Cork boss Jerry Wallace lodges appeal against axing of All-Ireland Minor Camogie Championship

Cork minor camogie manager Jerry Wallace has lodged an appeal to the Camogie Association against the decision to cancel this year’s All-Ireland Minor Camogie Championship.
Cork boss Jerry Wallace lodges appeal against axing of All-Ireland Minor Camogie Championship

Back-to-back All-Ireland minor-winning manager Jerry Wallace has been at the forefront of the campaign to have the 2020 Minor Championship played to a conclusion when inter-county activity resumes in October. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
Back-to-back All-Ireland minor-winning manager Jerry Wallace has been at the forefront of the campaign to have the 2020 Minor Championship played to a conclusion when inter-county activity resumes in October. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Cork minor camogie manager Jerry Wallace has lodged an appeal to the Camogie Association against the decision to cancel this year’s All-Ireland Minor Camogie Championship.

The letter of appeal was posted on Thursday, with Wallace now awaiting an appeal hearing before Camogie top-brass.

The letter sets out that a number of county minor camogie managers, including those at the helm in Clare, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, and Tipperary, are willing to appear as witnesses at the appeal hearing.

If the appeal is shot down, the decision to abandon the 2020 All-Ireland Minor Camogie Championship - the opening two rounds of which were played before the country went into lockdown - will likely be brought to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).

During a virtual meeting with units of the association on Tuesday last, Camogie chiefs appeared to leave the door ajar for a potential U-turn on the abandoning of the All-Ireland Minor Championship when intimating that the decision would be reviewed over the subsequent 10 days.

However, county boards have since received correspondence stating that the Camogie Association is standing firm over its initial decision.

Back-to-back All-Ireland minor-winning manager Wallace has been at the forefront of the campaign to have the 2020 Minor Championship played to a conclusion when inter-county activity resumes in October.

He wrote to Camogie Association Ard Stiúrthóir Sinéad McNulty last month, describing the decision as age discrimination given the large number of players in each squad currently in their last year of minor.

“I fully appreciate the fixture and organisational quandaries of running competitions over a short period of time. Saying this, the Camogie Association should not allow the difficulties of the pandemic or logistical concerns to stop a championship that started in February from completion. Play the games,” he wrote.

An online petition to have the competition reinstated has been signed by almost 5,000 people.

The Camogie Association has explained that one of the motivating factors in their decision to axe the Minor Championship for 2020 is the crossover of players in this age-group who are also part of their county’s junior, intermediate, or senior squad. The adult and minor All-Ireland championships are typically run at different times of the year, but the lockdown of recent months means they would have to run concurrently when inter-county action resumes on October 17. The Camogie Association maintain that this is not possible.

Both the Camogie Association and LGFA have come in for criticism in recent weeks over their respective restart plans. No more than in camogie, there will be no 2020 All-Ireland Minor Ladies Football Championship.

In a statement back in March, the LGFA outlined that there was the "possibility of provincial action" for minor inter-county players "depending on when activities resume". Petitions are also circulating online to have this decision reversed and an All-Ireland series played.

The London ladies footballers, meanwhile, have called on the LGFA to reconsider their exclusion from the All-Ireland Junior Championship later this year.

London reached the All-Ireland junior semi-final in each of the last four years, but, as things stand, will not be competing with Fermanagh, Carlow, Wicklow, Derry, Limerick, and Antrim.

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