Skorts saga comes to an end as Camogie Association votes overwhelmingly in favour of letting players wear shorts
CAMOGIE chiefs have voted in favour of allowing players to wear either shorts or skorts with immediate effect after recent protests.
At tonight's Special Congress, 98 per cent of delegates voted in support of giving players choice.
1
Camogie players will have a choice between shorts and skorts
Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Camogie Association President Brian Molloy said: 'We are pleased to announce that delegates have voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of giving players greater choice in their playing attire.
'From midnight tonight, each individual player will have the option to wear skorts or shorts - adding choice while maintaining the professionalism and uniformity of our team kits in both colour and design.
'I want to sincerely thank our incredible volunteers for their ongoing support over the last few weeks, and to our delegates for voting on behalf of over 120,000 members, including 94,000 playing members.
'As the All-Ireland Championships begin this weekend, we ask everyone to support their teams, drive higher attendances at all upcoming games, and help us fill Croke Park for the finals on August 10th.'
Read More on Camogie
It brings to an end a controversy that has dogged camogie and has seen player-led protests against the hugely unpopular use of skorts.
Reacting to the vote, the GPA said: 'We welcome the result of this evening's vote for choice at the Camogie Association Special Congress.
'The GPA would like to put on the record our admiration for camogie players across Ireland and beyond, both at inter-county and club level, who made their voices heard to ensure this outcome.
'To our own membership who have led the campaign for choice, we salute your willingness to stand up for both yourselves, and future generations of camogie players.
Most read in GAA Hurling
'We thank the delegates who listened to players' call for choice.
'The last few weeks have once again shown the necessity of putting players at the heart of decision making within Gaelic games.'
Dublin and Kilkenny camogie players wear shorts in protest against skorts
While contentious for years, the issue came to a head at the start of May when the Leinster semi-final between Dublin and Kilkenny was nearly called off.
Both teams came together to protest skorts by wearing shorts for the game, only to be told by the referee that the game would be abandoned if they did not change.
The fall-out from that controversy was swift.
Cork and Waterford both declared that they would wear shorts for the Munster senior final, which was eventually called off on 16 hours notice.
This outcry led to a change in approach from the Camogie Association.
In 2024, motions seeking to give players choice failed to amass the 66 per cent support required to pass.
The issue was not due for another vote until 2027, only for the recent row to force chiefs to bring the vote forward to Thursday night.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
36 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
John Kiely has fixed last year's critical error while Cork's old weakness has returned & been ‘a disaster'
LIMERICK are at the gates of seventh heaven — and Cian Lynch is the man who holds the key. If this year's Championship has taught us anything, it is 3 Tipperary legend Michael 'Babs' Keating writes for SunSport 3 John Kiely was right to make Cian Lynch captain for this year So much of what is good about Limerick goes through Lynch. He possesses all the skills that we have ever seen from any hurler, plus a few unseen ones too. Whoever Cork task with shackling the two-time Hurler of the Year, he cannot afford to play the Patrickswell man from behind. His skill level is too high to be disrupted by that kind of challenge. Read More On GAA Above all else, unstinting concentration for 70-plus minutes is required to limit his impact because Lynch only needs a split-second to land a fatal blow. Cork have been left with a monumental task in trying to close the 16-point gap that The reality for Pat Ryan is their style has not evolved enough and they have not been able to cope with the aggression the likes of Limerick can bring on the biggest days. While Cork had their number twice last year, John Kiely must take some of the blame for that. Most read in GAA Hurling That especially goes for the All-Ireland semi-final, when he persisted with Declan Hannon at centre-back for far too long. That was something he would certainly have had regrets over. Tipperary GAA star 'had to do live apology on RTE' the day after cursing during All-Ireland interview - Having said that, even the greatest managers can be guilty of mistakes and Kiely has made more than his fair share of good decisions over the years. Hindsight makes experts of us all. On current form, there are question marks over every member of the Cork forward line. The only doubt about the Limerick attack relates to how Aidan O'Connor will Going into the attack as a new recruit in a Munster final will be a big ask. O'Connor has been named at full-forward, which is somewhat surprising, though Kiely is sure to have ideas on how to shuffle his deck come throw-in. Predicting the Limerick manager's next move has never been easy. Regular readers of this column will know that I did not hold back in my criticism of Patrick Collins when he took over from Anthony Nash in goal for Cork. To his credit, the Ballinhassig man was one of the stars of their run to last year's All-Ireland final. 