AN AGREEMENT HAS been reached to play the outstanding provincial and All-Ireland series games from the 2020 club camogie championship season from mid-November to December 2021.
Mediation talks took place last night between the Camogie Association and representatives of clubs still involved in the 2020 senior, intermediate and junior championships.
The42 understands that negotiations went on for four hours, and that former GAA director general Páraic Duffy was involved.
The affected clubs — one of which is reigning All-Ireland champions Sarsfields of Galway, with Drom and Inch, Thomastown and Oulart-The Ballagh others impacted — were due to have their cases heard by the GAA’s Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) later this week, as a lengthy saga rumbled on.
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Now, it’s hoped that the outstanding 2020 series will be completed by 19 December, with the All-Ireland finals pencilled in for that date.
The 2021 provincial and All-Ireland series will run after the 2020 season’s completion, so the layout is expected to be as follows: inter-county > 2021 club county championships > 2020 club provincial and All-Ireland series in December > 2021 provincial and All-Ireland series in early 2022.
“It is good to put it to bed, it was hanging over us for the last month,” Sarsfields manager Michael ‘Hopper’ McGrath told The42 this morning. “We would prefer if it was ran in June but the important thing is it’s reinstated.”
It’s understood the DRA meeting was set for Friday evening, but last night’s resolution brings the curtain down on a turbulent period off the pitch for the 35 clubs affected.
Sarsfields led the calls for the games to be completed in a three-week window in June, but the inter-county layout meant the Camogie Association would not agree to this.
It has been a controversial few weeks for the sport, a fixtures row erupting when the Association proposed an inter-county league, followed by club championship, and then inter-county action, fixtures format.
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While the GAA and Ladies Gaelic Football Association [LGFA] went with split season models from the start, the decision was contested by inter-county players and management, with the GPA intervening and strike action threatened.
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A nationwide poll of clubs saw them vote in favour of a split season model by 53% to 47, with the Littlewoods National Leagues underway at the minute, before inter-county championship action takes over and then the 2021 club series.
That move, however, originally meant an incomplete 2020 provincial and national club series, though last night’s talks brought a resolution.
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