LGFA RED TAPE MEANS GAA U16 GIRLS UNABLE TO PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

An exciting opportunity for Kilcullen GAA U16 Girls to play in the A Championship final has been dashed by the refusal of the LGFA County Board to change the date of the match. The team had beaten Celbridge to qualify for the final against Clane, next Saturday, 17 October.

But because ten of the players have a pre-commitment with Kilcullen AFC for a soccer weekend in Cambrils in Spain, for which they fundraised for months, Kilcullen GAA can't field a team for the final.

Despite Kilcullen’s efforts to negotiate, including reaching out to Clane, who agreed to a flexible date, the LGFA insisted on the original October date, citing ratified fixtures, and Kilcullen say they'll have to forfeit the final. 

Kilcullen LGFA chairperson Martin Murphy expressed frustration, highlighting the players’ prior commitments and a previous website misunderstanding about the final’s date. "Clane have been great – they said no problem, they understand, they’ve had similar problems in different grades and they're willing to play whenever suits," he told the Kildare Nationalist this week. "We're missing ten players, nine of those ten played in the Celbridge match last weekend, and two of the ten are goalkeepers. So, we've no goalkeeper and we don’t have the players to fill the fixture because we don't have a second team. It's not as if we can call on another U16 group, we don't have them, so we’d have to resort to going U14s, who are too young to be playing two years up."

The decision threatens to undermine the final’s integrity and overlooks Kilcullen’s significant contributions to ladies’ football over the last decade, including earning a place in this year’s senior final for the first time ever, which attracted a massive crowd of supporters to the game. 

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