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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Eamon Doggett

Cork dual star Libby Coppinger lines out for camogie and football teams on the same day

Cork's Libby Coppinger lined out for both the camogie and football county teams on the same day in a remarkable show of commitment on Saturday.

The St Colum's club woman played the full game for Cork's camogie side in their 3-19 to 1-10 win over Down.

But she then made the trip from Pairc Ui Chaoimh to Galway to represent the Rebels' footballers.

READ MORE: Colm Collins steps down as Clare boss after 10 years

Coppinger came on as a 42nd substitute for the Cork footballers as they fell to a 3-11 to 1-11 defeat to Galway.

The same trip from Cork was made by Coppinger's fellow dual star Aoife Healy, but the latter did not come on for the footballers

Cork legend and fellow dual star Rena Buckley, who was on commentary duty for TG4, praised Coppinger for her effort.

Buckley: "I don't believe it really. Libby's after playing a camogie game down in Cork, and then travelling three hours up the road along with Aoife Healy.

"The effort she's shown, it's unbelievable. A brilliant, important player for this team too."

When asked if it was a difficult decision to bring on Coppinger, Cork ladies football manager Shane Royanne said: "It was but Libby and Aoife said they were going to come up. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Ideally, I wouldn't have brought her on as early.

"But Libby's old enough to make those decisions herself. We left it up to herself. She said she was ready to come on. I think she's okay. She made the effort to come up here. We're quite happy with what we did.

"She's an adult, not a young girl so she made that decision herself."

While there has been widespread praise for both Coppinger and Healy's commitment to their counties, many have questioned the scheduling of the fixtures.

One person commented on social media: "Huge credit due to the girls, but surely Cumann Peil naBan and Cumann Camógaíochta should be ensuring fixtures don't happen on the same day. Player welfare?"

While another fumed: "How these role models and ambassadors for both codes are still forced to commute from the highest level of one sport to the same in another at different corners of the country on the same day is nothing but a disgrace. People on their high stools need a wake-up call."

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