All things Camogie.

Firstly - 4 yrs old is very young for this.

Also, there is a huge difference between the crowd at LGFA/ Camogie and at the senior mens games - specifically, the LGFA/ Camogie crowds are child dominated.

Most people there are either children (or teens) and parents/ coaches of children (or teens). The womens soccer is much the same.

Which is a problem - but for your daughter, it means it has its own type of atmosphere with loads of noise and loads of high pitched cheering.

As suggestion - make a reservation at Independent Pizza beforehand, kids love that place and its really near Croke Park.

I read an article yesterday where a Galway player was talking about the small attendance in particular vs the Ladies football final.

Two issues would largely account for the difference. The first one is geography. Meath and Dublin obviously have little to no travel so that helps to get in more casual supporters compared to Galway and Cork. Nothing the camogie association can do about that.

Issue 2 however was in their control. The 5.15 throw in time was crazy. Its needlessly late considering there was always a strong chance Cork would contest the final. It was going to be very late for families with young children getting back home to the furthest points of Cork and Galway. A week earlier the LGFA staged a triple header with the senior final at 4.00. The camogie association need to look at this for next year.

I'd suggest that geography and therefore travel time was a far bigger factor than the throw-in times, though. And just to point out that the LGFA Senior Final was actually at 4.15 p.m., so really there was just an hour in the difference.

Three hours of driving from Croke Park would get to just about any of the hurling/camogie areas of both Cork and Galway. So basically:

• Throw-in at 4.15 p.m.: expect to be out of the ground and back at car by 6.30, could be home for 9.30
• Throw-in at 5.15 p.m.: expect to be out of the ground and back at car by 7.30, could be home for 10.30

I don't think too many who'd consider a three-hour drive in the first place would be put off only by that extra hour. Particuarly when it's during school holidays when children stay up late anyway, and no rush to get them up on the morning afterwards.

I know you could say I'm not allowing for a stop on the way home, but if time is that important to you, then you don't actually need to stop. In fairness, if the deciding factor in maybe going to an All-Ireland Final or not going to it is "will we have time for McDonalds on the way home?", then you're not exactly committed to the cause anyway.

I was comparing it only to the LGFA Finals simply because the poster I was replying to had compared it only to the LGFA Finals.

But FWIW - the men's finals are obviously just single-header events. Even when they used to be combined with the minor finals, they were just double-headers. Both LGFA & Camogie Finals Days are triple-headers.

If you want to finish with your senior final at 3.30, then you'd probably need to be starting your first match at 11 a.m., and that just brings the same sort of issues at the other end of the day for the people from those counties.

You could of course change the running order of the finals - e.g. Junior at 1 p.m., Senior at 3 p.m., Intermediate at 5.15 p.m.

But then what would happen would be 100% of the 'Junior crowd' being gone by the time the Intermediate Final started, and probably 80 or 90% of the 'Senior crowd' not waiting around for it either. That wouldn't be ideal either.

What would be your preferred way of having the senior final at 3 or 3.30 p.m.? Would you take one of the other finals out of Croke Park altogether, because that's really the only other option?

And then you'd have the Junior and/or Intermediate counties complaining about how their teams don't have a day out in Croke Park. Also, don't forget that taking one or both of those matches out would mean an instant drop in attendance on the day, with no guarantee that you'd get that many back from the senior counties or as neutrals.

Maybe we'll have to agree to disagree, but I still don't think myself that 5.15 p.m. on an August Sunday is the "problem".

If you're from Cork or Galway and intending to travel to the match, you're counting on being gone all day anyway. Whether you get home at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. is hardly going to be a deal-breaker.

Question:

I know the attendance for the ladies football finals each year is somewhat artificially inflated by how the LGFA levies all clubs for All-Ireland tickets at the start of the year. Then when the finals come round, many clubs from all over the country (including the club where I'm from myself) arrange buses to Croke Park to give young players a day out, on the grounds of "sure we have the tickets anyway".

To the best of my knowledge, the Camogie Association doesn't do the same. Am I correct?

To be clear - I'm not suggesting the Camogie Association should do it. I'm just putting it forward as another reason for the difference in typical attendances.

I read that myself earlier today, and I don't understand it either.

The Hearings Committee can request clarifications and/or extra details from the referee if their initial report is deemed insufficient. You'd have to imagine this should have been their first action, and that any second version of a report would still need to have been very bad for them to move to deeming it out of order.

And whatever anyone thinks about Justin Heffernan's performance or decisions on the day, fact remains that he's a very experienced referee, who must have written and submitted many hundreds of reports across the codes over the years. Seems strange that one should suddenly be deemed out of order in relation to such a high-profile incident.

On your other point - I'm presuming that Camogie operates the same way as GAA in such circumstances, in that if a referee has dealt with an incident on the day, then proceedings must move on according to the Rule Book re. the referee's report etc.

Generally speaking, it's only if a referee has missed something on the day that action is taken on foot of video evidence alone.

But surely apathy is the issue. Travelling 3 hours isnt an issue for mens games, but its a blocker for womens games? Its the same distance for both.

And to be clear, this isnt an 'anti men' point - I firmly believe that women need to start supporting womens sport. Men have no problem driving for three hours to watch a game. Why wont women do it.

Yes, that's much my point. As you already said above, the "late" 5.15 p.m. is a red herring. If you're prepared to travel three hours or more each way to attend a match, and so be gone from home all day, then whether you get home at 10 p.m., 11 p.m, or midnight shouldn't really be a make-or-break issue.

The issue is that most people (men and women) who'd make that trip for a men's match won't do the same for a women's match. And yes, you could call that apathy.