Déise camogie boss Donal O’Rourke says that his players will be left out of pocket after this weekend's All Ireland championship game with Cork was rescheduled from Saturday to Sunday to cater for Rebel dual stars Hannah Looney and Libby Coppinger. Patricia Jackman, a lecturer at the University of Lincoln, will miss the game as she has already booked a flight back to the UK on Sunday morning.
O'Rourke was raging when he learned of the switch yesterday. "I thought of the players straight away. A lot of these girls work on Sundays, they're only seventeen or eighteen a lot of them, they have to try and save for college. Trish Jackman is the main one here, she's working over in England. She has given up five days of her leave to stay at home and play this game on Saturday. Her flight is going out of Dublin on Sunday; she's going to miss the game now. It's just not acceptable. The Camogie Association have really let themselves down once again."
The association granted a request from Cork to move the game as dual players Looney and Coppinger are part of the ladies side that will face Cavan on Saturday. "This is no quarrel with the Cork management, they're correct in what they're doing for player welfare. It's totally and utterly with the Camogie Association that we feel so let down. These are girls that are going to have to reschedule everything. They have done so much for this county to promote camogie. They've given up J1s, going overseas and given up opportunities left, right and centre around the country. To be treated like this, it's absolutely staggering."
Rule 33.2 states that five days email notice is required for all inter county and All Ireland competitions. O'Rourke feels that's way too short. "This isn't good enough; this is inter county level. If this happened at club level, we'd be giving out stink over it. We've taken a lot of things on the chin but we feel now it's time to say no. Enough is enough. What has been happening this year in the Camogie Association, to be perfectly honest with you, if it happened on Killinaskully on a Sunday evening, we'd all be laughing at the telly."
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