The Ladies Football Finals.

Flukey

In a damp Croke Park, in front of a crowd of just over 20,000 Galway beat Dublin in today's Ladies Football Final. Oh well, at least my mother is from Galway. It was a far better match than the corresponding fixture for the men last Sunday. Dublin started strong and led 0 - 7 to 0 - 1 at one point. Galway came stronger towards the end of the first half and a late goal made the half time score 0 - 7 to 1 - 2, a 2 point lead for Dublin. Galway played a much better second half and pulled away to earn a comfortable win. Final Score Galway 3 - 8 Dublin 0 - 11.

The Junior Final, also a good game, finished Kildare 2-13 Sligo 3-5. Kildare held an 8 point lead at half time. Sligo came back well in the second half and closed the gap to 2 points at one stage, but Kildare got the final few scores to earn their 5 point win.

The President gives the crowd a wave after meeting the senior teams.


Dublin head for another attack.


The Galway captain, Annette Clarke, makes her victory speech, after their win.


President McAleese looks on.

Yavvy

oh well, congrats to the galway team, well deserved win.
here is hoping dublin can come back again next year. 2 all ireland finals in a row must be heart breaking. Their inability to score goals was the clear telling differance.

ishnid

Did anyone notice the photo the Indo ran on the front page on the Monday after the final. Unlike after the men's finals, where excitement was foremost (captains holding cups, delerious fans, action photos etc.), the front page had a pic of a steward sleeping in his chair during the match. A lot of people have done a great job to raise the profile of Ladies' Football over the last couple of years but if the media is going to be like that, it'll be difficult to keep it going. Anyhow - congrats to the Galway team. My sis actually shares a house in college w/ 2 of them.

. . . and yes, I realise this thread is two weeks old

Big Ears

'just over 20,000' So thats running at a loss to hold an all-Ireland final , does it warrent its place in Croke park , if its costing more money than it earns , theres plenty of other quality stadiums that could have been used , and no generate such a lack of money or lack of atmostphere . (the crowd were good , but 20,000 people in an 80,000 seater stadium , its just too hard to get a good atmostphere)

ishnid

I believe it was a lot more for last year's final, though I don't have the figure. PJ Cunningham made a suggestion in the Indo a couple of weeks ago that they should maybe try to hold the football and camogie final in Croker on the same day - they'd pull in a decent crowd between the two of them (and make it look way better on TV, which is not to be underestimated when trying to pull in crowds in future). Worth looking into IMHO.

GaillimhChick

i know i'm late but UP GALWAY!!!!
yeah, also on the subject of the crowd, the galway county final between kilererrin and salthill-knocknacarra was on the same day as the ladies match! so a lot of the people who attended that match would probably have gone to dublin had it not been on on the same day!