Cork's dual stars to miss rescheduled Camogie League fixture

A clash of fixtures on Sunday, March 22, means Cork dual players Hannah Looney and Libby Coppinger will miss the camogie game which determines whether or not Cork advance to the league final.

The Cork ladies footballers are away to Galway in a top-of-the-table Division 1 clash on Sunday week, the same day as the Cork camogie side are to meet Clare in their rescheduled Division 1 fixture.

Ephie Fitzgerald’s footballers have two round-robin games remaining in Division 1, but victory over the Tribes would ensure their place in the decider with a game to spare.

The Cork camogie side also have two games remaining in Division 1, and even though Paudie Murray’s side can put themselves in pole position for final involvement with a win over Offaly this Saturday, Clare can still leapfrog Cork into top spot in Group 1 when the pair meet the following weekend.

The Camogie Association have done away with league semi-finals this season so the top team in either group advances directly to the final.

If the clash persists, it would represent the second time this spring that Looney and Coppinger, starters on both teams, were forced to choose one code over the other.

Last weekend, Cork’s rescheduled football league game against Donegal clashed with the county’s camogie fixture at home to Kilkenny. The pair, having lined out for the camogie team, missed the footballers’ trip to Donegal. The camogie side will thus lose out on Sunday week, with Looney and Coppinger confirmed to travel with the footballers to Galway.

Cork and Clare were initially supposed to meet on Saturday, February 29, but Storm Jorge saw the fixture postponed.

The Cork camogie management have been in contact with the Clare management in recent days to bring forward the fixture by a day so Looney and Coppinger do not have to miss the game.

But Clare have so far been unable to accede to this request from Cork as the Banner ladies footballers are also looking to get their Division 2 league fixture changed from Sunday, March 22, to Saturday, March 21, and with a crossover of dual players in the two Clare panels, the camogie management, rather understandably, are not going to agree to a change of fixture if it means losing the services of certain players.

This latest fixtures clash comes days after the LGFA Congress rejected a motion calling for official recognition of the dual player.

Coppinger has described the vote as “backward step”.