Dubs and Clare to play off as coin-toss farce solved

Officials in Dublin and Clare last night expressed their willingness to take part in the championship play-off belatedly offered to them yesterday by the Camogie Association - one which finally brought the lengthy saga to an end.

The association, which had previously stuck rigidly to the rule book in refusing to countenance such a move, was forced into an embarrassing climbdown when both counties gave notice of their intention to withdraw from a coin toss to decide which of them would proceed to the quarter-finals.

Dublin manager Shane O’Brien last week described the planned process as “disrespectful” and the Women’s Gaelic Players Association (WPGA) had called on the Camogie Association to find another means of deciding the matter.

The impasse first arose after the completion of the group phase which saw Dublin and Clare finish level on three points apiece in Group 2 after their respective defeats of Derry and a draw in their head-to-head. With points difference not taken into account, the dreaded coin toss was the only option.

The fallout since has been immense, creating what has been one of the biggest breakout stories of the summer and one that has spread far beyond Gaelic Games, but a resolution was finally forthcoming with the news they would be offered a meeting in Semple Stadium this Saturday at 2pm.

Extra-time will be played if required.

The winners will have just 48 hours or so to recover and readjust for the All-Ireland quarter-final meeting with Wexford, which has now been put back from Sunday to the Monday in the same Thurles venue. The meeting of Cork and Tipperary will go ahead as scheduled on the Sunday.

Dublin Camogie secretary Breandain Ó Cuipeair told the Irish Examinerthat while the short turnaround was “far from ideal” the overall reaction among players, management and officialdom was relief that “common sense” had prevailed.

Shane O’Brien, manager of the Dublin senior camogie team, echoed that when speaking on FM104 radio yesterday evening and the general response on social media – which has been alive for days with debate about the controversy – followed the same lines.

“We are just delighted that it will all be decided out on the field by the girls themselves,” said Clare camogie chair Orla Considine. “What I would hope now is that people row in behind them now that they know what they have had to go through to get there.”

Camogie Association president Joan O’Flynn was left defending what was seen by most to be the indefensible, though she made the point that just one county had spoken out against the coin toss when the rules were being drafted in late 2014.

O’Flynn, speaking yesterday evening on RTÉ’s Drivetime show, also made the point that a desire to improve the lot of the regular club player around the country was a driving force behind the decision at the time.

“Throughout the country we have far more club players than inter-county players. The first principle that those workshops made was to prioritise and rebalance the calendar towards club fixtures and one of the ways of doing that was to avoid playoffs in the 2015 season.”

However, she did accept that decisions made in winter boardrooms sometimes take on a different light in the heat of a summer championship.