Peak dual duty dilemma for 21 female players this weekend

A total of 21 female Gaelic players – nine from Cork and 12 from Meath - are faced with the exhausting schedule of playing in two All-Ireland Club semi-finals this weekend.

Sarsfields won their first ever AIB Munster Senior club final by toppling defending champions Drom & Inch last Sunday. Nine of their players flew home from London the night before, where they had won an intermediate club football quarter-final with Glanmire.

Two Sars stars – Ellen Murphy and Evie Twomey – started both games and Ava Fitzgerald came off the bench early in the football match before startng at midfield with the small ball a day later.

"Nine of our squad play for Glanmire’s footballers. They flew to London on Friday night, came home on Saturday night and then were up the road to Tipp next morning," explained Sarsfields' captain Niamh O'Callaghan.

All Ireland club camogie sponsors AIB are providing two innovative 'player cams’ again this weekend as part of their ‘Meet #TheToughest’ online content but the scheduling alone already surely proves just how tough these players are .

Sarsfields may be spared a cross-channel trip this weekend but many of their players are again doubling up for the fourth week in a row.

The Cork side take on Galway’s reigning AIB All-Ireland senior club camogie champions Sarsfields in Mallow on Saturday.

Their dual players will return to the same venue the next day to play an All-Ireland intermediate semi-final against Na Fianna of Meath, a team which also finds itself caught on the horns of the same dual dilemma.

Na Fianna won the Leinster intermediate titles in both codes with 12 dual players. Nine of them are expected to also start in Saturday’s All-Ireland intermediate camogie semi-final against Eglish (Tyrone) in