MUCH like his ladies football counterpart Shane Ronayne, Cork camogie manager Matthew Twomey is fuming that the two senior teams are playing on the same day for the second time this year.
Twomey’s Cork camogie side face Down in the championship on Saturday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (3pm) while the ladies footballers face Galway at 7.30pm in Pearse Stadium, Salthill.
It leaves Cork’s four dual players – Libby Coppinger, Hannah Looney, Aoife Healy and Orlaith Cahalane – in a tricky position.
‘I think it’s comical really,’ Twomey blasted.
‘There’s a free weekend the following weekend and they still insist on putting the two games on the same day.
‘We’ve 32 players on the panel, eight are injured, one is doing the Leaving Cert and if we lose the four players, we’re down to 19 players. I don’t know what the people with the powers of be expect.
‘I've been involved in camogie for a long time now, it happens so much now that this year it’s taken for granted. Camogie and LGFA, there’s no correspondence between the two.’
Twomey even put forward the argument that these fixture clashes could bring an end to the dual player days.
‘It’s probably pressing the button to say the day of the dual player is gone in the women's side of sport as well as the men’s. This is our second clash already and the weekend we’re playing Clare, the footballers are playing Tipperary on the same day again. That’s potentially three clashes in the space of two months. It’s absolutely sickening,’ he said.
As for Saturday’s game, after losing their opening group match to Galway (1-12 to 0-12), the Rebels know they need to beat Down this weekend. Only two teams progress from the group to the knockout stages of the championship.
‘We have the mindset that we’re into the knockout phase now,’ Twomey admitted.
‘We can’t afford any slip-ups. Every game is a must-win from here on in. After playing Galway there were things we were unhappy with. It’s up to us to try and rectify that against Down.’
‘It will be like an All-Ireland final to Down, having ourselves first then Galway. They’re going to throw everything at us. We played them two years ago up in Down and we struggled against them. It was the last quarter where we pulled away from them, and then again it was only a six-point win.
‘We know what they’re going to bring, we’ve watched them over the last two weeks. It’s going to be a physical battle and we’ll see if our players stand up to that.’
Cork will hope to have Enniskeane’s Orla Cronin back training next week, but she won’t return in time for Saturday.
‘Laura Hayes is still out with her leg,’ Twomey added, ‘And there are five that we’re probably writing off for the rest of the year at this stage.’
