Four of Clare’s female dual-stars are being forced to choose one code over the other this Saturday as the Camogie Association are refusing to accommodate the dual-players.

This Saturday Colm Honan’s camogie side take on Dublin in a crucial All-Ireland championship game at 14:00 in Newmarket-on-Fergus while Clare’s ladies football team compete in the Munster Intermediate Final in Mallow at 16:00. The quartet of Carol O’Leary, Emma O’Driscoll, Ailish Considine and seventeen year old Aoife Keane are part of both panels and must choose one team to line out with.

A statement issued to media outlets by the Camogie Association reads “While the Camogie Association endeavours to accommodate preferences and requests and to accommodate dual players, a busy fixtures schedule at all levels means that, regrettably, it may not always be possible to resolve issues to everyone’s satisfaction, particularly if requests come after the national fixtures are ratified and published”.

Clare Camogie first raised the issue with the Camogie Association on November 11th in an email outlining a possible clash yet the Croke Park officials publicly chose to omit this fact in their statement. When contacted by The Clare Herald, CEO of the Camogie Association, Joan O’Flynn did not wish to add to the statement.

The WGPA have also released a statement on the weekend’s situation which says “We feel this is an unacceptable situation for the players involved; it is not okay to ask players to play two championship games in one day. There are serious issues around player welfare, potential injury and diminished performance, as well as the health and safety of the players rushing between venues. After months of diligent preparation, both the players and the teams involved deserve the chance to deliver their best performance”.

Joe Robbins, Chairman of the Clare Camogie Board in conversation with The Clare Herald today outlined that they increased their campaign to re-arrange the fixture in recent weeks but to no avail. “A couple of weeks back when we realised that Clare were in the Football Final we made intensive discussions and negotiations jointly with Clare Ladies Football and Clare Camogie the management of both to the Camogie Association in Munster and Croke Park and my belief is that due to intransigence on both of those two bodies we’re left in a situation whereby a number of our girls, four girls, one of whom is seventeen have to make a decision between Camogie and Ladies Football this weekend”.

Robbins is of the belief that the Camogie Association needs to merge together with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association to avoid such instances occurring in the future. “The way out of this going forward for me is that Ladies Football and Camogie need to work much more closely together to resolve these things for the good of the game and I’ll go one step further this is my personal belief that to avoid this in future I think we should look to merge Camogie and Ladies Football into one organisation”.

Speaking exclusively to The Clare Herald, dual-star Carol O’Leary expressed her disappointment with the situation. “Obviously it’s so upsetting I’ve been training for both since November. I’ve been driving home midweek from Sligo to go to camogie training, then to join the football panel to actually win something this year and now I’ve to pick between playing a camogie championship match where we only have four games or getting to play in a Munster football final, it’s devastating really and it’s the same for the four girls”.

She added “When you’ve put in so much effort and then to not even be able to play a championship match when we have so few matches in the year and it’s so short, it’s just terrible and especially when you know that it’s an administration problem”.

O’Leary admits that playing both games in the one day would be difficult but she would much prefer going through the physical pain of playing both rather than the mental torture of choosing one sport. “Playing the two matches in one day is one thing it wouldn’t be ideal but at least you’re not letting down one of your panel, you don’t have to choose which team or panel is more important to you, none of us can make a decision that’s easy because there’s twenty five girls on both of those panels we’ve been training so much for each one of those girls, it’s just terrible like having to miss one of the matches is the worst, having to play two games (in the one day) is a joke aswell to say that we’re inter-county senior players and that we have to play two games in one day is ridiculous but at least that would be an option where we wouldn’t have to choose what sport or game is more important”.

A corner-back with the camogie side and an attacker with the footballers, Newmarket-on-Fergus woman Carol O’Leary believes the Camogie Association are taking a great opportunity from the girls. “I’d much rather to be able to go to both of my matches and lose my matches rather than to have to not go, they’re taking your opportunity and they’re going around promoting the game as ‘our game your game’ and they’re taking an opportunity from four players to play a championship game away from them after four of us training all year long and it’s such a commitment for us to try play with two County squads and they’re taking the opportunity from us to line out and we’ve put so much effort into trying to make the team and holding a position on the team and now all of that is for nothing”.

Dublin were willing to postpone the fixture twenty four hours in order to prevent this situation. Doing so would have allowed the Capital’s camogie followers watch their U16 side play the Banner on Sunday at 14:00 in Scariff but instead they will have to travel to Clare twice in two days should they wish to watch both games. The majority of Clare GAA enthusiasts will be making their way to Semple Stadium for the hurling qualifier while the camogie clash takes place so the deferral of the game would have increased attendance at game while also accommodating the dual-players.

Cork find themselves in a similar situation this Saturday for the second time this year and the inability of both organisations to assist their players has led to uproar on social media with many individuals echoing Joe Robbins’ personal view that the Camogie Association and LGFA should merge together.