In this week’s Women in Sport Weekly, supported by our partnership with Lidl, we look back on a couple of key landmarks in refereeing and broadcasting as well as some major achievements on the field of play, in the administration corridors of power and more…
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FUTURE LEADERSHIP
31 graduates of the LGFA’s inaugural BUA programme, representing 19 counties, were saluted at a special graduation ceremony held at the Bonnington Hotel in Dublin last weekend.
The BUA Programme is a self-development initiative aimed at supporting young people in the LGFA to develop life skills and qualities to benefit themselves and their local communities. Bua is an Irish word expressing victory.
Aimed at females aged 16-19 years of age, ‘BUA’ was conducted through expert-led workshops and self-reflection, before participants put their enhanced leadership skills into practice through a club action project.
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FAHEY HITS 100
Niamh Fahey made her 100th appearance for the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team in the week when they beat Poland in their opening game of the Pinatar Cup in Spain.
Having made her senior debut in 2007, Fahey is now just the fourth female player in Ireland’s history to become a Centurion, following behind Emma Byrne (134), Áine O’Gorman (111) and Ciara Grant (105).
She played home games in eight different stadia here, from Tolka Park to Turner’s Cross, before the team settled on Tallaght Stadium as its regular home base.
Fahey has played the full 90 minutes of each of Ireland’s four games in a bright start to the qualification campaign for the FIFA World Cup in 2023.
She came to football after a successful stint in Ladies Football, winning an All-Ireland title with Galway in 2004.
Fahey was a special guest at the Sport for Business Annual Women in Sport Conference in 2021.
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DIVILLY TAKES AWARD
Kilkerrin-Clonberne and Galway star Olivia Divilly has been honoured with The Croke Park/LGFA Player of the Month award for January 2022.
Divilly, 26, was in superb form for her club Kilkerrin-Clonberne in the currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Final victory over opponents Mourneabbey from Cork on Saturday, January 29.
At St Brendan’s Park, Birr, Olivia scored 0-5, including two points from play, as Kilkerrin-Clonberne made up for a one-point defeat against Mourneabbey in 2019 to get their hands on the Dolores Tyrrell Memorial Cup for the very first time.
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OTB AND CADBURY EXTEND PARTNERSHIP
OTB Sports has signed a 12-month partnership with Cadbury to continue as title sponsor of the popular women’s football podcast, The COYGIG Pod.
Fronted by Kathleen McNamee and Karen Duggan, the second season of The COYGIG Pod has just returned for 2022, kicking off an exciting year for The Republic of Ireland WNT who are gunning to make the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year, for our Women’s National League and for the many Irish players making waves in the WSL.
The agreement will see Cadbury, an Official Partner of the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team, sponsor The COYGIG Pod for 35 weeks, further strengthening their commitment to women’s football and complementing OTB Sport’s own commitment to the coverage of women’s sport.
OTB was a strong supporter of the 20X20 campaign and has made significant strides in reaching out to encourage new on-air talent and coverage of Women’s sport across the board.
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NIAMH BRIGGS INTERVIEW
The only people that Niamh Briggs consulted when invited to become Assistant Manager of the Ireland Women’s Rugby team were herself and her family.
Speaking to Sport for Business yesterday as Pinergy announced a ten-year extended partnership with Munster Rugby, we asked whether the controversy about the commitment to the women’s game had played on her mind.
“To be honest when I got the call from Gregg and Anthony I sat on it for a few days just to make sure I got clarity in my own mind.”
“I spoke to my family but then I didn’t really talk to anyone else until the news broke. I just needed to make sure it was right for me.”
There were so many good things about it for me. It was about the talent that is out there and I wanted to do something that was giving back for the good of the game.”
“It was also really important for me to be right about it in my own positions within UL Bohemians and Munster. I don’t think I’d be suited to just coaching a group for small periods of the year.”
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THE WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE
The game was dramatic when the Ireland U20 Men scored their second Six Nations win of the season in France last weekend. What was perhaps of greater importance in the long term advance of Women in sport was the fact that it was also the second game of the Championship where there was an all-female officiating crew.
Hollie Davidson followed on from Sara Cox who took charge of the game in Musgrave Park on the opening weekend against Wales.
Joy Neville will be in charge of England against Wales next weekend and do you know what’s most impressive about it, it has hardly merited a mention. Making it an ordinary part of sport that Women should be taking up positions of leadership and authority was always really important. It’s happening.
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FARRELLY TO TAKE CHARGE OF ALLIANZ FOOTBALL CLASH
Maggie Farrelly will referee Leitrim’s Allianz Football League clash with London this weekend, the first time that a female ref will take charge of a men’s match in the competition.
She was also a sideline official for last weekend’s AIB All-Ireland Club Football Final and it is great to see such a breakthrough taking place on merit rather than to secure headlines.
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US NETWORKS DOUBLE DOWN ON WOMEN’S SPORT
It may be the weekend after the Superbowl but when is there ever really a quiet weekend in sport.
This weekend US Networks ESPN and ABC will feature an unprecedented level of women’s sports coverage across multiple sports.
The United States women’s national team’s SheBelieves Cup game against New Zealand, on Sunday afternoon, will be the first appearance on major network ABC in 18 years.
ESPN will broadcast five games featuring top-ranked teams in basketball, softball and gymnastics, as well as continued coverage of the football.
It will also broadcast a women’s college basketball-themed edition of “College GameDay” before Sunday’s big game between South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as 40 games from Women’s College Softball.
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ICC DOUBLES PRIZE MONEY FOR WOMEN’S CRICKET WORLD CUP
The International Cricket Council has increased the prize money to be paid to teams at next month’s Women’s Cricket World Cup by 75 per cent to a total of €3.07 million.
The winners of the eight-team tournament will win just over €1 million, with €530,000 to the runners-up and €260,000 to the losing semi-finalists.
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Teams who exit the tournament in the group stage are set to benefit from a $70,000 (£50,000/€ 60,000) cash prize and each team will bag $25,000 (£18,000/€22,000) for every group-stage victory.
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Each Friday we carry a Women in Sport Weekly Column, highlighting stories here in Ireland and around the world that are relevant to the idea that we are only catching up to what is happening elsewhere and that while we may be strong in some areas, there are certainly others where we need to prod and poke to ensure fairness.
That’s all, it’s not a takeover, it’s not at the expense of sport that is there already, it is just recognition that sport should be more conscious of its obligation to the 50.5 per cent of the population that has just as much right and talent to play sport as anyone.
If you think there is a story around Women in Sport that we should feature please get in touch and let us know.
