A dozen dual players with Meath's Na Fianna will be in All-Ireland semi-final action on successive days after an appeal to get their football match pushed back a week was turned down.
Na Fianna won the senior camogie and intermediate football championship in Meath this year and, owing to Meath’s camogie status, competed in at Leinster intermediate level in both codes.
With a dozen players involved in both codes and nine starters – including the county's All-Ireland winning football captain Shauna Ennis – it was a hectic schedule in claiming provincial honours.
Both teams were out on successive weekends in both codes – one game on the Saturday, the other on Sunday – with the respective Leinster finals a week apart.
However, the push for double All-Ireland glory has been hampered by the fact that the camogie and football semi-finals are down for the same weekend.
On Saturday 2 December the footballers travel to Louth to take on Tyrone champions Eglish, while the following day they will take on either Cork’s Glanmire or London’s Tir Chonaill Gaels for a place in the camogie decider.
Once provincial honours were secured, Na Fianna contacted the LGFA to request that the football semi-final be pushed back a week to accommodate them.
"We were told by the LGFA that that was impossible to do because the finals are fixed for the 16/17 [December] in Croke Park and they need two weeks to prepare," said club chairman Tom Curran.
"They said they need a minimum of 10 days to prepare for a final. To me, it’s a pretty lame excuse."
A spokesperson for the LGFA said that the game, originally scheduled for the Saturday, had been pushed out a day, and that the split-season scheduling leaves them with no wriggle room.
"We also have another team involved so it is not just Na Fianna who are impacted here if the fixture was to be moved out," a statement to RTÉ Sport read.
"It's simply not feasible to prepare for an All-Ireland final in a week, with various factors such as match programmes, officials, media day, printing jerseys specific to the All-Ireland finals, to name but a few.
"As is the case during the summer months with inter-county fixtures, the split season plays a part due to the condensed windows to play games, and our 2023 Master Fixtures plan was finalised and agreed a year ago.
"We strive to ensure that there are no major clashes, i.e. they play on separate days on the weekend, as will be the case with the club semi-finals and the Na Fianna example."
Curran says that asking the players, many of whom are college students in Cork, Limerick and Dublin, to play in Louth on Saturday and then potentially Cork – should Glanmire prevail – is effectively punishing the club for their success.
"It’s a tremendous achievement for us that we have won Leinster in both codes with a lot of the same players. We thought the national organisations would then accommodate us.
"It minimises our chance of winning and it’s unfair on the players. We just want an even playing pitch."
"It wouldn’t happen within the men’s organisation. It wouldn’t," he said, citing the example of Naas, who also have hurling and football teams still left in their respective championships.
The Leinster club football final will be put back by a week if Naas go on to reach the hurling decider this weekend by defeating Dublin’s Na Fianna.
The LGFA added that "Na Fianna have also indicated to us that should both of their teams be successful in their respective semi-finals, they are happy to play two finals on the same weekend."
Curran says the club simply have no choice but to accept the LGFA’s ruling.
"How could anyone be happy with that? [playing both All-Ireland finals on the same weekend].
"We just didn’t want to give up the date as that would mean the game would likely to be moved out of Croke Park, and that is the dream for our players to play at the venue."
Camogie president Hilda Breslin said this summer the proposed amalgamation between her association, the GAA and Ladies Gaelic Football Association is now only a matter of time, but the pace has been slower than some had anticipated.
Curran hopes that change would reduce issues such as scheduling.
"The sooner the organisations come together under one umbrella the better," he said. "Our concern is player welfare, but it doesn’t augur well for the amalgamation of codes."
