ONE of the most decorated players in GAA history has urged the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) and the Camogie Association to work together and facilitate dual players at inter-county level.
Cork great Rena Buckley – and her former team-mate Briege Corkery – won an astonishing 18 All-Ireland senior titles as a dual player.
The winner of 11 All-Ireland football titles and seven All-Ireland camogie crowns, Rebels’ legend Buckley was also the first person to captain their county to All-Ireland titles in both codes.
The former dual star is disappointed to see Cork’s current crop of dual players – Libby Coppinger, Hannah Looney, Aoife Healy and Orlaith Cahalane – impacted by ongoing fixture clashes at inter-county level.
Last Saturday both Cork camogie and football teams were in All-Ireland championship action, with the camogie team beating Down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh while the footballers lost away to Galway in Salthill later that evening. St Colum’s Libby Coppinger played the full camogie game, then travelled to Galway and came on in the second half for the Cork football team.
‘It’s not like dual players are looking for a week break or a five-day break, they are just looking for consecutive days which I feel is totally doable for the associations,’ Buckley told The Southern Star.
‘There is no doubt that it is more difficult now. The championship structures are changing, the level of training is changing, the standard is changing, and even since my day it has changed, so it does make it difficult but there are players willing to play dual and able to, and there are managers willing to facilitate it, and what is hugely disappointing is that the associations are not facilitating it.
‘Whether they like it or not, the associations are sharing a lot of the same players up and down the country. There needs to be more respect for the culture that is there, that players can play the two codes, and it’s disappointing that the codes aren’t facilitating that.’
There is another fixture clash looming on Saturday, July 1st when the Cork footballers host Tipperary in a group game in Clonakilty, while at the same time the camogie team is away to Clare in Cusack Park. This will directly affect Cork’s dual players.
‘It’s a condensed season now, there are more games, and things have changed from a structural point of view so it is a bigger squeeze for dual players. But players aren’t looking for games a week apart, they are looking for separate games on the same weekend, and I think that should be facilitated,’ Buckley added.
