‘If a male team had to play a championship game at 11am there would be uproar’ - Discontent voiced at throw-in times for Mayo ladies club championship 

THE Mayo Ladies club championships began last Sunday morning with all but one of the matches in the senior, intermediate junior championships throwing in at 11am. A number of managers and players spoke to The Mayo News about the throw-in time with most criticising the scheduling of the games.

Cormac Reape, manager of county senior champions Knockmore was particularly scathing.

“I’ve said this two or three times. I think it’s an absolute joke.  The referee wasn’t sorted for this game until half-ten last night. You have all them other factors as well, you have the weather side of it, the organisation, pitches available,” he stated before saying the fact Westport had to play senior and junior championship matches at the same time on adjoining pitches defied belief. 

“These things shouldn’t be happening. Do the Westport senior girls want to support the junior girls who they probably train with day-in day-out? Of course they do, and vice-versa. It’s a serious problem.”

Reape’s points were echoed by Carnacon boss Danny O’Toole who said it was almost impossible to prepare properly for such an early throw-in.

“It's far from ideal,” O’Toole stated. “If a male team had to play a championship game at 11am there would be uproar. It just wouldn’t happen, and it's a shame that this association is allowing this to happen. It's a bigger picture and a discussion for another day, but 11am is not fair. Not fair on any level, to any team. It's the preparation. These modern-day footballers are preparing for a game at least four hours before it starts in terms of nutrition and hydration and all that. That's happening now at seven o'clock in the morning. That's completely unfair,” he added.

Westport and Mayo midfielder Aoife Geraghty said the scheduling of all the matches for 11am has a number of negatives.

“It's not ideal, I guess. You want as many people coming out to the games as possible but it’s challenging when all the games are on at the same time. Even for supporters, they want to keep an eye on two games. Even for us to support our juniors, we don't really get the chance on the Sunday mornings because we tend to be on at the same time. That's something to look at in the future.”

Her manager, Pop Geraghty, had this to say about the 11am throw-ins.