Saturday’s All-Ireland Senior Club Ladies Football final will not be televised live on TG4 because of a scheduling clash with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
The 4pm Croke Park decider between five-in-a-row chasing Kilkerrin-Clonberne and first-time finalists, St Ergnat’s Moneyglass of Antrim, won’t be shown live on television as it throws-in at the same time as TG4’s broadcasting of Junior Eurovision, and will instead be shown live on the TG4 player and station’s YouTube channel.
There will also be a deferred television showing of the senior final later on Saturday evening at 8.10pm.
Saturday’s All-Ireland Intermediate Club Ladies Football decider between Caltra of Galway and Kilkenny’s Muckalee, which has a 2pm start, will be broadcast live on television by TG4 before coverage of the senior final then reverts to the TG4 Player and station’s YouTube channel.
Conversations between TG4 and the LGFA in recent weeks did explore the possibility of flipping the order of the two finals, so the senior decider could be broadcast live on television at 2pm, but this was ultimately decided against.
Following a series of questions to the LGFA to establish what other avenues were explored to try and find a workaround to the scheduling clash, the Ladies Football association said “the 2pm and 4pm throw-in times were agreed in conjunction with TG4”.
Lottie O’Driscoll Murray will represent Ireland at the 2025 Junior Eurovision Song Contest at 4pm on TG4 today.
TG4 Head of Sport Rónán Ó Coisdealbha told the Irish Examiner that they “looked at every single option” to have the senior ladies football final shown live on their linear channel.
TG4 have had a full series of programming every Sunday for the last three months to select the Irish entry for this weekend’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia. TG4 coverage of the song contest begins at 4pm on Saturday, the same time as Kilkerrin-Clonberne and St Ergnat’s Moneyglass throws-in at GAA HQ.
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest has typically taken place on a Saturday evening in late November, but the move to mid-December for the 2025 edition has delivered the clash with the concluding fixture of the club season.
“We have had a lot of conversations with the LGFA, Croke Park, with our schedulers, with everything,” continued TG4 Head of Sport Rónán Ó Coisdealbha.
“We are putting the senior final on two platforms, so it is going to go out on Sport TG4 YouTube and the TG4 player, and it will be available on both platforms worldwide, so we are making it as accessible as possible.”
This weekend represents the climax of both the camogie and ladies football club seasons. Sunday’s All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie final between St Finbarr’s of Cork and Galway champions Athenry will be shown live on RTÉ2 (4.15pm throw-in).