DUBLIN’S NIAMH Gannon has expressed her disappointment following the failure of a campaign to approve the wearing of shorts in camogie.
In a survey conducted by London’s Thomas McCurtains club last year, 82 per cent of 240 respondents favoured shorts over the traditional skort — which is a pair of shorts with an overlapping fabric resembling a skirt.
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Yet at the sport’s congress earlier this month, 64 per cent of delegates voted against a motion to replace skorts with shorts.
A separate motion calling for shorts to be added to the list of approved playing gear alongside skorts was rejected by 55 per cent of delegates.
Addressing the issue at a promotional event for Staycity Aparthotels, who are supporting Dublin GAA in all four codes for the next five years, Gannon said: “Hugely disappointed that we have to speak about it. It’s hard to believe that people who aren’t playing are the ones making these decisions.
“Personally I would much prefer to wear shorts. I don’t mind the skorts but I think everyone should have a choice.
“From our own team, if you show up to training, not one girl will be in a skort. We only wear them because we have to.
“The bigger issue is for younger girls who play both football and camogie — they’re deciding to play football because they can wear shorts. So you actually could be losing younger girls because they don’t have the choice to wear shorts.
“This debate has to be spoken about because we can’t let that continue, especially since it’s another three years before they can vote on it. I can’t think of a reason why you wouldn’t allow people to have the choice.”
Refusal to adhere to camogie’s rules on playing gear can lead to a yellow card, followed by a red if the dissent continues.
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Asked for her view on why the motions were not passed, Gannon said: “I’m not sure because within our team, the message would have been sent in.
“There was a vote. Shorts or skorts or a choice, what do you think? Everyone apart from one player voted for shorts. The other player voted that there should be a choice.
“Our delegate would have been taking that on board so I’m not sure what happened with the other counties or where the vote didn’t get passed.
“Definitely, from our point of view, it was very clear that a choice should at least be given.”
