'There's a process that I've got to go through. It's bottom up, not top down'
CAMOGIE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Brian Molly has said he “wants to see choice” for players to wear shorts or skorts but stressed he is not in a position to make unilateral change to rules.
“There’s a process that I’ve got to go through. It’s bottom up, not top down, I don’t make these decisions, I have to go through a process,” Molloy said to RTÉ’s This Week.
On Thursday the Camogie Association announced a ‘special congress’ will be held later this month to consider motions addressing the ongoing skorts issue which has raged since last weekend when Dublin and Kilkenny players were told to change back into skorts or their game could not go ahead after they took to the pitch for a Leinster Championship match in shorts.
Yesterday, the Waterford and Cork teams yesterday released a joint-statement expressing their “bitter disappointment” with the decision to postpone yesterday’s Munster final.
The Munster Camogie cancelled the game in light of the planned protest by both teams against the wearing of skorts.
The Louth and Wicklow camogie teams have this evening released a joint statement through the GPA after they saw their Leinster Junior final became the latest game to be postponed before the 22 May special congress.
“We, the players scheduled to compete in today’s Leinster Final, are deeply disappointed by the postponement of the match,” the statement read. “Playing in a Leinster Final is a significant honour, and delaying it due to a protest over an outdated rule disregards the time and preparation players have invested.
“While we support the call for change, postponing games disrupts the sport and disrespects those ready to play. Players should have the freedom to wear what they feel most comfortable and confident in, enabling them to perform at their best.
“We urge congress on 22 May to recognise that change is needed and to ensure that player choice is a paramount consideration in any decision made.”
Molloy said he and others have worked hard to resolve the issue.
“We proposed, first of all, that what we would do is bring forward the decision to Congress 26 rather than Congress 27. I had a very detailed conversation with the chief executive of the GPA and he welcomed that proposal and said he’d champion it,” Molloy said.
“We had a good conversation about how the two of us would then go around over the next six or seven month to the various counties to make sure the delegates understood the proposal and it would be an evidence-based process that we’d put in front of people.
“And then 24 hours later – and I’ve no issue with this whatsoever – the players indicated that wasn’t enough, they wanted it faster than that. So I went back to Ard Comhairle again. There’s a process that I’ve got to go through. It’s bottom up, not top down, I don’t make these decisions, I have to go through a process.”
Molloy said the Munster Council made the call to postpone their provincial final, and he “100%” supported the decision.
“I don’t have the authority to tell a referee to put a rule to one side . . . as the president I absolutely have no choice but to operate within the actual rules,” he said.
“If someone else decides to do something different, there isn’t a huge amount that I can do about that. I couldn’t tell the referee to ignore a rule, and if I did, he would have to ignore me.”
Molloy said that when it comes to official votes he “can’t tell a delegate how to vote” but added “I can and have told delegates that they are to ask their players.”
He said the process to resolve the skorts issue could “possibly” have been done faster but that a lot of progress had been made in a short amount of time.
“You have to remember, this landed on my desk less than two weeks ago, and in less than two weeks, I will have a special congress – which is the only way I can have the rule changed.
“So in total elapsed time, less than one month after it landed on my desk, I will have a special congress fixing this issue for good in accordance with rules, without any sidestepping of rules, doing it properly in line with our association and the democratic views of our association. I can’t overrule the democratic processes in our association.”
Molloy said he cannot influence anybody’s vote in a democratic process but, from his own perspective, he “wants to see choice”.
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