Cork hurling crisis rumbles on as GAA intervention fails

The crisis in Cork hurling has been described as “unadulterated madness” by former All Ireland winning manager Liam Griffin. The former Wexford manager also believes that the dispute is extremely bad for hurling and the GAA.

“Hurling is a very small church and there are very few people hurling at the level that the Cork and Kilkenny players are at.

“But to lose an entire team out of that system is not just bad for hurling it is sheer unadulterated madness and it is a wanton waste of talent.

“If you were to look at the top 100 hurlers in the country the 2008 Cork panel would constitute 25% of those players,” he said.

Griffin, who led the model county to the all Ireland title in 1996, believes that the Cork county board were foolish in their decision to reappoint Gerald McCarthy as manager if they felt that the players were unhappy.

“I don’t believe that players should pick the manager but I don’t believe that the county board should pick or impose a manager that they know the players will not accept.

“If you pick someone that the players don’t want then you are looking for trouble,” he claimed.

But the former Yellowbellies boss firmly believes that the Cork county board are to blame for allowing the dispute to fester and linger.

“The Cork county board are responsible for running and administering gaelic games in Cork,” he said.

“But regardless of whether you believe that the striking players are right or wrong or whether Gerald McCarthy is right or wrong it is up to the county board to manage disputes.

“In my opinion the Cork county board are wrong on this occasion. I’m disappointed that the circumstances surrounding this have resulted in the players withdrawing their services,” he added.

Griffin believes that if a resolution is not reached soon then the only thing that will suffer is Cork hurling.

“I think it is very unfair of the county board to expect the 2009 panel to represent Cork while the 2008 panel is on strike,” he said.

“Gerald McCarthy is being used as a pawn by the Cork county board secretary Frank Murphy in the same way that football manager Teddy Holland was used as a pawn with the Cork footballers last year.

“Frank Murphy is hiding behind the whole thing as far as I can see and he is not saying what his problems are.

“I mean he is able to talk at conventions for hours during the last ten years but he hasn’t said a word about this,” Griffin added.

While the Cork hurling crisis has affected players, management and fans, it has also affected bookmakers throughout the country.

Eoin George of Paddy Power bookmakers believes that the situation in Cork has resulted in an uncertain situation for bookies.

“In the last few years Cork would be third favourites for the All Ireland title and we would know what to expect as regards giving match odds when they are playing,” he said.

But now with a completely new squad we can’t be certain of what odds to give.

At the beginning of the league we didn’t really know what to expect from the new Cork team.

However, we now believe that the 2009 squad would be better than Laois and Antrim but not as good as Dublin,” he added.

While the new Cork squad has given very encouraging performances in their national league games to date, George believes that Cork’s odds of winning trophies in 2009 are slim.

“Well at the moment we believe that if this current Cork squad take to the field against Tipperary in the championship then we would be offering odds of 12/1 of Cork winning.

“At the moment Cork are 1/8 to lose all their league matches in 2009,” he added.

Sean Potts, who is communication officer of the Gaelic Players Association, feels that the Cork hurling dispute is merely a symptom of modern-day players demanding higher standards and structures for their teams.

“Increasingly players are becoming more aware of what is needed to challenge for honours at the top level.

“These players are aware of what’s needed because of their experiences with their clubs and particularly their colleges as most colleges have state of the art facilities.
If they go back to their counties and sense that the structures are not conducive to developing the squad properly then that’s where issues arise and players begin to assert themselves,” he said.

Potts believes that in these testing economic times players and county boards may find themselves coming into conflict more often.

“With the squeeze on finances at county board level we may have a situation where county boards may try to cut back on the cost of preparation of teams.

“The players involved are not going to tolerate this kind of action and you could see a lot more conflict between players and county boards,” Potts added.

Hopes of a resolution to this hurling crisis faded after an intervention by GAA headquarters on February 19 failed.

It seems that the ongoing dispute between Cork’s hurlers and the county board looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.