THE CAMOGIE ASSOCIATION say “a severe shortage of match officials” caused by fixture congestion resulted in some top-tier fixtures being played without linesmen yesterday.
Cork were 2-17 to 0-9 winners over rivals Kilkenny at Páirc Uí Rinn, but the absence of officials at the high profile clash hampered the victory for Rebels captain Amy O’Connor.
Allegedly, there were also no linesmen on duty for Tipperary’s win over reigning All-Ireland and league champions Galway.
“It shouldn’t happen,” 2019 All-Star O’Connor told Valerie Wheeler for Off The Ball afterwards.
“It’s a National League game, it’s Cork versus Kilkenny, a big game. And in these games, a small decision can make a big difference so there should be linespeople. That’s not good enough.”
And when contacted by The42 this morning, the Camogie Association explained the reasoning behind the absence, adding that “this scenario is far from ideal” and they will be “looking to rectify” the situation over the coming weeks.
“Unfortunately at a number of the weekend’s fixtures there was a lack of a full complement of match officials,” a spokesperson told The42.
“This was due to a severe shortage of match officials as a result of fixture congestion (at club and inter-county level as well as other competitions) predominantly resulting from recent poor weather etc.
“This scenario is far from ideal and is something that we are looking to rectify during the coming weeks.”
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Happened in a Division 1 football game two weeks ago too. Westmeath v Donegal. Wouldn’t see it in men’s football or hurling. LGFA & CA have questions to answer here.
Surely they could have gotten volunteers to take on duties out of any spectators at the games. Day in day out, people help referee’s at club games, a very high percentage of which show no bias towards their own team. No brainer.
Time to disband the camogie association – it’s not fit for purpose. Player welfare and 20×20 is mere lip service at this stage.
@Rory Debarres: Camogie Association does great work and numbers of girls playing are growing. Ladies sports struggle for resources, Daragh above has mentioned that LGFA div 1 had the same issue a fortnight ago. Camogie have player welfare to the fore and have that approach to dual players for example (not reciprocated unfortunately by the LGFA as demonstrated at the weekend at their Congress). Camogie have introduced brilliant initiatives also for the benefit of its players.