‘Joining forces will help Cork find pitches to train on'

CORK camogie manager Paudie Murray is hoping for greater access to facilities if the draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Camogie Association and the GAA gets the green light.

The latest development can help formalise the link between the two associations and also offer clear guidelines towards achieving integration, which Murray is in favour of.

‘I’m on record as saying that the sooner they merge, the better it is for everyone,’ he told The Southern Star.

‘I know it’s at a very early stage but this has to be welcomed.

‘You always look at the GAA as being a family but at the moment it’s not. 

‘I can’t understand why it has taken this long.’

Believing that discussions to establish stronger links between the Camogie Association, the GAA and the LFGA will, among other things, help develop camogie and avoid fixture clashes, Murray also highlighted the ‘serious problem’ the All-Ireland champions have in securing pitches to train on.

‘If this is all passed, I would hope that you would find it easier to get facilities to use,’ he said.

‘We have a serious problem at the moment that we can’t train on grass because we don’t have a pitch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so coming together would help because we would be able to get a pitch – and training on a pitch would help improve our game.’

Murray explains that the Cork senior camogie team train at the UCC track and the Cork County Board let them train at the new 4G pitch at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Thursday night.

Speaking on Friday night at the Carbery GAA Awards in Bantry, Murray said: ‘At this stage I don’t know where we are going to be next Tuesday and Thursday. It’s a nightmare.

‘We are in the Division 1 league semi-final on March 11th and there is a chance that we could go into that game with just two pitch sessions under our belts since the start of the year.’

The proposal to approve the memorandum will be discussed by the Central Council of the Camogie Association on Wednesday, March 14th, and by the GAA on Saturday, March 24th.