Cork camogie panel considering strike action over fixture clashes

Cork's Laura Treacy: “If it is a case that something dramatic has to be done, that we just have to sit out for the rest of the year, that we are not going to be playing on the day of those fixture clashes, then I wouldn't rule it out.” Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

Laura Treacy has said the Cork senior camogie panel are willing to pull out of the 2020 All-Ireland Championship if there is no resolution to the fixture clashes affecting the county’s dual players.

The Cork camogie panel going on strike would be an option of last resort, but full-back Treacy has said the panel are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure a resolution to the fixture clashes facing the quintet of dual players next month.

The 2017 All-Star defender admitted she would have no problem withdrawing from the 2020 championship for her dual teammates.

On Saturday, November 7, Cork's ladies football and camogie teams are scheduled to play All-Ireland championship group games. Galway are willing to move the Camogie Championship fixture between the counties to Sunday, November 8, but, as of yet, there has been no official confirmation of this switch.

The All-Ireland Camogie quarter-final is fixed for the same day - November 14 - as Cork’s All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship group fixture against Cavan, while the All-Ireland semi-finals in both codes are pencilled in for the weekend of November 28/29.

As reported by the last Friday, the five dual players in question - Hannah Looney, Fiona Keating, Meabh Cahalane, Ciara McCarthy, and Libby Coppinger - are considering boycotting any two games that end up being played on the same day.

But now, four-time All-Ireland winner Treacy, who is Cork’s WGPA representative, has revealed Paudie Murray’s entire panel are willing to pull out of the 2020 Championship if the Camogie Association and LGFA fail to sort out the clashes.

“It is the same thing that is happening every year. It literally just takes a little bit of communication for these clashes to not happen and for the bad publicity going out all last week, and then us trying to change it, trying to make it as big as we can in the media so that something will be done,” said Treacy.

“I don't even know is it going to have to go down the route that a total strike of Cork camogie and Cork ladies football has to come into play. Does it actually have to be something so dramatic like that for change to happen. I would hope not.

It shouldn't be a case that something like [a strike] would have to happen, but if it is something that has to happen, it is something I know I personally would be willing to do.

“I am sure a lot of the girls involved with Cork senior camogie, I know I can speak on behalf of them that they'd be happy to do something like that because these clashes are something that are happening not just in Cork, we saw it in Tipperary, it is happening in Dublin. It just seems to be something that is happening so frequently, happening every year.

“If it is a case that something dramatic has to be done, that we just have to sit out for the rest of the year, that we are not going to be playing on the day of those fixture clashes, then I wouldn't rule it out.”

The Killeagh clubwoman was scathing in her criticism of the Camogie Association and LGFA for failing to properly communicate prior to the publication of their respective 2020 fixture schedules.

“I completely understand that we have a small window to be playing in but there are still two days in a weekend, there is a Saturday and a Sunday.

We are in the year 2020 and we are trying to promote women in sport. It seems to be the same complaints every year.

“I do know Galway were very good to us and they are saying they are happy to play us on Sunday, November 8, which is great. 

“There are still other clashes down the line and I am hoping they are going to be resolved well before the time. It is unacceptable really in 2020 for things like this to be ahead of the media again.”

A hand injury sustained during Killeagh’s county championship win over Ballygarvan earlier in the summer means Treacy will miss Cork’s opening All-Ireland Championship game this Saturday away to Offaly. She is hopeful of being back in action for their second group game, against Wexford, on October 31.

“I was in a cast for a few weeks. I have just come out of the splint now and am able to start strengthening it up.”

*Cork camogie player Laura Treacy was speaking during the launch of the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Camogie Championships.