The cream of the country's Ladies Footballers are Canada-bound today, with the TG4/O'Neills All Stars teams of 2010 and 2011 heading to Toronto for a week. The highlight will be an exhibition game between the two teams on Saturday which will feature the involvement of six players chosen from local teams, while coaching and development projects are also planned.

It will be the first Allstars tour to Canada since the GAA All Stars played in the Skydome in 1990 and 1991 and the fifth undertaken by the Ladies Football Association since 2004. The group, which includes ten girls chosen as substitutes and a further three chosen as replacements for players picked on the 2010 and 2011 teams, will be led by Association President Pat Quill and CEO Helen O'Rourke.

"We like to go to a city where there is a strong GAA link and a vibrant Ladies Football sector,'' Helen O'Rourke explains. "When we looked around, we have been to New York, Singapore, Dubai and San Francisco. We had been invited to Toronto a few years ago but the problem with Canada is that you can't really go there before May because of the weather.

"However, when we looked at it, the week actually fell into place for us because the Leagues have just finished and the championship hasn't started. So, fixtures are not affected.''

The 40-strong playing panel comprises 27 All Stars and is representative of 13 counties, with Leitrim's Áine Tighe from the Kiltubrid club - the only player from Connacht - earning a late call-up. Laois defender Grainne Dunne was forced to withdraw after suffering a cruciate injury recently in a club game and she underwent surgery yesterday.

"She's devastated,'' commented star Laois player Tracey Lawlor. "She's going to be a massive loss to us.''

Fourteen of the Allstars are first-time winners - eight on the 2010 team and six more the following year. Cork's Brid Stack, Tracey Lawlor and Sinead Aherne (Dublin) were named on both teams and they have been replaced on the 2011 side by Aisling Leonard (Kerry), Aisling Holton (Kildare) and Louise Ni Mhuircheartaigh (Kerry).

At the other end of the scale, Cork girls Briege Corkery and Juliet Murphy have each won five awards, followed by Brid Stack and Tracey Lawlor with four each. Deirdre O'Reilly - also from Cork, who has been honoured both in attack and defence - and Sinead Aherne each hold three.

The tour party features two sets of sisters, Cathy and Joline Donnelly from Tyrone and Grainne and Therese McNally from Monaghan - all of them Allstar winners.

Three girls who are overseas will be joining the group in Toronto. Lorraine Muckian (Laois) is based in Vancouver, while Elaine Kelly (Dublin) and Yvonne McMonagle are flying in from Australia. McMonagle has the distinction of being Donegal's first ever Allstar.

Pat Quill points out that the tour presents the Ladies Gaelic Football Association with 'an unrivalled opportunity' to promote their game aboard, commenting: "what better way to achieve that than to exhibit the game being played at the highest level!''

Helen O'Rourke says that while the cost of staging the tour is an obvious issue in these recessionary times, the bottom line was that they would not be in a position to do it without the sponsorship of TG4 and O'Neills. "If we are serious about continuing to promote our game, we have to be serious about continuing to support players and in many ways there are few enough opportunities for us to reward them,'' she comments.

Players (*denotes Allstar):
A. Doonan - Cavan; N. Keane - Clare; *B. Stack, *D. O'Reilly, *B. Corkery, *G. O'Flynn, *J. Murphy, *R. Ni Buachalla, A. O'Shea - Cork; *Y. McMonagle, C. Hegarty - Donegal; *R. Ruddy, *S. McGrath, *G. Fay, *D. Masterson, *A. McGuinness, *S. Aherne,* E. Kelly, S. Goldrick - Dublin; *E. Murphy, B. Breen, A. Leonard, L. Ni Mhuircheartaigh, - Kerry; A. Holton - Kildare; *L. Muckian, *T. Lawlor, *M. Kirwan - Laois; *I. Munnelly, F. Mahon - Meath; C. Reilly, *G. McNally, *S. Courtney, *T. McNally, *C. McAnespie - Monaghan; *S. McLaughlin,*C. Donnelly, *G. Begley, *J. Donnelly - Tyrone; A. Tighe - Leitrim; M. Ryan (Waterford).

Team Managers: Gerry McGill and Micheal Naughton; match referee - Keith Delahunty (Tipperary).

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