The LGFA held its launch event yesterday for this year’s National Football League. The action gets underway this coming weekend in Division 4, while Round 1 matches in the other three Divisions, including the top tier where Mayo are, will be played the following weekend.

At yesterday’s launch event at Croke Park the LGFA and their main sponsor Lidl unveiled new research conducted by Red C in November 2024, which revealed the need for more high-profile female players in sport. An interesting statistic included in this research was that 42% of the Irish public said they would be more likely to attend a women’s sporting event in person if someone well-known was playing.

The research reveals that one in four are more interested in women’s sport compared to a year ago. That’s not wholly surprising, given the exploits of prominent Irish sportswomen of late, including the likes of Kellie Harrington, Ciara Mageean, Rhasidat Adeleke and Katie McCabe.

More on this very interesting research, covering the challenging of societal norms and the importance of female role models, is here.

Back to the League, where, like the men, we open our Division 1 campaign with an away match against Dublin on the 25th of this month. Our full list of League games this year is as follows:

ROUND 1: Dublin v MAYO, Sunday 26th January

ROUND 2: Meath v MAYO, Monday 3rd February (Live on TG4 2pm)

ROUND 3: MAYO v Tyrone, Sunday 9th February

ROUND 4: Armagh v MAYO, Saturday 22nd February (Live on TG4 7.30pm)

ROUND 5: MAYO v Kerry, Sunday 2nd March

ROUND 6: MAYO v Kildare, Saturday 22nd March (3pm)

ROUND 7: Waterford v MAYO, Saturday 29th March (2.30pm).