Ladies Gaelic Football

48 // Ladies Gaelic Football Association FIONA COGHLAN PEIL Summer | Issue No 2 | Volume 14 nyone who is at all interested in sport in Ireland will know the name Fiona Coghlan. Fiona was the first Irish womens rugby captain to li a 6 Nations trophy. She was the recognisable and always professional face that the Irish public got to know. What we only heard about in passing however was her previous involvement in Ladies Gaelic Football. Clontarf ladies football club, on the Northside of Dublin City was founded in 1995. In 1996, as a transition year student, Fiona began playing with the Adult team in Clontarf, at that stage there was no underage football in the club. Fiona continued playing football through secondary school and when she went to college in the University of Limerick to study PE Teaching. As a first year in UL Fiona also took up rugby. As we know now this sport would take Fiona in a different direction and demand her full commitment. Throughout her Rugby career however Fiona kept lining out with Clontarf whenever she could. "When I started playing rugby I would have had longer off seasons so I would play with Clontarf during these periods. While I was in college I spent a summer in Boston and played with Tír na n-Óg. As rugby got more demanding I just didn't have as much time off when I could play." Retired from Rugby and back with Clontarf it is interesting to hear Fiona describe the differences she sees between when she turned up as a TY student over 20 years ago! "Well the club is totally different now. When I started there was just the one adult team. There was no underage structure at all. In the club now I guess the glaring difference is numbers. We just have massive numbers of females in the clubs, as far as I know there is not that much difference between the playing numbers on the male and female side of the club, in fact we could have more but I am not 100% sure about that." Ladies Gaelic Football... through the eyes of Fiona Coghlan "The fact that young girls have the opportunity to play at a much earlier age means that they have the opportunity to become better players – simply due to being able to play the game for longer. I see it now playing with younger players who have come up through the club structure – they are a lot more skillful that some of us older players who started playing much later." Earlier this year a National Games Development Committee was formed. Sitting on this committee, alongside LGFA Staff and Volunteers are a number of 'external experts', Fiona being one. Fiona's insights from observing another sport from grassroots to elite level along with her experience as a PE Teacher is invaluable to the group. In Fiona's opinion Ladies Football has a lot of strengths at the minute in comparison to other sports for females in Ireland. "I think Ladies Football are ahead in many areas. There are development pathways in place, there are huge numbers playing and there is great visibility of the sport at both elite and grassroots level. I think the sponsorship from Lidl and TG4 have been immense for the sport. " While there may be many positives, Fiona can also see where the challenges may lie. From her involvement to date with the National Games Development Committee she is now even more aware of the work that is being done and the scale of the work that must continue to be done, especially as the Association continues to grow. "As the organisation continues to grow I think that one of the huge challenges will be managing the expectations on the volunteer. The game and the clubs are completley reliant on the volunteer, these people can't be overloaded or burnt out." "When it comes to the elite side of the game. I love that side of it but I do think that the academy structures need to be refocused. All the research would say that team sport athletes shouldn't specialise too early. It may be better for our players long term if they don't join elite squads until later in their development." Aligned to the elite structure is the adult fixtures. Fiona explains how rugby manage serving the elite and the club player simultaneously. "In rugby we get a calendar at the start of the year and everything runs regardless unless there is bad weather. For the club there would be a league generally run before and a er the 6 Nations. It goes ahead with or without International players. There were times that I returned from International duty and I didn't get selected to play for semi finals for example. The coaches had developed the other club players in our absence and continued to play with them. Club players didn't lose out because of the International scene. For example with Clontarf currently we won't have another game now until such time as Dublin are finished in the Championship. It is great that Clontarf have players on the Dublin team but the remaining players should be still able to play quality and meaningful games in their absence." A Fiona Coghlan with the RBS Six Nations Championship trophy

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