Having a big supportive sponsor is something that every sport, never mind club dreams of.
Lidl’s sponsorship of ladies Gaelic football, is without doubt one of the strongest and high profile sponsorships in the country.
The famous “ladyball” advert, from 10-years ago, was one of the greatest pieces of sports marketing ever devised. Not just in this country, but anywhere.
On day one of its launch with TV adverts and print media adverts, supporters of women’s sports rightly got hot under the collar.
Day two of the campaign explained in good detail, where the concept and the delivery had come from. Had it landed? Oh it landed very hard.
The campaign itself, is one of the greatest examples of the difference between P.R and journalism. Both natural enemies.
Two years ago, the campaign took another step forward. The next phase told us, “It’s time to smash inequality in sport. Fill every seat at every game and get behind the fight.”
A debatable target. The advert telling us to “fill every seat at every game”. Something the men’s game struggles to do.
While, a notable target, someone in Lidl seems to have forgotten to tell the LGFA.
Last week, I ran the story that the All-Ireland ladies intermediate semi-final between Roscommon and Westmeath goes head-to-head with the Kerry versus Dublin All-Ireland semi-final.
It begged the question, who in the LGFA looked at the fixture scheduling and said – “great idea, four o’clock on the Sunday”.
However, this is not a new phenomenon in the world of ladies Gaelic football and those who set the fixtures.
Just 10 days ago, Monaghan ladies faced Down in Pairc Esler at two o’clock in an All-Ireland intermediate quarter-final.
15 minutes earlier in Croke Park, the Monaghan men’s side threw-in the men’s quarter-final. Live on TV and in front of a sizable crowed. The Monaghan fans who travelled were always going to pick Croke Park above Pairc Esler.
It questions, how the LGFA can run a campaign and fail to follow its target message.
In fact of the seven Roscommon men’s Allianz League games this year, three were direct clashes with ladies games. A further one was near clash. All men’s games throwing in at 3:30 on the final day leaving about 20 minutes between both games.
While, Roscommon had three direct clashes, Monaghan had the same. Cavan had three, Leitrim four and Longford four. Surely it doesn’t take that much to look at two fixture books.
When contacted in relation to the All-Ireland semi-final clash. The LGFA told Joe Finnegan Show; “As per our Master fixtures plan, the dates for our TG4 All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate semi-finals were ratified in September 2025”.
“Our Junior semi-finals are at 2pm, followed by our Intermediate semi-finals at 4pm.”
“There is no conflict here as the men's teams are not from one of the counties involved in our semi-finals”.
A very blunt response. The fixture clash issue is not new. Something I raised with Mary McAleese as part of the LGFA/Camogie/GAA merger back in February 2024.
McAleese ascertained that a “fixture overview committee” would soon be in place to address this challenge. Near 30 months later the same issues remain.
If you have a puncture and 30 months later you still have a puncture, the problem is you can’t change a tyre.
With little or no noise coming from the amalgamation committee and more noise from county board and provincial secretaries saying the window is too short, questions need to be asked on why there is such slow movement?
The busy summer months of inter-county action is no doubt the go to excuse for the delay or probable slowdown in progress.
However, first steps or maybe second steps have not been taken in the process.
Would you see, English soccer’s Women’s summer league go head-to-head with premier league fixtures? More importantly would Liverpool v Manchester United women go head-to-head with the men’s game?
Even the FAI schedule their men’s league of Ireland games for a Friday evening, while the women have Saturday afternoon’s to themselves.
Sometimes the problem to break down barriers lies on the side of the barrier you stand on. Time for people to look at themselves.
