Cork add extra spice to meeting

GAELIC GAMES:Today's unscheduled meeting of the GAA's Central Council, convened in response to recent disciplinary controversies, was given some additional incandescent illumination by yesterday's statement from the three Cork hurlers - Donal Cusack, Seán Ó hAilpín and Diarmuid O'Sullivan - suspended for their part in the pre-match brawl at the Cork versus Clare match in Thurles last month.

GAA president Nickey Brennan called the Central Council meeting earlier this week and it is expected to discuss the determination of so many who are punished under rule to exhaust every single remedy available no matter what the circumstances of their suspension. In general terms, though, the meeting must decide a plan of action to address the growing problems being experienced by the association in enforcing and vindicating its own rules.

At the conclusion of the meeting sometime this afternoon, a press release will be issued outlining the plan of action as agreed by Central Council.

Whether Brennan will respond to the stringent criticism aimed at him by the Cork manager, Gerald McCarthy - including that he hung up on him during a phone call - and his suspended players in the aftermath of the meeting or wait until a later date isn't known, although the president did state earlier in the week that he would wait until after the weekend to do so.

The Cork-Clare matter hasn't yet been resolved, given that the four Clare players suspended arising out of the same incidents as led to the punishment of their Cork counterparts haven't yet exhausted their own remedies within the GAA.

Three Clare players, Barry Nugent, Colin Lynch and Andrew Quinn, lost their appeals to the Central Appeals Committee on Thursday night. Team-mate Alan Markham was unable to attend, but the committee can hear an appeal on his behalf at a later date.

Markham took ill after playing for his club in the Clare county championship earlier in the week.

The decision to impose fines on the Clare county board was also upheld. According to Des Crowe, the Clare PRO, there won't be any immediate decision taken on whether to proceed to the Disputes Resolution Authority as a final attempt to get the punishments lifted.

In the statement by the Cork hurlers released to yesterday's Irish Examiner, the three players apologised for their role in what had happened in Thurles before rounding on the GAA procedures, Nickey Brennan - accusing him of attacking them - and the media.

"We wish to apologise for our parts in the incident in Thurles before the recent Munster hurling championship match against Clare. This apology is sincerely given and we regret we were in any way involved in an incident of this nature.

"We accept that we should not have been involved at all; however, it is difficult to resist the urge to defend yourself or your team-mates, especially when there seems to be no-one in charge. We have looked at our parts in the incident in a self-critical manner and will learn from it."

They continued, however, to dispute their punishment and to question why other players involved in the fracas had not been similarly punished: "We do not believe that we deserved a month's suspension for our parts, or if we did, we did not deserve it any more than any other players. It seems that, as evidenced by a recent article, those involved in putting the new disciplinary procedures in place, let alone those administering them, felt pressurised into taking action, to satisfy the media."

The statement goes on to say that the Gaelic Players Association will be raising the matter in discussions with the GAA and draws attention to the fracas at the start of the Laois-Offaly match on the same day after which no suspensions were handed down.

The statement also alleges anti-Cork bias: "We believe that there has been a general anti-Cork bias displayed in this matter (regardless of what is done to the Clare players with whom we have no gripe and who, like us, have honoured their agreement not to seek to defend themselves by incriminating opponents, but who did not face a Munster semi-final) and a bias against the GPA (so well illustrated by the comments of GAA Presidential hopeful Seán Fogarty of Tipperary in a cheap electioneering stunt) and a bias against our county Secretary, Frank Murphy."

Rebel talk: Some of the Cork players' comments

'We do not believe that we deserved a month's suspension for our parts, or if we did, we did not deserve it any more than any other players.'

'We find it absolutely extraordinary that the president of the Association would implicitly attack us and our county board for staying within the GAA in an effort to defend ourselves.'

'It seems that as far as some commentators are concerned we are not only guilty of being thugs, we are morally reprehensible for trying to say that we are not thugs . . .'

'From a player point of view, it was disappointing for us that Croke Park actually added to the media frenzy rather than taking the heat out of the situation.'

'We believe that there has been a general anti-Cork bias displayed in this matter.'