Fixtures dilemma for ladies football boss Shane Ronayne

Cork ladies senior football team selector Shane Ronayne considered the prospect of a frantic helicopter ride to cope with a potential fixtures riddle on Saturday.

Ronayne is manager of the Coláiste Dún Iascaigh team that contest the Tesco All-Ireland Post Primary Schools A football final against Glenamaddy Community School in Kinnitty (12pm).

But Ronayne is also in charge of the UCC team preparing for The Irish Examiner O’Connor Cup weekend at Cork IT.

And, if UCC beat DCU in tomorrow’s semi-final, he’ll have to make it from Kinnitty to Cork for a 3.45pm throw-in for the O’Connor Cup decider against holders UL or NUI Galway.

Ladies Gaelic Football chiefs have been unable to facilitate a request to change the date of the schools game as last year’s beaten finalists Coláiste Dún Iascaigh, from Cahir aim to go one better by capturing silverware. And Ronayne said: “The biggest problem is the Galway school but Croke Park should be taking a lead. We’re trying various things at the moment. We looked at a helicopter but we were quoted €2,000 for that. Now we’re looking at a Garda escort some of the way. If we lose the match above in Kinnitty, that would mean I’m leaving the team straight away and that wouldn’t be fair on them. The girls lost the final last year and if they do again, it would be very hard to walk away. I’d hate having to do that to them.”

Ronayne, part of Eamonn Ryan’s backroom team with All-Ireland senior champions Cork, added: “Allowing for a bit of injury time and a quarter of an hour half-time in Kinnitty, I’d be leaving there at 1.25pm. Kinnitty to CIT is two hours and ten minutes. You can make up time on the motorway but you can’t be speeding either. The road from Kinnitty to Thurles is poor road and while you can skip on at the maximum speed on the motorway, it means rushing and racing and that’s not good either.”

Ronayne is angry Cahir’s final opponents Glenamaddy refused to budge on the fixture.

He revealed: “We offered them piles of days, told them we’d play them under lights on a Friday and told Croke Park we’d travel up nearer to them to play.

“But I was told on the phone that it’s tough s**t, it’s your problem, you choose.”