WHEN CORK LADIES football manager Shane Ronayne spoke to the media on Tuesday, there was no word of a dual fixtures clash.
It may have been bubbling away in the background, but it wasn’t addressed at the TG4 All-Ireland championship launch.
Ronayne confirmed he had a full deck to pick from for this Saturday’s Munster final against Kerry, bar Bríd O’Sullivan who is struggling with a long-term achilles tendon injury.
“We’ll hopefully have our camogie players this weekend,” he said at one point. “We couldn’t play them that day [against Waterford] because they had played 100 minutes the night before so we took the decision that we weren’t going to play them. We’ve everyone, apart from Bríd, to pick from this weekend.”
Throw-in in Killarney is 12.15pm, the showdown forming a double-header with the Kerry-Limerick men’s final. It has since been confirmed that the Cork camogie team’s All-Ireland series meeting with Clare is scheduled for 6pm at Páirc Uí Rinn.
Libby Coppinger and Maebh Cahalane are among the dual players impacted, facing the prospect of two huge games in the one day or a big decision. Their former team-mate Hannah Looney, a dual star who is currently in New York for work, has been vocal on the issue time and time again through the years, and she made her opinion heard on social media overnight.
“A lot of voting and no action,” she wrote on Twitter, referencing the Camogie Association and LGFA’s recent Congress votes to formally recognise dual players.
“It IS possible to facilitate the Cork camogie and football clash this Saturday but yet again the same ‘clash’ story arises. Women in sport have to fight so many battles.. This does not need to be one of them! Do better!
“Even if you take the dual player out of the situation, when do we see the Camogie Association and LGFA working together? Very rarely! Imagine how powerful that would be? Integration with the GAA needs to happen! We have to keep talking about this.”
A lot of voting and no action... It IS possible to facilitate the Cork camogie and football clash this Saturday but yet again the same “Clash” story arises. Women in sport have to fight so many battles.. This does not need to be one of them! Do better! pic.twitter.com/QRp4iZW9ov
Dual clashes are one of the many challenges Ronayne has had to contend with in his first year in the Cork hot-seat, unfortunately part and parcel of it all at this stage.
This is his third inter-county job in three years, having previously managed the Tipperary ladies footballers and the Waterford men. His predecessor at the Rebels, Ephie Fitzgerald, is now in charge of the Déise.
It was always about the top Cork job for Ronayne, the Mitchelstown man previously involved in the backroom team under the late Eamon Ryan.
“Obviously I’ve always had my eye on it, it’s something I’ve wanted to do,” he noted. “So when the job became available I was encouraged by a lot of players to go for it. It was too good an opportunity to turn down.
“There was a tinge of sadness leaving Waterford as well. My Dad is from Waterford and he was delighted when I got that job. When I rang him to tell him I was going to get the Cork job he was delighted because he knew that was what I always really wanted to do. I enjoyed the year in Waterford. It was a short time. If the Cork job hadn’t come along I’d still be there.”
His opening season has been busy but enjoyable so far; a “whirlwind” as he double-jobs with Mourneabbey, and admittedly a “step-up” from Tipp and Warerford.
But the renowned ladies football coach is taking it all in his stride. Picking the team up from a devastating 2021 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Meath was high on the job spec coming in, and it’s something the 11-time champions and former kingpins now use as motivation.
“I remember going for drinks with them that night, the Mourneabbey girls, in Dublin. They were devastated by it, the way it happened. We spoke about it a few weeks ago. People had said they were unlucky but we looked at it our way, that they didn’t get the job done. They know that themselves.
“Have they parked that fully? We’d hope they have but they know now that their game management has to be way better. Meath have kicked on from that so it proves that there wasn’t a lot of luck involved. Meath kept going and they deserved their win on the day.
“We’re trying to change the mindset a bit. We’re going a little more attacking, trying to go out and win games. You can’t be afraid to lose all the time. Too many players go out, not just Cork, and they’re afraid to lose; they don’t think about winning as much.
“We’ve been trying to change that. They should have been further ahead in that game and they wouldn’t have been in that position. That’s the way we’re looking at it.”
Meath celebrate after their 2021 semi-final win. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
The journey continues against Munster rivals Kerry on Saturday, the Kingdom having enjoyed a resurgence in recent seasons under Declan Quill and Darragh Long.
