McCarthy admits he does not have backing of Cork hurlers

[antoinse]

Read Roy Cutis comment in the Sunday World

[wanderer]

Any chance of posting the article?

[Ash Smoker]

TOM HUMPHRIES
LOCKER ROOM: The real culprits in the Cork saga are not Gerald McCarthy and the disgruntled players, writes Tom Humphries

IT'S NOT a great thing in the current editorial climate for a columnist to lack certainty. Seeing both sides of the issue is a crippling form of paralysis in a environment where the pace is set by bloggers and chat-room tyrants, those lucky creatures who have never felt a second or third thought tugging at their sleeve.

There aren't many of us left who have some sympathy for the Cork hurlers, are there? Does that preclude us from feeling the same thing for Gerald McCarthy? Both sides are victims.

I like Gerald. As a kid I bowed to no man in my worship for Jimmy Barry Murphy. In my ingratiating and shamelessly fawning way I have often embarrassed the great man by reminding him of how after the 1977 All-Ireland final myself and partner in personation blagged our way into the Cork dressingroom, pretending to be lost cousins of Tom Cashman's. Once inside in that happy din we sat either side of Jimmy Barry begging and cajoling him for his hurleys. I tell Jimmy Barry this and he pulls out the order he has nowadays requiring me to keep 500 metres away from him. Ah well.

Anyway, on that day I recall the only thing which distracted me was occasional wincing glances at Gerald McCarthy who was lying corpse-like on the physio table having his upper lip stitched together again with needle and thread. This was being done without benefit of namby pamby things like anaesthetic or a bit of privacy. Gerald was a tough man then and he is a tough man now.

A gentleman, but a tough and a proud one too. No Cork hurler would go to Gerald McCarthy, look him in the eye and say, "Gerald this isn't working out" unless that hurler felt passionately there is a better way.

Gerald's old friend Justin McCarthy walked away with quiet dignity when the Waterford players said time was up last summer. He had less cause to do so than Gerald has. For his sanity and his family he did the right thing. Nobody who has given so much as either Gerald or Justin need to get involved in this sort of unwinnable stand-off at this stage in their lives.

Yet Gerald's statement released this week was as eloquent an expression of generational bewilderment at the modern GAA as I have read. He made his case with almost poetic precision and in the PR war put himself well ahead. The great pity is that Gerald is seen to be in opposition with the players at all. Times have changed. The Cork County Board hasn't. Gerald McCarthy can do nothing about that lag between reality and the time which the board appears to live in.

What about the players? What do people want from them exactly? They took a stand for themselves back in 2002 and in the year that followed on they delivered amply and repaid, as they had said they would, the increased investment of resources and expertise into their cause. They have been a great and charismatic team. They didn't have to put themselves on the line for the football brethren last year but they did so while knowing their own case would be weakened by public fatigue with bickering.

So here they are again. If we desist from the knee-jerk response of "what the bloody hell is wrong with them now" and look over the past few years, the common denominator is a county board and their doggedness. Since 2002 every little gain has been the subject of petty attempts to claw it back. As well as training to be a top intercounty team the Cork players have this sense of constantly having to watch their own backs. They look at Kilkenny and see an entire county moving seamlessly and in unison.

To get out of the position they were in last winter between a rock and a hard place, the Cork players bought a pup on good faith. In a situation where everyone was behaving in an adult fashion, having two players, preferably recent players, on the selection committee choosing senior managers would be a good idea. Sometimes a great manager comes to a team at the wrong time. Mickey Whelan, one of the most talented coaches in Dublin, came to the management position at the wrong time just after the side had won an All-Ireland in the mid-90s. Ger Loughnane was a bad fit in Galway. It happens. Players with recent involvement would be in a good position to gauge the chances of success of any arranged marriage.

After two years when many major games have been lost maybe Gerald isn't the right fit for this current Cork hurling side. That is no slight on either party. They've given each other a chance. They seemed to have come to a natural parting in the wake of the Kilkenny defeat. For some reason, though, Cork finds itself in a state of chassis once again.

Releasing the details of a sports psychology exercise performed last summer while the team was recovering from defeat to Tipperary was about as relevant and helpful as rooting out a couple of old Valentines in the course of a messy divorce proceeding. The immense breach of faith involved tells us something of the environment which the players are operating in.

Fighting the Cork County Board is like being a sea beating against a coastline. You might cause slight erosion but the coastline is always there. It is like fighting one of those Hollywood beasts which refuses to die. As the end credits roll the camera sneakily picks out a faint pulse of a twitching muscle in the body of the apparently slain animal. There will always be a sequel.

