All Ireland GAA final & All Ireland LGFA final

 Why arent they supporting their teams?

They have no interest that's why.

Nail on the head. When Dublin have been in the final they've drawn a decent crowd. But mainly because the DCB have given a lot of free tickets to clubs

These games will never get the same crowd, they are not the best teams as any of the men's teams would beat them.

However, the LGFA made a huge mistake by changing their season to shadow the male game. Had they left their final in September than they would have had significant media limelight for 6 weeks. In the last two weeks with the All Ireland hurling and football finals involving relatively novel teams there is only so much opportunity left for the ladies game to get publicity.

And in practical terms, Galway people not going to trek to Dublin this week again, especially as they are likely to be disappointed again. Kerry is a long way from Dublin, the cost of the tickets are only part of the cost of the day.

For me it stems from the Club game rather than the County game.

If you're not in the 'circle' you wouldn't know what's going on at all. Hard to get involved as a fan of the County team when you barely follow the sport as it is (compared to Hurling/Men's Gaelic Football which have massive coverage).

It's a long-term project obviously but they really really have to up things Marketing-wise and get as many eyes on the product as possible, while also trying to make the product exciting to watch for new viewers. Funnily enough, a lot of people think having it on TG4 is great for it, but we know ourselves, casual viewers of a younger age won't stick around on TG4.

Two more things - A) Lack of decent Social Media from LGFA (and Camogie Association) doesn't help…and B) Like the GAA, not using a Data Provider leaves the information on their webites boring and basic. There's Irish Data providers to Clubs and Counties that have thousands upon thousands of data points and these archaic organisations don't want to use them.

Tickets for Hill 16 were €65 I think, people keep talking about the €100 seated tickets.

There is no logical reason why I would attend a ladies match. The people who go seem to attend because they want to bring their daughters to it whereas I have no kids. You may say "well you attend mens games", yes I attend mens games because that is what I grew up with, I didn't grow up going to ladies games therefore I have no interest in it.

No, no their not. They're miles off. A good minor boys club team would beat them and that's the reality. Great to see women's sport progressing but if people want to see big crowds then women need to attend the games and support it in the same numbers as men support the mens codes. There will be a handful who went to last week's game and again to Sundays.

No point comparing them to olympians either as anyone competing for honours at that level is an absolute unicorn. Freakishly athletic in their given discipline to be in the conversation at world level.

When you look at the crowds at the matches up to the finals it's no wonder that the crowd is small for the actual final .The years they had big crowds were really manufactured crowds with a lot of free tickets and counties having to buy tickets .I have attended when Dublin were playing and have seen the the same profile of fans there, a small number of adults with the vast majority of the crowd being kids and young women .It's a shame I know but even the crowd I would attend a men's match with the women had little interest and these are women who attend matches throughout the year .

You're right about the Lidl advert. Its very condescending. You'd swear someone had issued an edict preventing people from attending.

The geographical spread of the counties contending all of the finals really hurt the attendance this year. When Meath and Dublin were playing it was very easy for even casual fans to head in for the matches.

A few years ago I found the ladies game quite entertaining, but now with teams adopting the same tactics as the mens game it is a poor spectacle. As the ladies cant kick the ball as far as the men defensive coaches can really pack the area around the D to stifle their opponents attacking play.

I commented about the Lidl ad around a couple of weeks ago.

It's woke nonsense. It's not inequality, the truth is the majority of people just don't give a damn about women's football or camogie. The 2 camogie senior semi-finals were on in Nolan Park last weekend. If I said the stadium was 1/5th full, I would probably be generous.

Anyone have the attendance numbers for today's trio of finals? Didn't watch it but heard Off The Ball describe Kerry's first goal in the first half from a nothing looping ball in. Which connects to my next point.

"The games are just as good as the mens games."

🤣 No they're not. The standard is tripe.

I have today's attendance. 30,340. That's pathetic. What's the excuse? 3 finals, tickets cheap as chips, being given away in some instances, heavily promoted. Do these matches cost the GAA money?

The games are nowhere near as good as the men's. That's why people aren't attending.

We are lucky enough with our U12, U14s U16 and minors the pitch they use has availability and doesn't get sidelined due to the lads. But where the senior ladies train and play their matches they don't get to play their matches on the main pitch due to the lads/boys training or having a match. They are put down to the bottom pitch. They can't even use the facilities even when they have a match as the men get priority over the ladies. So glad that the girls use a different pitch now when one sees the carry on that goes on with the ladies.

