A ridiculous situation, but one that will continue to occur until something changes.
Through no fault of their own, the Cuala camógs have been eliminated from the Dublin camogie championship. A do-or-die group stage clash v Naomh Mearnog but Cuala were given no option other than to concede a game.
In the end, it had to be the camogie. With their crucial, knockout round 4 camogie championship clash fixed for the same day as their intermediate football championship final – nine dual players were involved – Cuala were put in a dire situation and they had to act.
To play in the camogie – fixed for 10 am on Sunday morning – would have compromised their footballer’s chances and in they decided their “least worst” option was to give a walkover.
And we’re talking about encouraging more young women to take up our games?
The cause of this of course, is an obvious one. With the LGFA and the Camogie Association completely separate organisations, their fixtures regularly clash with neither willing to compromise. This isn’t just a Dublin problem, this takes place all over the country with the organisations competing against one another on a national scale.
It makes no sense, and it’s about time they joined together under a common umbrella. This morning, the women of Cuala bore the brunt of it. Next week, it will be another club. This has to change soon.
And when you consider that the football final takes place four days after the semi-final of the same competition – a semi-final that had two of Dublin’s All-Ireland winners in Jennifer Dunne and Martha Byrne playing for their clubs just three days after winning an All-Ireland, you realise how bad it really is.
Cuala expressed their disappointment regarding the issue on the club’s Facebook page this morning.
“This is not a “football v camogie” based decision – simply the least worst option available – the football is at a championship final stage with Dublin representation in a Leinster competition required by next weekend. Notwithstanding that many players were prepared to play both games, Cuala Womens section concluded this was neither in the best interests of the players from a welfare point of view nor the club as both squads performance levels would have inevitably been impacted,” it remarked.
