On Gaelic Games:There is much to be said for reinvolving Croke Park once the Cork crisis passes with the inevitable departure of Gerald McCarthy, writes SEAN MORAN
BE CAREFUL what you wish for. All of those who scolded the Cork hurlers for not working through the system if they had problems with the county administration got their answer at the weekend with the enthusiastic turnout at the players’ briefing meeting for clubs on Sunday. Coming a couple of weeks after a crowd of over 10,000 had marched in Cork city in support of the 2008 players, this was further evidence the county administrators have lost the argument.
It’s difficult to project exactly how this process will unwind but it is now clear this year’s Cork crisis is as good as over and it’s now a matter of how well organised the endgame will be. Not only that but it is more than likely the recurrent problems within the county in recent years are finally going to be resolved.
Gerald McCarthy’s role in doggedly clinging to the wreckage of his controversial reappointment continues to distort the situation. For all the hard words spoken in public between the manager and last year’s hurling panel, the focal point of the dispute has always been the process by which the appointment took place. But it’s as if both parties have become obsessed by McCarthy’s position as the ultimate arbiter of who wins this long-running argument.
Last Thursday night, a high-powered delegation from Croke Park – director general Páraic Duffy and president-elect Christy Cooney – placed on the table a document they hoped would settle the dispute. It proposed McCarthy would stay on for this season with additions to his management team and that afterwards and for the next couple of years the question of who would manage Cork would be taken out of the hands of the county.
This was an extraordinary enough initiative but the rest of it was even more remarkable, effectively taking over the strategic administration of Gaelic games in Cork. It was like appointing an administrator or receiver to manage the county.
The issues to be addressed under the aegis of Croke Park and in consultation with the Cork GAA were wide ranging: “games development strategies within the county (this will include the results of the recently completed NCTC report); infrastructure and facilities; communication structures; fixture planning and execution; strategies for addressing the challenge of urbanisation; the overall personnel requirements to manage the future of Cork GAA”.
In retaining McCarthy’s position with the senior team, the document was doing no more than a receiver might in retaining a line manager on a short-term contract.
By far the most bizarre aspect of the comings and goings late last week was the preparedness of the county executive to accept the Duffy-Cooney resolution, together with all its implications for how Cork is perceived to have been administered in recent years.
As one delegate said privately, it was effectively the executive voting no confidence in itself. Yet that was what they were ready to do apparently in return for McCarthy remaining in the position to which they had so ill-advisedly appointed him, an appointment only recently endorsed.
Conversely the players, many of whose longest-running objectives were realised by the Croke Park document, felt they couldn’t accept it because of the requirement to play under McCarthy – even though it would only be for the remainder of this year and with the palliative of two heavyweight additions to the management team, including one as coach.
But there are reasons why the two parties had adopted their respective positions. The executive accepted the proposal because they simply want the matter sorted out. Having unerringly played themselves into the calamitous situation they now occupy, they just wanted an exit – for all the misgivings about the implications of the document.
They must also be reflecting on how high the water is rising in this controversy.
Although the players have been fulminating over what has been characterised as more “psy-ops” stuff from the county officers – the public disclosure of a negotiating model based on McCarthy staying on as manager and involving the replacement of his selectors – the real issue for them has been the campaign to persuade the clubs to back the 2008 panel.
The notion McCarthy could stay on as part of a settlement didn’t survive scrutiny for very long, having been floated at Friday night’s impromptu county board meeting. It did, however, deepen aggravation among the players and led to an uncomfortable Saturday morning for them, fielding texts from supporters accusing the panel of having sold out.
However, Sunday’s turnout at the Maryborough Hotel in Douglas added momentum to the campaign but the players aren’t getting carried away by the enthusiastic response when they met club representatives. It is accepted those present who opposed the players’ stance were likely to have said nothing and the follow-through from the meeting to shaping club policy won’t be straightforward in all cases.
Junior clubs present are only represented at county board through their divisional structures and not only does that water down their influence in voting numbers but it also means they have to pilot support for the players past the senior clubs that are also represented at divisional level and who mightn’t hold the same views on the situation.
At board level there is also the difficulty that county chair Jerry O’Sullivan again made it clear at last night’s board meeting he won’t allow the question of McCarthy’s appointment to be raised again given it has already been endorsed twice.
Even if that obstacle is hurdled, the reversing of a previous decision would require a two-thirds majority, a target not easily reached even with a decisive majority of the clubs in favour although a simple vote of no confidence in McCarthy and his management would presumably make their position untenable.
The biggest problem with proceeding through the clubs, however, is not so much related to the prospects of success but the consequences of the campaign. Going down this route of club egms and formalised position-taking will mean bitter divisions, which could take years to heal.
There is also the issue of what happens to the Croke Park document and articles three to seven, outlining the proposed interim structures in the county. No one is quite sure of the answer to that should the clubs successfully overturn the appointment or in the event of McCarthy walking away.
Yet the inescapable fact is that the proposals are now in the public domain, bearing eloquent witness to Croke Park’s opinion of how Cork has been running its affairs. There are those within the county, weary of the turmoil, who see the document as a worthwhile blueprint independent of its role in resolving the dispute.
There is still much to be said for reinvolving Croke Park once the matter settles, as it will sooner or later, with McCarthy’s departure.
