A players' strike came into force in Cork GAA late last night after the county delegates voted 79-35 against allowing the football and hurling managers to choose their own selectors and backroom team.
Teddy Holland was confirmed as Cork football manager at last night's county board meeting but his powers of selecting individuals to work alongside are restricted. Holland, from the Ballinascarthy club but currently coaching Clonakilty, will have an input into choosing selectors, along with a seven-man committee, and the backroom team in general but this must be rubber-stamped by the county executive.
This goes against the agreements reached after the 2002 players' strike. Billy Morgan recently ruled out a return as football manager citing the new terms as his primary reason while hurling manager Gerald McCarthy, who has another year to run on his current agreement, has stated his intention not to have a management team forced on him.
A player motion against such action to the Cork annual convention in December was ruled out of order last week.
Tensions have gradually increased between the board and players with Central Council delegate Bob Honohan stating on local radio this week that players refer requests to present medals and attend functions to an agent.
Honohan said: "Some would say that, I suppose, that at the end of the day it's all about euros in some form or other, either in hard cash or like.
"Perceptions aren't always right, but the perception is that there are some Cork hurlers who are doing very, very well indeed, and that if a club asked them to officiate a function or present medals to juveniles, they're referred to agents. So be it if they re operating within the rules."
A players' representative replied: "We're very angry with those comments - we could cite 203 different functions that players attended in the last year absolutely free."
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