3 Patrick Collins' puck-outs have been shaky this year However, Collins appears to have returned to his worst habits. His puckouts have been a disaster. At times, the communication and understanding between Cork's goalkeeper and forwards seem to be non-existent. When I played in the half-forward line for Tipperary, I always knew where John O'Donoghue was going to puck the ball. So too did Larry Kiely, Mick Roche and Theo English in the middle of the field. This idea of exchanging a one-two with Séan O'Donoghue and then sending the ball up the field drives me spare. A goalkeeper should know at underage level that forwards want quick deliveries. When a back has time to settle and size up a situation, he will win the ball 80 per cent of the time. The Cork half-forward line must curtail the influence of Diarmaid Byrnes, Kyle Hayes and Barry Nash. Even if you have to hit him with your a***, you do whatever you can to stop your opponent from gaining possession. If the Limerick half-back line — and their midfield too, for that matter — are given free rein again, Cork may as well stay at home. The Munster champions are perfectly placed here. Aside from the strength of their starting XV, they have subs for every situation. Their bench boasts five All-Stars. WIDER OUTLOOK A defeat this evening will not be the worst thing in the world for Cork as long as there are lessons learned in the event that the teams meet again. With the crowd and the hype and everything else that accompanies it, Croke Park can bring a different dynamic to any match-up. Should the Liam MacCarthy Cup reside on the banks of the Lee by the end of July, you will hear very few Cork fans lamenting a provincial final defeat. If their team's performance hits the 80 per cent mark, they will be happy enough coming back through Charleville tonight. Nevertheless, Limerick will prevail to make it seven Munster titles in succession — a remarkable achievement. LEINSTER LOOK The defending champions should also come out on top again in tomorrow's Leinster final, though Kilkenny's prospects will not be helped by the absence of Eoin Cody. Still, this is the best position that the Cats have been in for some time. Galway are coming into this decider on the back of a deserved win over Dublin. But for 20 minutes of that game, what was conjured up was some of the worst hurling I have ever seen at this level. There has been improvement in Galway since the first-round hammering they took against Kilkenny. Their performance that day bordered on embarrassing. But will there be enough to tip the balance back in their favour? Even with Cody unavailable to Derek Lyng, I am not convinced Galway have what it takes to claim a first Leinster title since 2018 at the expense of a Kilkenny side who have progressed to this stage in second gear.
Irish Examiner
40 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
With red mist in rear view, Barrett's focus turns to dismantling Kiely's well-oiled green machine
Munster final Saturday. We should and will look forward to this evening, but Shane Barrett is in our company and willing to reflect upon his moment of lapsed judgement. And so we'll begin with the opening day of Munster rather than the closing. The second-half at Cusack Park was 20 minutes old. Cork were nine clear. There was no danger. The potential danger sparked by Clare's resurgent second-half start had been dealt with and quenched. One red card later and a contest was reignited. It was a contest 14-man Cork were incredibly fortunate to come away from with a point. Barrett had been on the field when Damien Cahalane and Seán O'Donoghue's respective sending-offs had derailed their opening two championship bouts of 2024. And yet here was Barrett now engaged in a similar act of irrationality, of senseless behaviour. His off-the-ball lashing out at David Reidy was spotted and sanctioned. It would be four weeks before we'd again see sight of the All-Star centre-forward. It would be four weeks before Barrett had the opportunity to restart his championship and begin anew. 'Look, it happened, and I was thankful we got out of Ennis with a point. If we had lost up there, we would have been under a lot more pressure and I would have been feeling a lot worse, but once we got a point, and Tipp and Limerick also drew, no team was worse off,' Barrett rationalised. 'It cost us a point in Ennis and I was very regretful, but we weren't any worse off than when we got up there.' The subsequent Tipp fixture was Barrett's first championship match since the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to sit out. A self-inflicted benching and so no sympathy was held or sought. 'Yeah [tough to watch], but it was my own doing so I couldn't really give out to anyone else. I probably hadn't watched a game like that in ages, so it was an experience I hadn't got since I was about 18. 'I didn't think much of it before the game but at the game it was horrible. The lads were brilliant on the day and put the game to bed in the first half. So, I enjoyed the second half.' Barrett was in the conversation for hurler of the year on the eve of last year's All-Ireland final. And yet the 24-year-old says there were no guarantees he'd reclaim his starting spot for the May 18 trip to Limerick. In spelling out the competition for the three half-forward jerseys, he lists Seamus Harnedy, Declan Dalton, Diarmuid Healy, Conor Lehane, Brian Roche, and Darragh Fitzgibbon. Robbie O'Flynn and Shane Kingston are others for that conversation too. 'That keeps you on your toes. You have to come into training every night firing – doing the things the manager wants and doing the things that work for us. 'Pat always talks about us having to represent the jersey, because it is such an iconic jersey in GAA. He always says you have to really cherish it when you put it on because you don't know when the last time you'll get to wear it will be. You could get injured, dropped, go out of form or whatever.' Suspension served, the Cork vice-captain and KPMG audit associate was restored to his new wing-forward berth for the Gaelic Grounds trip. The trip became a massacre. They go back up the road this afternoon for redemption and restoration of their bigger picture credentials. 'Everything really,' replied the Blarney clubman when asked where they left themselves down last time out. 