TG4 Ladies Football - Pushing the Envelope
Talking Balls
Bertie Ahern TD took time out from his many other activities to personally launch the TG4 2008 Ladies Football Championships.
Sez Bertie with words that could have been used to describe his own political career: “The road to success is mapped with hard work - there will be days that will test the character of all involved, when physical and mental toughness will be required in abundance.”
The TG4 Championships will be competed across the three grades established in 2007; senior, Intermediate and junior. The Senior Championship has been restructured for 2008 with the introduction of a qualifier system for those knocked out of the provincial championships at an early stage. The provincial winners will enter the All Ireland series of the Championship at the quarter-final stage while the provincial runners-up will go into the second round of qualifiers.
TG4 will broadcast two live games each weekend from 27th July all the way through to the All Ireland finals. They will air a total of 17 live games during the All Ireland series culminating in a finals triple bill at GAA headquarters on Sunday 28th September. The All Ireland Minor final will be televised for the very first time as part of a double bill with a Round 1 Senior Championship qualifier.
The two Intermediate Championship semi-finals will also be broadcast live on TG4 and all of the televised games will be streamed live on www.tg4.ie.
According to their own blurb, Ladies Football is the largest female team participation sport in the country with over 130,000 registered members in 1000 clubs around the country. Last year over 26,000 people attended the All Ireland finals in Croke Park while 267,000 tuned into the games live on TG4.
It is not known whether the good people from Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael were looking as their sisters announce another summer of bumper coverage for the game with the bigger balls.