Rebecca Delee on Limerick camogie exodus: Lack of support for cruciate injury was final straw

Róisín Ambrose, Niamh Mulcahy, Sarah Carey, Karen O’Leary, Deborah Murphy, Laura Stack, Lisa Leonard, Katie Hennessy, and Delee were notable absentees for Limerick's shock defeat to Westmeath

Limerick camogie star Rebecca Delee has launched a blistering attack on those running the game in the county.

Delee, an All-Ireland minor and intermediate medal winner, is one of nine players from last year's squad who are not playing for the county this year. 

Róisín Ambrose, Niamh Mulcahy, Sarah Carey, Karen O’Leary, Deborah Murphy, Laura Stack, Lisa Leonard, Katie Hennessy, and Delee were notable absentees for Limerick's shock 1-12 to 0-12 defeat to Westmeath on the opening weekend of the All-Ireland senior championship on Saturday.

Delee withdrew from the panel, citing a lack of support and frustration with standards within the group.  The Newcastle West club woman tore cruciate knee ligaments playing for Limerick in the National League last March but received no support or communication from the county board or management team since then.

The former Ashbourne Cup and O’Connor Cup winner said: “I had my operation March 13th and I heard nothing from any of the management team. I was disappointed that I gave so much time to Limerick Camogie and I didn’t hear from them. 

"I didn’t want much, a text would have done. They (Limerick) didn’t provide a physio or a S&C Coach. I know we were in tough times, with lockdown, but even a text or a video call would have been good. I had contemplated leaving for a while, I bit the bullet and left the group.” 

Due to the player exodus, manager Paul Sexton has been forced to recruit new players from across the grades in the county. But Delee was bemused by the lack of communication as an existing panel member.

“I played under that management team when I suffered that injury, Paul was the manager that day and he couldn’t pick up the phone to contact me. If he was unable to pick up the phone to me then how can he contact people he doesn’t know?”.

Delee won the All-Ireland Junior Ladies Football title in 2018, but her first love is clearly camogie.

“We don’t ask for much, we play in the pitches that are left. Sometimes we pay for our own gear. The girls got skorts last year that they had to pay for. We don’t get travel expenses, we don’t always get food. We don’t normally complain about that, we just get on with it. At the end of the day, we just want to be backed by the person that is over us. 

"We want them to set the standards. It goes back to respect and high standards. We felt that Declan Nash (2019 manager) was disrespected. It’s the small things that matter and once you see someone is making that effort and they show they are trying to bring it to a whole new standard. That is all you can ask for, that is what Declan did.

“We go two steps forward and take even more backward. We fight for the high standards and then they are just gone. 

"We are back to where we were a few years ago. It seems to be a circle that we are in.

“To be fair when Declan withdrew (from the application process to return as manager), it was going to be tough for whoever came in. For the first month, we were holding onto that feeling that we wanted Declan back. But we let go of that and felt, that ‘this is it now’, but truth be told, I don’t think the standards were good enough from the start. 

"Everything needs to be in order and if it isn’t in order the first month you go in, what hope is there for the rest of the year? I had enough with the injury and felt I didn’t need to be in that environment anymore. I wanted to focus on my knee and get it right."

There have been plenty of ups and downs since her debut in 2013

“We fought and we fought but you can’t keep fighting when all you want to do is play at a high standard and compete. We got the Gaelic Grounds for the first game against Tipperary, and the next match was in LIT. Obviously LIT are our sponsors for the underage but at the same time, there were no dugouts and supporters were on the field. We went from the Gaelic Grounds to LIT, it lashed rain and there was no cover for the subs. Are people are fighting for us to get the likes of Bruff and Kilmallock? It seems to be one thing after another.” 

Karen O’Leary, Deborah Murphy and Roisin Ambrose are teammates at Newcastle West and the three have withdrawn their services to the Limerick camogie team. The main reason appears to be a fixture pile up in September which left them with three crucial games in just eight days.

“It isn’t the first time this happened. Last year, we played Cork in the Munster Senior semi-final in Cork. We had to play a league final against Killeedy the following morning (for Newcastle West) and we were told that the fixture had to be played before a certain date. We had four players involved and coming off a defeat against Cork we had to pick ourselves up the following morning.”