Hannah Looney Tired Of Same Old Story With Cork Dual Player Clashes

Hannah Looney will have to face a familiar problem this weekend, as she and the rest of Cork's dual contingent are forced to choose between lining out for the county's footballers or camogie players.

Saturday afternoon sees the Rebels face Clare with an eye to securing a spot in the All-Ireland camogie semi-finals, which a win should secure.

However, at the same time, the county's footballers will take on Mayo in a crunch tie, with both sides vying for a place in the last eight.

It has left dual stars Hannah Looney, Aoife Healy, and Libby Coppinger with a difficult choice to make. Looney and Healy ultimately opted for the footballers, while Coppinger will play camogie.

Looney has been an outstanding servant to her county for over a decade, winning six camogie All-Irelands to go with her one in football, as well as winning All-Stars in both codes.

That these sorts of dilemmas continue to pop up is of great frustration to the Cork star.

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Speaking on a media call to promote SuperValu’s new limited-edition Pride-themed Bag for Life this week, Looney explained how her perspective on playing dual inter-county had shifted over the years.

Look, I think I'm about 10 years playing dual inter-county, give or take. I suppose when I first joined the setups Briege [Corkery] and Rena [Buckley] were still playing and winning 500 All-Ireland medals, and just being trailblazers for...nevermind women in sport, for athletes in sport, full stop.

There were loads of challenges, don't get me wrong, but I think there was a bit more value and respect for the dual player.

I suppose, if you're looking 10 years ago you see everything has evolved so much, it keeps evolving for demands.

When I first started, there was probably male players dabbling in and out of dual. But now it's just totally gone from men and it's kind of like it seems to be just going that way with women, unfortunately.

Looney has enjoyed a decorated career in the red of Cork in both codes, and hopes to do so for some time.

However, for younger players, she fears the opportunity to play dual may be disappearing as it effectively has in the men's game.

It's fine for me, I suppose, I'm at the latter end my career - well, hopefully not. I'll keep going for as long as I can! - but, you know, I do see it's gonna be harder.

I genuinely can't see how, like in Cork at the moment, if you had a young, you know, 17- or 18-year-old breaking into the senior setups, like I can't see how they could start out in a dual journey, just the way it's going. And you know, that is really disappointing and frustrating.

This weekend's fixture clash is especially frustrating to Looney, and she feels it sums up how the public awareness of the issue has steadily dimmed since she debuted.

Even the fixture clash this weekend, like a couple of years back, there'd be huge uproar about this, and you kind of have the backing from the media, might have the backing from county boards and managers to try to make the change.

But, it's just been fail after fail after fail that it's got to the stage where you're not even going to bother trying at the moment.

That last line is the kicker, and one that will be familiar to many camogie and ladies' football club players up and down the country too.

Despite how easy the solutions are, they are yet to be enacted, and Looney feels it smacks of a lack of respect.

I suppose, lastly, while I'm on the rant, you know, there's three weekends to play two football matches. If we played the first two weekends, it wouldn't be the clash that we're in now.

My understanding is there's one - Cork is the only senior team with dual players like this. [It's] just not a lot to do to accommodate it.

But yeah, bottom line is, I feel like there's just less of an interest, of a respect and less of a value, unfortunately.