The U14s had a schedule match away but the other team couldn't get a slot in any of the three pitches due to the lads using them. Even though, they had booked a pitch but the boys got priority over them.

Give me a shout in a few years time when the next "good" game happens.

I don't know if it is even the quality that is the issue with it not been supported it could be part of it but I've been to many LGFA club games that have been an enjoyable watch. People grow up supporting there club and county men's team from a young age and that is there teams.

Ladies football is alien to many and they don't need/want another team to follow.

I was at that one myself the year Meath had the shock win v Dublin - after Meath won junior.

Meath played counter attacking, Emma Troy Meath right corner back scored a goal, from an obvious pre-planned move.

The problem with the ladies football there are few games of the high level of that game. A lot of games in ladies football can be ridiculously one sided affairs as there is not the depth in the game.

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Plus let's be honest the makeup of that crowd in the Meath/Dublin final not a normal GAA match crowd. Most of the crowd were really young girls/kids who get tickets "free" based on their GAA membership with clubs.

But yet the commentators talk up an historic crowd and so on. It is not truthful chat.

Just to throw something else into the mix here about the differences in how the men's and women's games are perceived -

I think LGFA and camogie aren't helped by how they play simplified versions of the games. Even leaving aside the whole issue of the tackle, examples are:

• In LGFA, you can pick the ball straight from the ground, and throw it from one hand to the other.
• In camogie, you can drop the hurl if you're in a tight spot, and you can score from a hand pass, instead of having to find a way to actually strike the ball.

There's also the consideration that both LGFA and camogie use a size 4 ball. In the male version of the games, these aren't used by anybody over the age of 14.

Other sports like women's soccer, rugby, etc., use exactly the same rules as the men's games. I think it might be a boost for camogie and ladies football if they dropped the rule changes that are presumably there to make it "easier" for women to play.

You're wrong about both of those for Camogie

You aren't allowed drop the hurl anymore on purpose. It's called for a foul and happens a fair bit

You also are not allowed score with the hand anymore

Personally I think high level Camogie is a great sport, but about 50% of scores from play come from the middle sector from the 21 to the 45. If you have a long range scorer and solid long range free taker you're golden

I stand corrected on the one about dropping the hurl. Am not afraid to admit when I'm wrong!

I stand half-corrected on the one about hand passing for scores. Turns out it's still allowed to score a point that way, but not a goal. So you stand half-corrected on that one too :)

Am actually glad to have learned these things, as the changes show the Camogie Association has done something to bring the game more into line with hurling. Still think it would be a good move for the LGFA to ban the pick-up from the ground.

Correct, it must have been a point Troy got that I was mixing up she scored two points from corner back,

https://www.balls.ie/gaa/meath-dublin-match-report-all-ireland-ladies-football-senior-final-2021-482972

Those games shouldn't be held there in my opinion.

Why not ?

How did the playing of those games in Croke Park adversely affect you?

I was at the ladies football final, and there was a great atmosphere there.

It was an atmosphere primarily generated by kids and young people, but it was great.

It was a million times better than the atmosphere at the Donegal v Louth and Kerry v Derry games a few weeks earlier, which had a much bigger crowd in attendance.

Wrong thread.

Presume your last line should read if the attendances aren't big enough, then yes, you would deny the hurlers from those counties the chance to play in Croke Park.

All I'll say in reply is that if you're only ever going to open Croke Park when it's likely to be three-quarters full or more, then you won't be opening it very often.

Let's take another example. Presume you're from Sligo (because of your username) and presume you've an interest in gaelic games matters (because of how you're in this forum).

Say your club makes it to the county final. What would be the point of playing it in Markievicz Park, if it wasn't going to be at least three-quarters full? That would be roughly 14,000 of its approx. 18,500 capacity. You'd be in favour of playing it in some much smaller club ground instead?

Or when would you bother opening Markievicz Park at all then, apart from the odd Connacht Senior Football Championship match when you're likely to have a near capacity crowd? All the other club matches held there, the National League matches in both football and hurling, and the Tailteann Cup matches can all sod off to some much smaller ground, since what's the point of opening Markievicz Park for a relative handful of people?