A total of 21 female Gaelic players – nine from Cork and 12 from Meath - are faced with the exhausting schedule of playing in two All-Ireland club semi-finals this weekend.
Sarsfields won their first ever AIB Munster senior club final by toppling defending champions Drom & Inch last Sunday. Nine of their players flew home from London the night before, where they had won an intermediate club football quarter-final with Glanmire.
Two Sars stars – Ellen Murphy and Evie Twomey – started both games and Ava Fitzgerald came off the bench early in the football match before startng at midfield with the small ball a day later.
"Nine of our squad play for Glanmire’s footballers. They flew to London on Friday night, came home on Saturday night and then were up the road to Tipp next morning," explained Sarsfields' captain Niamh O'Callaghan.
All Ireland club camogie sponsors AIB are providing two innovative 'player cams’ again this weekend as part of their ‘Meet #TheToughest’ online content but the scheduling alone already surely proves just how tough these players are .
Sarsfields may be spared a cross-channel trip this weekend but many of their players are again doubling up for the fourth week in a row.
The Cork side take on Galway’s reigning AIB All-Ireland senior club camogie champions, their namesakes Sarsfields, in Mallow on Saturday.
Their dual players will return to the same venue the next day to play an All-Ireland football intermediate semi-final against Na Fianna of Meath, a team which also finds itself caught on the horns of the same dual dilemma.
Na Fianna won the Leinster intermediate titles in both codes with 12 dual players. Nine of them are expected to also start in Saturday’s All-Ireland intermediate camogie semi-final against Eglish (Tyrone) in Louth.
With camogie and football All-Ireland finals all due to be played on 16/17 December, both organisations say they have no room to manoeuvre but O’Callaghan says such demands on dual players simply cannot continue.
"Our dual players are unbelievable. When we played our first [Munster] game against Clonlara, I was driving home thinking of them going down the road again the following day to play another game. I was wrecked and I was doing nothing for the rest of the weekend," she said.
"We’ve played three Munster games and they’ve had a game either the day before or after with Glanmire and it’s the same this weekend. It’s too much.
"There has to be better communication between the two associations.
"They’re really going to have to look at what way they can improve it. I know there’s a tight window (for fixtures) coming up to Christmas but definitely there has to be a better way and communication has to be the key for both codes."
She says Sarsfields and Glanmire co-operate very closely to help their dual players manage their training and competition loads and believes players themselves are willing to make compromises, like the occasional mid-week game or moving venues, to help smooth the way for their team-mates and organisers.
"Unfortunately [scheduling] is a very tricky question to answer but we’ve been calling for it for years. The logical thing is to sort the fixtures," O’Callaghan stressed.
"Last week our game was fixed for Ennis. We had girls coming off a late flight into Cork Airport and [potentially] getting up the next morning to drive to Ennis which was the guts of two hours from both teams.
"I understand pitch availability is difficult at this time of year, we all do. Thankfully common sense prevailed. The match went to Clonoulty Rossmore which was a very close fixture for Drom & Inch but we were happy to go to Tipp. Small things like that, listening to player feedback, is very important."
Watch the Leinster Club Hurling final, O`Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) v Na Fianna (Dublin), on Saturday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and listen to updates on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch the Leinster Club Football final, Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) v Naas (Kildare), on Saturday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and listen to updates on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
