Randals women are doing it for themselves!

THERE is a lot going on in Randal Óg GAA Club these times. County final wins. Carbery triumphs. The hurlers and footballers keeping the club on the map. Ditto for Cork U20 All-Ireland winning hurler Sean Daly. Now, it’s the turn of Randal Óg’s new Gaelic for Mothers and Others team to shine the spotlight on the Ballinacarriga club.

Aghada woman Laura Burchill was playing with her home club up until last year and has since set up a new Gaelic4Mothers&Others (G4M&O) team in Randal Óg.

The 32-year-old had played with the East Cork club since she was eight years old so has plenty of experience in ladies football. She’s now hands-on with Randal Óg, and runs the club’s social media too.

Randal Óg’s newest team played their first home game at the start of the month.

‘Aghada set up a Gaelic4Mothers&Others team around six years ago; Cathal McAllister, the referee, was involved. I would have been training down one end of the pitch and the Gaelic4Mothers&Others would be training at the same time as us on a Friday night. There would always be good craic and a laugh. I went up to Cathal and asked what it was all about because at the time it was only piloted from up in Croke Park,’ Burchill explained. After marrying a Randals native, Burchill moved to West Cork and came up with an idea for her adopted club.

‘I’d always see the women up in the hill watching family members, whether it be husbands or brothers playing their games. We thought it would be great to have women playing on the field in Ballinacarriga so I started promoting the idea in the Covid years,’ Burchill explained. ‘It was around the winter of 2021 that I started proposing the idea to the committee members in Randal Óg and they thought it was brilliant. We got it up and running last summer.’

About 60 players are signed up already with the G4M&O guidelines from Croke Park applied – players have to be over 25 and can’t be playing competitively.

The feeling of escapism was a big reason as to why this team was set up.

‘Just seeing the kids and mothers at the matches while the dads were playing, it’s lovely for the mothers to have their hour to turn around the husbands and ask them to look after the kids,’ Burchill said.

‘They get their hour for doing things for themselves. One of the mothers said to me that you lose a bit of yourself when you have kids and your focus revolves around the kids.’

Burchill added: ‘There are women who wouldn’t have played before or hadn’t played since before they had kids. Then there are women who had never touched a football in their life. They benefit from the training where you learn how to handpass, kick pass and solo. They have their chat and giggle and they play their football as well.’

The Meela Moos – the G4M&O team of Keelnameela LGFA – set the bar for the rest of West Cork to follow and Randal Óg have done just that.

‘We have a massive radius,’ Burchill explained, ‘Togher, Ballinacarriga, Drinagh, Rossmore, Drimoleague, Dunmanway, it’s not solely Ballinacarriga people which is fantastic if you’re meeting up with people from different areas as well.