Their Division 2 league final win over Armagh epitomises their rise, with Ronayne name-checking the likes of Erica McGlynn, Louise Ni Mhuircheartaigh, Cait Lynch and Lorraine Scanlon ahead of this “big test”. The full focus is on retaining their crown.
“We know that if we don’t perform Saturday, Kerry will beat us,” he conceded. “Even my last final when I was involved with Eamonn [Ryan] in 2015, we went into the game in Mallow as hot favourites and Kerry beat us by 10 or 12 points.
“You have to be on your guard against them and down below in Killarney, that’s a big thing for them. We’re conscious of the fact that they’re an up-and-coming team and going very well.”
“It’s a big deal,” he added on the fact it’s a curtain raiser to the men’s final. “My one problem is the huge gap between the two games. It’s not going to encourage people to come in early. It defeats the purpose of it really. It’s nearly two standalone games.
“There’s nothing we can do about that, and we’re very much about what we can do. It’ll probably suit us a bit better because the Kerry crowd won’t be in early. If it was a later game, the Kerry crowd would probably be in for the second half. It’s a bit much of an ask for them to be in that early. There’ll probably be a gap of an hour-and-a-quarter between games. It’s great to be in Fitzgerald Stadium, that’s the one big thing, that we’re not playing it in a smaller ground.”
The winners go into a group with Armagh and Waterford for the All-Ireland series, with the runners-up pitted against Galway and Westmeath.
There’s a notion that this is the most open championship in years, Meath having blown it wide open last year in ending Dublin’s Drive for Five.
“I think Dublin are still out on top,” Ronayne concluded. “I know they lost to Meath the last day [Leinster semi] but I think it’ll be a different story this Saturday. I think Dublin will get the job done this Saturday.
“He didn’t play his full team the last day. They’d already qualified for the final. Maybe I’m calling it wrong but I think they’ll get the job done this Saturday. There’s nothing between them, we might be coming in third. Mayo are without a few girls, it’s going to be hard for them. Galway, we played them a few weeks ago, very impressed with them. They’ll have a huge part to play.
“Armagh and Donegal had a brilliant game at the weekend so I think it is open. I do think Meath and Dublin are that little bit ahead, and they have that confidence factor. Before, Cork had that. They used to get the job done down through the years. They’ve become the chaser. It is open, but Meath and Dublin are a little ahead still.”
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Another dual clash, changing Cork's mindset and a Munster final double-header
WHEN CORK LADIES football manager Shane Ronayne spoke to the media on Tuesday, there was no word of a dual fixtures clash.
It may have been bubbling away in the background, but it wasn’t addressed at the TG4 All-Ireland championship launch.
Ronayne confirmed he had a full deck to pick from for this Saturday’s Munster final against Kerry, bar Bríd O’Sullivan who is struggling with a long-term achilles tendon injury.
“We’ll hopefully have our camogie players this weekend,” he said at one point. “We couldn’t play them that day [against Waterford] because they had played 100 minutes the night before so we took the decision that we weren’t going to play them. We’ve everyone, apart from Bríd, to pick from this weekend.”
Throw-in in Killarney is 12.15pm, the showdown forming a double-header with the Kerry-Limerick men’s final. It has since been confirmed that the Cork camogie team’s All-Ireland series meeting with Clare is scheduled for 6pm at Páirc Uí Rinn.
Libby Coppinger and Maebh Cahalane are among the dual players impacted, facing the prospect of two huge games in the one day or a big decision. Their former team-mate Hannah Looney, a dual star who is currently in New York for work, has been vocal on the issue time and time again through the years, and she made her opinion heard on social media overnight.
“A lot of voting and no action,” she wrote on Twitter, referencing the Camogie Association and LGFA’s recent Congress votes to formally recognise dual players.
“It IS possible to facilitate the Cork camogie and football clash this Saturday but yet again the same ‘clash’ story arises. Women in sport have to fight so many battles.. This does not need to be one of them! Do better!
“Even if you take the dual player out of the situation, when do we see the Camogie Association and LGFA working together? Very rarely! Imagine how powerful that would be? Integration with the GAA needs to happen! We have to keep talking about this.”
Dual clashes are one of the many challenges Ronayne has had to contend with in his first year in the Cork hot-seat, unfortunately part and parcel of it all at this stage.
This is his third inter-county job in three years, having previously managed the Tipperary ladies footballers and the Waterford men. His predecessor at the Rebels, Ephie Fitzgerald, is now in charge of the Déise.