Why are the players put in this position? If 30 players who produced those stunningly passionate backs-to-the-walls performances of last summer suddenly feel en masse that there is no point in making themselves available for selection in the future then something is wrong. There is no point in the county board or Gerald attempting to stonewall the issue. I don't believe there is an element within the Cork panel which has a pre-disposition to conflict. I believe they have a pre-disposition towards winning and toward excellence. So, too, does Gerald McCarthy.

They have different road maps showing how to get there but this isn't a case of a panel of players who have given us so much over the past decade feeling an itch during the winter time for a little of the mortification of the soul which comes with general excoriation and public opprobrium. They need this hassle less than anybody.

The odd fact of the matter, and we often forget this in the modern era, is that the players are amateurs. They do what they do because they are chasing something that is almost ethereal. They want the best from themselves. So they take huge chunks of their time to pursue that. And if they think they aren't being provided with a forum where they can do it well, that is the problem of every genuine GAA person in Cork, not just the players and Gerald.

It is time for a little humility all round. No more stags butting in the glen. These are great players. Great people. And a great Cork hurling man Gerald McCarthy. If the current model isn't working, the broader GAA community in Cork needs to appreciate that it is losing out and needs to see to whatever root and branch changes are needed to make things better. Permanently .

The fault isn't with Gerald or with the players. There was a shameful silence when Billy Morgan was shafted. There have been shameful silences from great Cork GAA men on practically every issue going back to 2002. Gerald isn't shafting the players here and the players aren't shafting Gerald. Gerald and the players are being shafted by people whose sole interest is keeping scores and keeping control.

Blaming players is easy. Time for some big people to stand up for what is right. Time to make sure that this is the last time a group of players who have given so much to the Cork jersey feel that they have to put themselves in the stockades for a while to make progress.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

[milltown row]

good article

on another note , noticed michael Cussin playing for Sarsfields, played well. when did he last play senior county hurling

[theskull1]

good article

on another note , noticed michael Cussin playing for Sarsfields, played well. when did he last play senior county hurling

Far too simplistic a view to solely blame the county board for everything in this whole debacle. I didn't agree with his perpsective

[milltown row]

i didn't say i agree, just thought it was a good article. i've no care what the Cork hurlers do. or footballers do. i'm trying to sort out the Galls hurlers never mind that shite

[theskull1]

Bad article then for the same reasons 

All journalists will ensure they don't bite the hand that feeds them (i.e. The players)......one needs to keep this in mind at all times when reading these articles

[bottlethrower7]

Bad article then for the same reasons 

All journalists will ensure they don't bite the hand that feeds them (i.e. The players)......one needs to keep this in mind at all times when reading these articles

agreed. Its an awful article. How can he say the sports psychology report was irrelevant? It was very relevant, in the context of the accusations and criticisms the players levied at McCarthy.

Humphries is very selective in the arguments he mentions. He omits too many relevant points that might make the players look bad. But then again, I expect no more from Humphries anymore.

[The GAA]

Releasing confidential internal sports psyhologist's assessments is highly unethical and lacking even the slightest degre of integrity.

[theskull1]

Releasing confidential internal sports psyhologist's assessments is highly unethical and lacking even the slightest degre of integrity.

I'd tend to agree with you GAA. It is a shame though that it came into the public gaze as a response to the fierce attacks on the capabilities of the incumbent manager by the players/journalists. Still doesn't make it right but it needs to be put in context to make people see that there was alot of provacation by the players who no doubt are  SO OFFENDED at such material being realeased now.

[cornafean]

Its a bit much to claim that one is offended, days after claiming that one's opponent in a dispute is senile.

[bottlethrower7]

Releasing confidential internal sports psyhologist's assessments is highly unethical and lacking even the slightest degre of integrity.

I'd tend to agree with you GAA. It is a shame though that it came into the public gaze as a response to the fierce attacks on the capabilities of the incumbent manager by the players/journalists. Still doesn't make it right but it needs to be put in context to make people see that there was alot of provacation by the players who no doubt are  SO OFFENDED at such material being realeased now.

agreed. Unethical for sure, but the contents are very relevant and must be considered now that they are known.

[The GAA]

Shows those that leaked this confidential info in a poor light and answers the question a to whethe they have the good of cork hurling at heart

[theskull1]

blinkers on 

[Zulu]

An opinion piece by John Allen in today's Irish Times, he is a bit at odds with many of the posters around here in that he supports the players.

