Clare Camogie And Ladies Football Camps United In Frustration At Another Fixtures Clash

Fixture clashes for two of Clare’s Senior GAA teams have come to the fore again.

It’s ahead of this weekend’s Ladies Football fourth round league clash with Meath and Clare Camogie’s second round league encounter with Kilkenny in Nowlan Park, both of which are penciled in for Sunday afternoon.

A number of dual players are affected, meaning they’ll have to once again choose not to travel with one of the teams that they’re a member of.

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Speaking on Morning Focus earlier, Clare Ladies Football manager James Murrihy described it as “unfair” that the Camogie Association and Ladies Gaelic Football Association aren’t communicating to make sure clashes don’t happen:

Meanwhile, Clare Camogie manager Ger O’Connell has accused the managing bodies of pushing the issue off to teams and players:

This Sunday’s Ladies Football game gets underway at 12, while the Kilkenny camogie game has yet to be allocated a time but is earmarked as double header with the Senior Hurlers.

In response, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association say there’s a clear directive for counties themselves to communicate with camogie or other managers, and that Clare did not make them aware of potential clashes.

They also say there are too many dual players for the LGFA and the Camogie Association to manage centrally and reiterated that counties need to take a “greater responsibility” to look after the demands of their players.

Full statement from LGFA:

There’s a clear directive that with the large number of dual players in various counties, that the counties themselves should take the responsibility of looking after their own dual players, and to communicate with camogie and/or any other sports/managers of teams for which they are playing. 
Furthermore, Clare did not make us aware of any potential clashes. 
There are simply too many dual players out there for the LGFA, and camogie for that matter, to centrally work everything out for them, and particularly when you also consider that the possibility of organising double-headers with their male counterparts is something that we have put the onus on our counties on to organise also. 
This is also a time of year when county squads are more fluid, with players coming in and out at various times, before panels are more firmly in place for Championship. 
Counties need to take greater responsibility upon themselves to look after the demands of all of their players. 

Full statement from the Camogie Association:

At national level the Camogie Association and LGFA work closely together to arrange fixture schedules as best as possible to avoid fixture clashes.

However, in particular where double-header fixtures are arranged it is not always possible to avoid fixture clashes and in such scenarios as this, counties are advised to liaise with their LGFA counterparts to come to suitable arrangements regarding dual players.

In this instance Clare Camogie were informed of this process when this matter was raised with us last, back in December 2019.