GAELIC GAMES:THE CORK County Board last night voted by 84 to 13 to support Cork senior hurling manager Gerald McCarthy and his management team amid the ongoing dispute with the 2008 players who are refusing to play for him.

Delegates overwhelmingly backed a proposal from Bishopstown delegate Bob Honohan for the board to give “a clear and unequivocal mandate to Gerald McCarthy and his team”.

Blarney delegate Alan White said he had been instructed by his club to argue there be no vote on the issue last night and proposed that the delegates would not vote.

Following the vote, McCarthy thanked delegates for their vote of confidence and said he was still available for discussions with the striking 2008 panel.

McCarthy began last night’s address to the delegates by appraising them of the progress being made by the new team selected by himself and his management team after the refusal of the 2008 team to play under him.

“We need to talk if there is a genuine desire to resolve this, there needs to be dialogue and it needs to be quick – I am quite willing to sit down with the players still,” said McCarthy.

“This has probably been the worst experience of my life and there have been times that I and members of my management team have felt isolated. If it can’t be resolved then there is a road we may have to travel – we need a decisive mandate to deal with this issue with clarity and finality.

“Last Sunday, I had the great privilege of managing a young Cork team who gave their all to overcome Dublin,” he told delegates, “we weren’t successful but to see the pride they have to play for their county and to see how the crowd responded was very moving.”

McCarthy slammed some media coverage of the dispute, saying some of it was “simplistic”, with a standard portrayal along the lines that Gerald McCarthy can’t coach, the county board are “dinosaurs” and the 2008 players are “latter-day saints”.

“The kernel is – do players have the right to veto the appointment of a manager and if that happens now, you can kiss it goodbye forever and I don’t want it to happen on my watch,” he said.

Accusing the 2008 players of using the Cork jersey as “the weapon of choice” in the dispute, McCarthy said comments by a senior player that the coaching set-up was a Mickey Mouse affair was an insult not just to him and his team but all those who voluntarily give their time to Cork hurling.

“One of the known leaders used a phrase that resonates with me – ‘there is a sickness at the heart of Cork hurling – I don’t disagree with that but I do with where the sickness lies – they are the best treated players in Cork hurling.”

County secretary Frank Murphy said it had been suggested there had been a rowing back by the county board on the 2002 agreement but that was not the case and he challenged anyone to produce evidence. He echoed McCarthy’s call for dialogue, saying it was the first requirement for a solution.

Earlier county board chairman Jerry O’Sullivan expressed disappointment that the 2008 players had not taken up their opportunity to attend the meeting after 2008 captain John Gardiner had contacted him to say they wanted to send a representative.

McCarthy was unanimously backed by the board executive whose officers stressed he had been democratically elected by the board and had their full support.

Selector Ger Fitzgerald said players were seeking to portray themselves as the ultimate professionals, but that was not the case as the management had great difficulty in getting them to adhere to advice given by a dietician with only 13 players co-operating.

And he cited the case of a senior player who after three years of gym work failed a bench press test. “They are creating a perception of this professional attitude but they pick and choose what they want to do,” he said.

Blarney delegate White said he believed delegates should be allowed go back to the clubs and get their views on McCarthy’s appointment and said he had warned last October McCarthy’s reappointment would cause the players to walk away.