Authoritarian board to blame for latest crisis
Tue, Nov 04, 2008

GAELIC GAMES THE CORK HURLING DISPUTE:Former Cork hurling manager , John Allen,argues the Cork players and Gerald McCarthy are not villains of the piece but are the victims of a county board power/revenge agenda

THE GENETIC make-up of Cork people includes a gene that's not willing to conform, apparently. From where did we inherit the title Rebels? We're the most decorated sports county in the country and very proud of this fact, and maybe our rebellious traits have helped to keep us at the forefront in a highly competitive, changing sports world.

Our present senior hurlers, just a short time back, were the market leaders. Generations of other great hurlers were also the market leaders in their time. But times change and we, as a people, either change with them or we get left behind in the maelstrom.

The hurlers of the early 2000s weren't satisfied with the Cork County Board's support in the organisation and preparation of the intercounty teams. A stand-off ensued with the resultant concessions by the board. The next four years saw this team play in four All-Ireland finals. I had seen, at close quarters, the beginning of the development of this team in early summer '99 to a watershed on All-Ireland final day 2006. This was the day when the empire began to strike back.

Thirteen championship game wins on the trot, four Munster finals, winning three, four All-Ireland final appearances and two wins weren't good enough, apparently. No, the word filtering back from on high was that the time for change was nigh. It was time to dismantle this efficient, well-structured, successful management team and bring in a new backroom team who would bring a return to the traditional Cork style and even more success would follow.

The most important cog in the wheel was allowed leave without any acknowledgement of the hugely significant role he played in the success of the previous four years and very little effort was made to keep him involved. The team trainer, Seanie McGrath, played the key role in the preparation of the team in those glory days. He was a fitness expert, dietician, nutritionist, psychologist, funny man, and friend to each and every one of the players. He made the team tick. But he was let go by a board who refused to recognise his importance.

Gerald McCarthy, with a remarkable CV, was the new chosen one. There couldn't be any argument about his hurling and management background. I can't make reasonable comment on his coaching over the past two years because I haven't seen any of the training sessions. But one of the iconic figures in Cork's long hurling history now finds himself in an unenviable position. He is a pawn in a power struggle.

There was a well-documented, avoidable stand-off between the county board and the footballers and hurlers of the county last winter. If the board engaged in a meaningful way with the players that whole sad episode could have been avoided.

Now less than a year later, a similar, totally avoidable, stalemate again exists.

Part of the deal brokered with the board last year included an agreement in which the players would have two members on the seven-man committee to pick the next manager. I personally don't think the players should be involved in the process of picking the manager but such is the lack of transparency in the system in Cork that the players probably felt "a friend in court" would be very important .

But even the friend in court wasn't going to be enough to ensure that this new committee would work in an open and fair way. Why wasn't a list of candidates drawn up, their interest in the position ascertained and a series of interviews held? Even if the board were set on reappointing Gerald McCarthy they could have still gone through this sham process, held a vote of the seven-man committee and won.

The players then couldn't have any complaint with the process, which is at the core of their problem with the board.

Now the players and Gerald McCarthy are being portrayed as the villains of the piece. They're not the villains. They're the victims. The real perpetrators of this latest crisis are the board, which again, is operating from an authoritarian, immature position.

For too long there has been dysfunction at the highest level. Structures and policies need to be in place so that the leaders can't become more important that the organisation itself.

It is nothing short of a disgrace that this present conflict is allowed to happen. Some of our greatest sporting heroes are at each other's throats because the organisation once again refused to engage reasonably and maturely with all the interested parties.

I can vouch for the integrity of this present group of Cork hurlers. Three of the player leaders, Seán Óg (Ó hAilpín), Dónal Óg (Cusack) and John Gardiner, are people of the highest calibre. They are honourable, decent reasonable people. They are willing to put their careers on the line again for the betterment of the future generations of Cork hurlers. They don't want to pick the manager but they do want to have all the available, interested, best-qualified candidates allowed to pitch for the position before a committee which has the betterment of Cork hurling at heart and not some power or revenge agenda. That is the core of this issue.

There is now a complete lack of trust on both sides. This has been steadily gathering momentum since the first strike but is far worse now.

I think any future committees to pick managers should perhaps consist of a former player, captain, manager, board chairman, present board representative and be chaired by somebody with no ties to the GAA.

Gerald McCarthy has nothing to prove to the Cork sporting public yet he is being publicly humiliated in a battle that never needed to be fought.

It very much looks like a point of no return has been reached. The solution isn't anywhere on the horizon yet. There will be a resolution but I hope it's before too much more blood is let.

Maybe a proper revolution is needed this time.

© 2008 The Irish Times