Briege Corkery anger as two games fixed on one day

Briege Corkery has launched a scathing attack on both the ladies football and camogie associations over their treatment of dual players.

The 14-time All-Ireland medal-winner and Rena Buckley will line out for the Cork camogie team in Saturday’s All-Ireland championship third-round clash against Offaly at Páirc Uí Rinn (2pm), before making the 39km journey to Mallow for the Munster ladies football decider against Kerry (6pm).

This is the second occasion in little over two months where Buckley and Corkery have been asked to play two games on the one day; the pair were forced to skip the Munster camogie final in mid-May to be available for the ladies football league final replay the same evening.

Fed up by the lack of communication between the two associations, Corkery believes the dual player is being squeezed out by poor scheduling.

“Maybe we’re just being paranoid, but we’re wondering if they’re trying to squash out the dual players,” the 2014 All-Ireland winning ladies football captain yesterday told Cork’s 96FM Opinion Line.

“Are they trying to force us into making a decision so one team will be at a disadvantage?

“I don’t know, maybe it is just paranoia, but either way it’s a disadvantage if we’re already after playing a game in Páirc Uí Rinn and then have to travel to Mallow for a second game after. It is unfair.

“I don’t want to put the blame on one organisation over the other, because in my eyes they’re both to blame because they don’t sit down and talk to each other. They talk about women in sport growing in strength, but there’s no way it’s going to grow in strength if our games are being fixed for the same day.”

She added: “Both Rena and I made attempts to get one of the games changed. We’ve written letters to both associations and the Munster Football Council, but unfortunately it’s not possible to change anything. This happened back in 2012 and we were assured it wouldn’t happen again, but already this year we have had a clash of fixtures on three occasions.”

The Camogie Association last night claimed that no request was received from the Cork camogie board to change the Cork-Offaly fixture.

“Cork Camogie Board requested the Camogie Association to make representations to the LGFA, which was undertaken,” revealed ard stiúrthóir Joan O’Flynn. “Representations were also received from the Women’s GPA and a Cork player.

“While the Camogie Association endeavours to accommodate preferences and requests 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.

“The best opportunity to avoid Camogie/LGFA fixture clashes is when the fixtures of both associations are at the planning/consultative stages.”