'There wasn't anything we could have taken as a positive. They blew us completely out of the water. We had no answer for them whatsoever. 'They're an unbelievable unit, a well-oiled machine. They know each other inside out. It's about weathering the tough moments against them, and trying to impose your own game-plan on them.' One of the reactions to that 16-point thumping was to switch Darragh Fitzgibbon from No.11 back to midfield for the subsequent Waterford visit. It was the first time since March 1 that Fitzgibbon, at midfield, and Barrett, at centre-forward, lined out in the positions they thrived in on the run to the 2024 All-Ireland final. That selection has been maintained for Munster final Saturday. Barrett's task so is Kyle Hayes and significantly reducing the impact of the man of the match from their opening instalment. Barrett's task is to ensure his own impact at the close of Munster is far more positive than that of the province's opening day. Red chaos rather than red card.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
With Whelan motoring out the field, Galway have chance to right previous wrongs
How do you measure progress? Galway began their Leinster campaign with a 12-point hammering at the hands of Kilkenny. They bookended their Leinster round-robin campaign with a comfortable five-point win away to Dublin. It was a game they'd led by 12 with six minutes remaining. That's collective progress, though. What about individual progress within the five-week window, how could that be measured? Conor Whelan's headway, as it turns out, is very easily scored and depicted. Whelan began Leinster as a muted and struggling-for-form inside forward. He left the round-robin behind as a puckout-winning, point-scoring, turnover-hungry half-forward. In the county's aforementioned opening round spin to Nowlan Park, Whelan had two clean possessions in the entire first half. And this a first half where Galway had the elements. The beginning to his second half saw him foul Mikey Butler at one turn before, not long after, letting fall a delivery and then running out over the sliotar. The Galway captain had just five possessions to his name when moved out to half-forward on 64 minutes. And there he has stayed and swollen his influence. Compare the five possessions across 64 minutes at Nowlan Park to the five he had in the first 15 minutes of their de facto Leinster semi-final against Dublin last time out. He won two Galway puckouts, a free, and assisted a point. His five possessions in the 18 minutes after half-time saw him claim another puckout, which led to a point, raise three white flags of his own, and then force a turnover of Ronan Hayes that ended with a Tom Monaghan point. 'In terms of where we were and what we needed, we needed that leadership and that responsibility there. No better man. He's leading the line really, really well at the minute,' said manager Micheál Donoghue of the move to wing-forward. And what of the man himself. What's he made of moving out the field to reprise a role he very briefly held during the premierships of Henry Shefflin and Shane O'Neill. 'After a defeat like [the Kilkenny game], you have to change a few things, and I played there for my club all last year and we got to the county intermediate final. The way the game has gone now, you probably try and turn the middle third into more of a battleground really. That's just where it's at,' said Whelan. 'At this level, you have to have the skillset and adaptability to be able to adjust and move around. It's not that different, I'm still fairly close to goal and just happy to help the team in any way you can and contribute to trying to be successful.' It was at wing-forward that an 18-year-old Whelan was sprung from nowhere for his first championship appearance and start in the 2015 All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork. He marked the debut and marked himself out with a 1-2 contribution. Donoghue assumed the reins for the following season and moved him into the corner. It was at corner-forward he won an All-Ireland and All-Star in 2017. The now 28-year-old, in an unprompted admission, always expected Donoghue to return for a second stint in the maroon bib. 'Probably always knew that he'd come back at some stage, just wasn't sure when. Happy to have him back. I did always feel that he would be back as he would have had a very close connection with the players the first time. I knew that would always draw him back in over time. I thought he'd probably leave it another couple of years until a good few of us were finished. 'Micheál always brings a very high standard of what he expects and he's very, very good at moulding a group and bringing people together, even down to the amount of players he's tried in the league, over 40, and 30 or so in the championship.' Whelan, who is currently finishing up a PhD at ATU Galway in Elite Gaelic Games Student Athletes, is among the minority of current Tribesmen who own a Leinster final. They've lost three - all to Kilkenny - since the 2018 replay triumph. Unsurprisingly, 2023 rankles the most. Galway, if requires reminding, had one hand on the Bob O'Keeffe Cup when Cillian Buckley stole the result, the silverware, and the works with a 76th minute goal. 'Any time you lose a game like that, it's challenging. Ultimately, that's the nature of sport and you never have it won until you're across the line. No two finals are the same thankfully, so we'll be looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead. 'Winning as a group and being successful, that's very important. A Leinster title is a major part of that and I'm fortunate enough to have two, and feel that I should have more. We went up there a good few times expecting and we've had our fair share of disappointment. That just shows you how difficult they are to win.' With an in-form Whelan lifting in his new home, they're odds of faring better with this latest attempt are much healthier than if he'd been left to wither inside.
