THE CAVAN LADIES Football and Camogie Boards have agreed to accommodate the teams from Lacken after news of a bizarre fixtures fiasco emerged yesterday.
Lacken Ladies GAA had been scheduled to compete in the Division 1 Adult League football final against Lurgan tomorrow afternoon at 12.30pm in Mullahoran.
However, Lacken’s camogie team were also due to play a League final against Crosserlough 15km away in Killygarry at 1.30pm — which left Lacken in a spot of bother given that they have 11 dual players involved with both teams.
Lacken released a statement yesterday, criticising the Cavan Ladies Gaelic Football Board and Cavan Camogie Board for fixing the games within one hour of each other.
Both Boards subsequently met last night and agreed to postpone the Ladies Football final until Friday, 6 November at 8.30pm. However, the Boards expressed their disappointment at Lacken, claiming there’s more to the story than meets the eye and that their statement was ‘deliberate in certain omissions that are pertinent to the situation’.
According to a joint statement from the Cavan Ladies Gaelic Football Board and Cavan Camogie Board, Lacken’s statement was ‘deliberately phrased to cause tensions between our two County Boards’.
Here’s the statement in full:
“The Cavan Ladies Football and Camogie boards both agree that the statement released by Lacken Camogie and Football clubs is deliberate in certain omissions that are pertinent to the situation and is deliberately phrased to cause tensions between our two County Boards. However, this is not the case.
“Both Cavan LGFA and Cavan Camogie Board have this evening jointly discussed the matters raised by the Lacken statement and the following accommodation has been reached:
“The camogie fixture will go ahead as planned on Sunday 1st November Lacken V Crosserlough in Killygarry @1.30pm. The Division 1 Adult League final Lacken v Lurgan will take place on Friday November 6th in Mullahoran @8.30pm.
“We thank Crosserlough Camogie Club and Lurgan Ladies football club for supporting our joint decision.
The Cavan LGFA and our colleagues in the Cavan Camogie Board have always enjoyed an excellent working relationship with each other whereby we are frequently able to accommodate fixture changes when requested.
“We were both extremely concerned with the statement released by the Lacken club regarding a fixture clash between the camogie and ladies football finals on Sunday November 1st.
“Cavan Camogie board fixed the league final on the 24th Sept and clubs were notified that the fixture would take place on 1st of November, in accordance with the rules of the camogie association.
“Cavan Camogie board received a verbal request from the Lacken delegate at their fixtures meeting on 22nd October, requesting if the senior league final could be change to the 8th of November due to a birthday party and hen party. Request was discussed and it was decided that the original fixture of the 1st November would stand.
“Cavan LGFA fixed the adult league Div 1 final on October 12th and clubs were notified that the league final would take place on 1st November, before the semi- finals had even taken place. Lacken qualified for their final on October 23rd it is also noteworthy that the second semi- final had not yet taken place.
“The Cavan LGFA have accommodated the Lacken Ladies Football club by changing fixtures due to clashes with ulster camogie fixtures following written requests from Lacken. We have been able and willing to accommodate these fixture clashes when requested by the club but on this occasion no such request was received until 24th October when Cavan LGFA received an email requesting postponement of the Div 1 league final due to the clash of fixtures.
“Cavan LGFA fixtures committee replied to Lacken stating the fixture remained as advised on the 12th October, to which the Lacken secretary replied by return email “we are not disputing this”. This was the first indication to Cavan LGFA that there was a camogie league final coming up despite the fact that Lacken qualified for the final on June 27th- 4 months previous. No further communication was received by Cavan LGFA from Lacken Ladies Football club until the county board meeting of the 29th of October.
“At the Cavan Ladies Football County Board meeting, held on Thursday October 29th, their representatives, one of whom is an active dual player from were present and given the opportunity to speak on behalf of that club, at no time did the representatives ask for a change of fixture, when asked what the action required would be, the reply was ‘nothing’.
“However, after the meeting the dual player representative was told that the matter would be discussed proactively with the Cavan Camogie County Board and that she would be contacted following a meeting with the executive; however, the Lacken statement was released before such time had elapsed much to the extreme disappointment of both the Cavan LGFA and Cavan Camogie County Board.
“We would like to emphasise that the relationship between the Cavan Ladies Football and Camogie County Boards is an extremely friendly and co-operative one, and have been accommodating and supportive of each other.
“Should Lacken, or any other club, involved in such a situation have pursued a change of fixture it would have received a positive reception from the respective county boards who would happily have discussed the matter.
“Every decision and every action taken by the County Boards are done with the welfare of the players and their clubs in mind. We respect all of our players in all codes and it is our ambition to provide them with the structures and the opportunities that they need to perform on and off the field to the best of their abilities.
“We are confident within both our codes that we have the ability to deal appropriately and efficiently with any issues, through the proper channels within our respective county board.
“Despite the negative publicity generated by the statement issued by the Lacken clubs, both county boards remain resolute in delivering their programmes of excellence across both codes within the county.”
