Gerald McCarthy may get Cork hot seat

The Cork County Board are to begin the search for a new senior hurling manager for the second successive year following Bertie Óg Murphy's decision to resign from the position after one season.

Last year Tom Cashman also left the position after his debut season, and now Murphy, halfway through his two-year term, has confirmed his decision to depart to the county board executive.

Already hinted as the mostly likely successor to Murphy is Gerald McCarthy, who previously trained the Cork team under manager Fr Michael O'Brien in the 1980s and enjoyed considerable success at the time. McCarthy ended a five-year term as manager with Waterford at the end of 2001 (to be replaced by fellow Corkman Justin McCarthy).

The team trainer Ted Owens has made it known that he, too, would be stepping down after five years' service.

Murphy's decision comes in the aftermath of last month's controversy in Cork, when a number of players spoke out about poor treatment and being discouraged from joining the Gaelic Players Association (GPA). Though Murphy remained distant from that controversy, it is accepted that the player unrest contributed to a disappointing championship campaign that ended with defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland qualifiers.

It is unclear what the future holds for the current selection panel of Pat McDonnell, PJ Murphy, John Meyler and Frank Murphy. But with no obvious successor to Bertie Óg Murphy, the board won't have an easy task.

During the National League it seemed as if Murphy had brought Cork back to their competitive best. But it all seemed to go wrong after their defeat by Kilkenny in the league final, with defeat to Waterford in the Munster championship falling well below expectations.

It was shortly after the qualifier defeat to Galway that a number of players, led by goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack and former captain Mark Landers, spoke out about the poor treatment of players, especially in regard to gear, and how a number of younger panel members had been told that joining the GPA would jeopardise their position on the team.

The players have since met the county board to outline their concerns, yet it remains likely that the new manager will be burdened by some of the controversy.

The Kerry County Board, meanwhile, are confident that Páidí Ó Sé will remain as senior football manager for at least another year. Ó Sé wasn't making any commitment in the wake of Sunday's All-Ireland defeat to Armagh, but with a year remaining on his contract there will be full backing from the county board.

A decision on the vacant Offaly hurling manager is due to be made next Tuesday, and with Fr Tom Fogarty not going forward for another term, former player Aidan Fogarty has emerged as the favourite to take over. Fogarty has lived in Kilkenny for many years and was involved as a mentor with the O'Loughlin Gaels team that won their first county title last year.

Elsewhere, a statement from the Croke Park Area Residents' Alliance yesterday outlined concerns at the increasing political and media pressure on the GAA to make Croke Park available for use by other sporting organisations.

The alliance, an umbrella organisation of seven residents' associations, voiced their "complete and total opposition to any moves that will increase the volume of activities at Croke Park, thereby adding further disruption to the quality of life of local residents and tenants".

The alliance argue that "the local residents have democratic, civil and human rights, all or which have been violated as a result of the events at Croke Park. These violations include the inability of residents and their visitors to freely travel in and out of their community, and the restrictions on our children to play on the streets outside their homes.

"Other issues include: noise pollution from late-night social events in the function rooms of the new stands; lack of adequate post-event cleansing services; the dangerous crowd congestion on the narrow streets from the egress of spectators at the stadium; lack of proper traffic control systems and parking facilities; and inconsistency in policing and crowd control."

Patrick Gates, secretary of the alliance, also pointed out that the local community has to put up with the loss of over 25 Sundays during the summer as well as some Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays.