ICYMI: Kilkenny captain Katie Power calls for fair play after skort protest

The Kilkenny senior camogie team have called for fair play for their sport.

The Cats hit the headlines when they and opponents Dublin prepared to play the Leinster semi-final while wearing shorts instead of the traditional skort. The sides were forced to go back to the dressing-room and change in order for the game to be played.

Similarly prior to the Leinster final on Saturday, players were instructed to change from their skorts to shorts. On the pitch, Kilkenny beat Wexford to secure their fourth provincial title in a row. - READ MORE HERE

“It’s a bit far-fetched, in this day and age, to be told that you have to wear a skirt because you’re a girl,” Kilkenny captain Katie Power told the ’People. “It’s just not feasible anymore - we train and prepare for games in shorts; every single session, four, five, six sessions a week, but then in a game we have to wear a skirt because it’s a girls’ competition. It doesn’t really add up.”

The protest highlighted the growing move among players to be allowed to play matches while wearing shorts - over 70% of players surveyed by the Gaelic Players Association reported discomfort while wearing skorts. The survey recorded responses from 650 intercounty camogie players, with 83% reporting players should have the option to choose either shorts or skorts.

“There had been talks, during the last while, to see if we could introduce shorts,” said Power on how it came about. “The GPA advised us on what would be the best way to practice this. As captain, and with Michelle Teehan as the GPA rep, we told the players we’re going to wear our shorts, but we told players to bring their skorts as we knew the officials could easily abandon the game.

News of the skort issue has grabbed headlines across and Ireland and beyond, with the majority of people coming down on the side of the players.

“The amount of people who have been taken aback by this is huge,” she said. “We didn’t expect it to get as big as it has.”

Much of the reason for the protest came after a motion brought to Congress two years ago to do away with the skort was defeated.

“The motion was there and it was defeated, which again, I can’t get over,” she said. “With Congress the people voting aren’t current players. Things have moved on a huge amount in camogie in the last five years, nevermind 10 or 20 years ago.

“I just don’t understand why the Association won’t maybe sit down at the table with the GPA and with the players and have a chat about it,” she continued. “I don’t really see how they can’t meet us halfway on this.

“I do think it can be easily sorted out, but we just obviously need to sit down together and talk about it,” she said. “It’s not a case of us going against the Association - we just want to play camogie, but I feel like we’re not really being listened to in terms of something so simplistic.”

With so much focus on the skort issue, Power believes other counties could continue the protest in future games.

“I can only speak on behalf of Kilkenny, but from the talk around us the majority of the counties are on the exact same wavelength. I can’t see why others won’t do the same thing, but hopefully some sense is made of all this in the coming weeks.”

The move to enforce the wearing of skorts was ‘outdated’ and described as a sporting ‘own goal’ by a Labour TD Alan Kelly. In Kilkenny, Cllr Deirdre Cullen, who has been involved on local camogie circles for many years, called on the Camogie Association to give the players the choice.

“No sportsperson should have to tog out in gear that’s unsuitable and uncomfortable,” she said. “It’s time for the Association to listen to our players and give them the choice.”

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