Galway defender Heather Cooney welcomed the news following Jack Chambers’ announcement last week.
Galway camogie star Heather Cooney welcomed the news that there would be equal government funding for male and female inter-county players.
Cooney has picked up numerous honours with Galway and with her club St. Thomas’s, while her brother Conor won an All-Ireland medal with Galway hurlers in 2017. Cooney feels the merge between the GPA and WGPA has helped secure equal funding.
“I think there is great strength in numbers, whereas when you are in different associations, it becomes that much more difficult to fight your corner,” Cooney said when speaking to the Sunday Independent.
Players will receive expenses going to training.
Cooney feels that it will be great that female inter-county players will benefit from this, as they will no longer be out of pocket when going to training.
“Getting expenses will be huge. If I totted up the amount of diesel I put into the car down the years to go to training it would be something. But, look, that was never going to stop us going to training,” she said.
College students will feel the benefit of this.
The St. Thomas’s star feels that college students are the ones that will benefit from this move most, as they tend to have less income than those in full-time jobs.
“When you are in college you are just putting your pennies together as you don’t have the disposable income to be travelling here, there and everywhere. It is going to be big for us, but it is going to be huge for them,” the Galway star said.
Cooney won an All-Ireland title with Galway in 2019 beating Kilkenny in the final and she also played in the 2020 decider when they lost out to the same opponents.
Her Galway side opened their league campaign with a win yesterday, defeating Clare in Athenry via a scoreline of 3-11 to 0-15. Galway are the reigning league champions, winning the 2019 competition, as the 2020 league was cancelled due to the pandemic.
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