The debate surrounding championship structures, in both football and hurling, is nothing new to camogie – the 2013 edition tweaked yet again to best accommodate competing counties.
This has the unanimous approval of two players who contested last year’s All-Ireland final, Wexford’s Kate Kelly and Cork’s Anna Geary, who were at yesterday’s championship launch in Croke Park.
What irks them, however, is camogie still has some way to go to gain the same recognition as football and hurling, at least in terms of media coverage.
“I wouldn’t say it’s quite where it deserves to be,” says Kelly, who helped Wexford to the three-in-a-row last September. “It’s definitely improved, hugely. You can see the difference from year to year. But there are a lot more forms of media too. Facebook, Twitter, that give people more options to stay informed.”
It’s not like the camogie association haven’t tried to increase the profile: new headline sponsors Liberty Insurance (who also jointly sponsor the hurling championship) will help, but Kelly wants more camogie finals played alongside hurling.
"It can help, for both genuine supporters, as well as the players, and the game. Even for the last two years we've played the league final before the men's league final, which is great. With Liberty now as well, to be linked with the hurling championship like that, is a help, even for recognition."
Difficult task
Wexford face a difficult task of winning a fourth successive All-Ireland: one third of their panel has moved on, as has manager JJ Doyle, replaced now by Martin Lynch.
Kelly approves of the new championship structure (the open draw now divided into two groups). “It’s been tweaked every three or four years now, and because it’s an open championship, they’re trying to make it competitive.
“I think the open championship works well. I don’t know how it would work on a provincial basis. But we’ve had three or four formats over the last 10 years. Last year we played every team. Now we’re back to two groups, which is better, it gives counties a better route to get club games out too.
“It’s hard to find the ideal, because of lot of us are dual players too. You have to be able to juggle your time, fit them in.
“But since the turnover from the small goals as well, in 1999, the game has really progressed. The professionalism within the GAA, I think, has brought it on a lot. Definitely, over the 15 or whatever years, fitness and skill levels are definitely up, and if you want to improve you have to do that bit extra, get to the gym, because it has become a lot more physical.”
For Geary, Cork's prospects of making amends for losing last year's final have improved, given they beat Wexford in the league, yet she agrees with Kelly playing demands go up every year, which is why she also approves of the structure change in the championship, which begins on June 22nd.
'A better structure'
"Last year we had eight games on consecutive weekends and if you were to ask that of hurlers or men's footballers it would be impossible. The introduction of the quarter-final as well allows teams that haven't gone so well in the group stages to get back in and contest for a place in the final so, overall, it is a better structure.
“Hopefully we can get over Tipperary now in the first round (on Sunday week) because we can’t be looking any farther than that. But to say it is an open championship this year really is an understatement because there are plenty of teams there that are perfectly capable of getting into the All-Ireland final.
“Just last weekend Kilkenny beat Wexford in the Leinster championship, which people might not have thought would happen at the start of the year.
“You see then the likes of Dublin and the amount of work they are doing at underage levels and it is starting to pay dividends with them beating some of the more traditional teams.”
