RTE's Marie Crowe says women on sports shows are still…

RTE's Marie Crowe says women on sports shows are still being jeered at for their opinions

Sports host Marie Crowe said women on sports shows are still being jeered at for their opinions.

And Marie also told how she thought it was really “brave” for hurling pundit Ursula Jacob to stand up for herself after she was viciously attacked by nasty online trolls who criticised her Wexford accent earlier this year.

Marie told us she constantly sees messages coming in from listeners to her 2FM weekday show Game On heavily criticising women who are giving their opinion on sports while on her show.

She told us: “They 100 per cent are. I even see it myself on Game On. I see text messages coming in and I can tell what people are saying.

"I find that when it comes to women talking about sport, if you slip up or make a mistake, you don’t know what you’re talking about whereas if a man makes a mistake, he’s just made a mistake. So, it is a different standard there I think.”

Speaking about Ursula and how she was judged last July for her accent, Marie said it was a “horrific experience” for her.

“Ursula… that was a really horrific experience for her, and she was really brave to call it out because you would hope that people might think twice before making a comment, they probably won’t, but if you could change the habits of one or two people, it would make a difference.

“I think it probably goes back as well to when women are on television, they’re more likely to make a comment about their appearance than they are on a man’s appearance, and I always think of the Australian presenter who wore the same suit for 365 days and nobody noticed. It’s a bit like that. I think people are probably more heightened when they (women) are talking about sport because they are just not used to it.

“But you hope over time as well that it is just normal and it actually doesn’t bother people, like they don’t get offended by women talking about sport. It just takes time. There’s still a generation out there that aren’t used to women talking about sport and probably don’t want women talking about sport as well,” she added.

Marie previously told how she doesn’t have time for leery fans who comment on her looks when she’s on telly.

The mum-of-three said: “I pay absolutely no attention. I think it's because I'm so busy with having three small children and having a job and trying to survive that I don't spend a second thought thinking about how I look or how people would perceive how I look.

“I'm just thinking about can I get the boys to training, can I get them to their matches, have I got something to make their lunches?

“Maybe if I was younger, it would be different, but I don't have the room in my head to think about things like that so I don't really care.