It was always about the top Cork job for Ronayne, the Mitchelstown man previously involved in the backroom team under the late Eamon Ryan.
“Obviously I’ve always had my eye on it, it’s something I’ve wanted to do,” he noted. “So when the job became available I was encouraged by a lot of players to go for it. It was too good an opportunity to turn down.
“There was a tinge of sadness leaving Waterford as well. My Dad is from Waterford and he was delighted when I got that job. When I rang him to tell him I was going to get the Cork job he was delighted because he knew that was what I always really wanted to do. I enjoyed the year in Waterford. It was a short time. If the Cork job hadn’t come along I’d still be there.”
His opening season has been busy but enjoyable so far; a “whirlwind” as he double-jobs with Mourneabbey, and admittedly a “step-up” from Tipp and Warerford.
But the renowned ladies football coach is taking it all in his stride. Picking the team up from a devastating 2021 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Meath was high on the job spec coming in, and it’s something the 11-time champions and former kingpins now use as motivation.
“I remember going for drinks with them that night, the Mourneabbey girls, in Dublin. They were devastated by it, the way it happened. We spoke about it a few weeks ago. People had said they were unlucky but we looked at it our way, that they didn’t get the job done. They know that themselves.
“Have they parked that fully? We’d hope they have but they know now that their game management has to be way better. Meath have kicked on from that so it proves that there wasn’t a lot of luck involved. Meath kept going and they deserved their win on the day.
“We’re trying to change the mindset a bit. We’re going a little more attacking, trying to go out and win games. You can’t be afraid to lose all the time. Too many players go out, not just Cork, and they’re afraid to lose; they don’t think about winning as much.
“We’ve been trying to change that. They should have been further ahead in that game and they wouldn’t have been in that position. That’s the way we’re looking at it.”
The journey continues against Munster rivals Kerry on Saturday, the Kingdom having enjoyed a resurgence in recent seasons under Declan Quill and Darragh Long.
Their Division 2 league final win over Armagh epitomises their rise, with Ronayne name-checking the likes of Erica McGlynn, Louise Ni Mhuircheartaigh, Cait Lynch and Lorraine Scanlon ahead of this “big test”. The full focus is on retaining their crown.
“We know that if we don’t perform Saturday, Kerry will beat us,” he conceded. “Even my last final when I was involved with Eamonn [Ryan] in 2015, we went into the game in Mallow as hot favourites and Kerry beat us by 10 or 12 points.
“You have to be on your guard against them and down below in Killarney, that’s a big thing for them. We’re conscious of the fact that they’re an up-and-coming team and going very well.”
“It’s a big deal,” he added on the fact it’s a curtain raiser to the men’s final. “My one problem is the huge gap between the two games. It’s not going to encourage people to come in early. It defeats the purpose of it really. It’s nearly two standalone games.
“There’s nothing we can do about that, and we’re very much about what we can do. It’ll probably suit us a bit better because the Kerry crowd won’t be in early. If it was a later game, the Kerry crowd would probably be in for the second half. It’s a bit much of an ask for them to be in that early. There’ll probably be a gap of an hour-and-a-quarter between games. It’s great to be in Fitzgerald Stadium, that’s the one big thing, that we’re not playing it in a smaller ground.”
The winners go into a group with Armagh and Waterford for the All-Ireland series, with the runners-up pitted against Galway and Westmeath.
There’s a notion that this is the most open championship in years, Meath having blown it wide open last year in ending Dublin’s Drive for Five.
“I think Dublin are still out on top,” Ronayne concluded. “I know they lost to Meath the last day [Leinster semi] but I think it’ll be a different story this Saturday. I think Dublin will get the job done this Saturday.
“He didn’t play his full team the last day. They’d already qualified for the final. Maybe I’m calling it wrong but I think they’ll get the job done this Saturday. There’s nothing between them, we might be coming in third. Mayo are without a few girls, it’s going to be hard for them. Galway, we played them a few weeks ago, very impressed with them. They’ll have a huge part to play.
“Armagh and Donegal had a brilliant game at the weekend so I think it is open. I do think Meath and Dublin are that little bit ahead, and they have that confidence factor. Before, Cork had that. They used to get the job done down through the years. They’ve become the chaser. It is open, but Meath and Dublin are a little ahead still.”
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rebels report Shane Ronayne