THE BALLYBODEN ST Enda’s GAA club say they are “hopeful” that the LGFA and Camogie Association will have a favourable response to their proposal which calls for a commitment to the one-club model.
The Dublin club made a submission to both organisations last week in an effort to protect the welfare of their female dual players due to fixture congestion in both codes. A statement released from Ballyboden last week read that the current schedule puts “totally unreasonable demands” on their dual members.
Former Dublin defender Rachel Ruddy was a dual player with Ballyboden in the past, and says her club decided to pursue this proposal now in the hope that a solution will be achieved before the 2024 championships begin in Dublin later this year.
“We’re trying to get in there early. We’re very hopeful that they could communicate and co-ordinate a bit earlier on in the year to allow for the process to start.
“Every summer, when it hits championship, it’s just so hard on dual players. It’s been going on for a long time so we wanted to try and see if we can get some communication early on in the year and see if the LGFA and Camogie Association could co-ordinate a bit more to try and stop this player welfare issue from happening once championship rolls around in six or eight months time.
“Ballyboden have the one-club initiative behind them where we have all four codes. The idea of that is that we all share out the pitches and are all seen as equal, but it’s just so clear that it’s not when it comes to the women who want to play both sports.”
Ruddy opted for football when she felt she could no longer maintain the lifestyle of a dual player. Many of her clubmates have suffered the same fate, and she anticipates that Ballyboden’s current crop of dual players will face a similarly difficult decision at some stage if the situation remains unchanged.
Ballyboden had about eight or nine dual players last year, while more are coming along through the underage grades.
“I couldn’t keep going with the way the fixtures were landing in those critical months every year.
”I see the girls who are trying to do it and come championship, they’re so burnt out and drained. They’re stressed out trying to get everything done and then there’s been a huge emphasis on sports science the last few years. We know so much about recovery [now] and how important it is for injury prevention. And this just goes against everything we’re being told from scientists.”
The dual-code life no longer exists at inter-county level in the men’s game, but the balance is still workable at club level. Ruddy points out that one of the key elements which makes that arrangement function is that hurling and football matches are played on alternate weeks. This adds to the frustration of the fixture pile-up that female dual players have to face.
“It’s not impossible. The men do it. They grow up with that all the way through their juvenile sections. We just know that’s the way it works and we’re just looking at them going, ‘Why can’t we have that?’”
“They support the dual player in theory but when it comes to championship, that’s not the type of support that’s needed. It’s not fair on players to put their bodies through what they’re being asked to do.”
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