Tipperary's dual star Orla O'Dwyer is set to find herself torn between both codes this Saturday as the county prepare for fixtures in football and camogie.
At 1:00 pm in Nenagh, Tipperary are set to contest a Championship football fixture against Kerry. Four hours later at 5:00 pm, the county's camogie team will contest a Championship fixture of their own against Offaly, just outside of Thurles.
Absolute shambles that Tipp camogie captain Orla O'Dwyer has to play two intercounty games on Saturday. As a dual player she has fball at 1 against Kerry, and camogie at 5 against Offaly. At least they're both in Tipp venues 😑 player welfare? What's that? #gaa #lgfa #camogie
— Sarah O'Dwyer (@SarahODwyer1) July 12, 2018
In the week thereafter, O'Dwyer will once again be faced with a dilemma. Although the footballers and camogie players are not due to play on the same day during the weekend of the 21st/22nd, Tipperary's footballers will travel to Donegal on the Saturday, while their camogie team makes the journey to Dublin on the Sunday.
Prompting calls of concern for player welfare, one is left wondering how a situation such as the one O'Dwyer faces this Saturday has been allowed to manifest itself.
As things currently stand, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association are run independent of one another.
Earlier this year, in accordance with the GAA, all three organisations announced their intention to "establish stronger links" beneath a united banner.
In what was one of the final acts of Aogán Ó Fearghaíl’s term as the president of the GAA President, he stated: “We are all part of the same Gaelic games family and although we have our own identities within that family, we have so much in common. Working together we can truly claim to be a fully inclusive family organisation offering a sporting and cultural outlet for all members of the family.”
As for Orla O'Dwyer, such a Utopian outlook has yet to be realised.
