Statement on behalf of Dublin Camogie

The Executive of Dublin Camogie met on Thursday night and we wish to place on record our utmost disappointment to the process for identifying which teams should progress to the latter stages of a championship in the event that teams should finish level at the end of group games.

These procedures were outlined by the Camogie Association in a press release on Wednesday the 22nd July. For any team irrespective of the grade to face the possibility of going out of a competition by means of a lottery (toss of a coin) is hard to fathom, but for a Senior Inter County team to lose out in this manner is inconceivable.

For a number of year's Dublin have struggled at Senior Inter County level in both league/championship. However, this year the Dublin County Board invested heavily in all our county teams in an effort to ensure that we reached our potential on the field of play.

This year's Senior league campaign was most encouraging and we looked forward to the championship with a degree of optimism. Our Seniors came together as a group before Christmas and all told we have had in excess of 100 collective training sessions, not to mention the individual training which the girls did on their own time.

They have trained and been prepared under Shane O'Briens management and for a team with this dedication to face the possibility of exiting a championship on the "spin of a coin" is in our opinion unacceptable not to mention we feel disrespectful to the players and mentors in the extreme.

Dublin Camogie expect a lot better for its players who dedicate and sacrifice so much to our sport. The Dublin Camogie Board have put a lot of our limited resources into encouraging girls of all ages to take up this wonderful sport and although the Camogie association has put in a huge amount of positive work to encourage girls to take up the game, this recent decision by the Camogie association has made this task so much more difficult going forward.

Dublin Camogie has requested that Croke Park clarify the procedure for identifying the 3rd placed team in a group, where two teams finish level on points after the group stages have been concluded. (See attached Procedures). It would appear from looking at the "Rules/Procedures" that the procedure for identifying . 3rd placed team in a group has been 
overlooked as there is no reference to this

All that Dublin Camogie ask is that we be afforded the opportunity of progressing or otherwise on the field of play as opposed to the lottery that is now being proposed