Staunton said it is impossible to believe that there are still three organizations for the Gaelic Games, especially since the women’s games do not have their own facilities and depend on the goodwill of the GAA.
And the four-time All-Ireland winner has asked all three to merge, with the help of political leadership if necessary, to prevent a situation like this from happening again.
“We look at the FAI, the IRFU or even Australia with the AFL, they are all under the same umbrella. Why do we have three separate organizations for GAA?
“Unfortunately, the LFA and Camogie Association do not have their own facilities.
“I know Armagh Ladies is the first to have a women’s soccer facility, we are not going to see in the next 10 to 20 years that there will be enough facilities for women’s soccer.
“Unfortunately, we are relying on the goodwill of the GAA and hopefully if everyone were under the same umbrella, things like this would not happen.
“The question I would ask myself is what is preventing the three organizations from coming together? Is it the GAA, is it the LGFA or is it the camogie? They said they have talked about it but what is stopping it. And if political leadership is needed to drive it …
“We can’t be talking about this for another five years and the same old stories happen. It’s really disappointing that in 2020 women’s athletics doesn’t feel respected.”
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