McCarthy admits he does not have backing of Cork hurlers

[Rossfan]

Ye two bucks dont know much about Cork GAA affairs if ye think a mere vote by club delegates would convince FM to leve his guaranteed for his lifetime position.

[orangeman]

Ye two bucks dont know much about Cork GAA affairs if ye think a mere vote by club delegates would convince FM to leve his guaranteed for his lifetime position.

Frank could not stand in the road of all the clubs. But it's only idle speculation as thee clubs are happy with Frank's handling of Cork's affairs.

[Reillers]

 

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Hitting Cork where it hurts

By Diarmuid O'Flynn
I'M still receiving e-mails on an almost daily basis regarding the crisis in Cork, which suggests that the Cork hurling public, at least, are concerned about what's going on.


The most hopeful tone is that the current silence on the matter could herald progress, that things are happening behind the scenes and a solution may be in the pipeline.

Sad to report, however, nothing could be further from the truth - there are no negotiations. To a certain extent the silence is welcome, a break from the public slagging, never a good way to conduct your affairs even if it does keep the masses engaged.




What the Cork hurling public would like to know, however, and that includes those on every side of this divide, is that its county board is working hard to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion. The truth is they are not.

There has been no official contact with the players, no effort to try and reach a compromise that would end the impasse; in short, there has been no leadership, and yet again, just as happened last year, a rudderless Cork GAA drifts towards the abyss.

Then again, that shouldn't surprise anyone.

Let's have a look at the kind of leadership that's been provided by the Cork county board over the last few decades. Since the early 1970's, practically every major progressive initiative that was proposed by the GAA has been opposed by Cork, vehemently opposed in most cases. The removal of the Ban – against; the expanded televising of live games, against; the removal of yet another Ban, on members of the RUC and the British armed forces playing hurling and football, Cork lined up with Ulster and voted against for years; the opening up of Croke Park to soccer and rugby, against. Can you see the pattern?

During that period, inside the county, there have been gains, not least the construction of Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the purchase of Flower Lodge, now known as Páirc Uí Rinn, though it could be argued that Cork hardly needed another city-centre location, with Páirc Uí Chaoimh just around the corner. A green-field site on which could have been built an integrated centre of excellence, along with an all-weather pitch and stadium, would have been far more constructive, but then again, wasn't it great to give soccer one in the eye, swipe one of their marquee-name pitches from under their noses?

Did it not demonstrate, conclusively and painfully, the superior organisation of the GAA over the FAI to the followers of that foreign sport in Cork city? Irony apart, however, in financial matters at least, the Cork County Board have proven themselves masterful, for which huge credit is due. Then again, the so-called Church of Scientology is also a massively wealthy organisation – so what? In the business of doing that for which it is most responsible, the promotion of gaelic games generally and hurling and gaelic football in particular, over the last couple of decades the Cork County Board has been a failure, and that failure is becoming more glaring by the year.

Do you know that Cork has nearly twice as many adult football teams as Kerry, more than twice as many hurling teams as Kilkenny, three times as many football teams as Tyrone?


In hurling the story is better, but still falls well short of where it should be; three All-Ireland senior titles since 1990, while Kilkenny have picked up eight. At underage, however, the real story; no county-wide identification and development system of young talent, no structures in place for their promotion through the ranks, everything left to chance, same as it ever was. Neglect, and on a grand scale, no-one held accountable.

SO it is that we come to the current mess with the hurlers, and should we be surprised that, for the third time in six years, a major conflict has broken out between the players who have managed to make it to the top, and those who are meant to be in charge? Given their actions in the early rounds of this conflict, given their inaction since, which inference would you take, that this is a board which has the best interests of Cork GAA at heart, or that this is a board concerned solely with just another power play, with putting this particular group of players, and a particular group within that panel, back in their box? I have no doubt about the answer to that question.

One of the means by which Cork GAA has built up its massive financial war-chest, paid for Páirc Uí Chaoimh, for Páirc Uí Rinn, is through a well-organised monthly draw.

I have two memberships of that draw and sold several others to family and friends. If this situation is allowed to continue drifting over the next month towards another possibly catastrophic climax next year, meaningful participation in National League and championship in doubt, I will be cancelling those memberships.

Why would I subscribe any longer to a board which no longer appears to care about what I, and thousands of others, see as an imperative?

For most of us, this is hugely frustrating, like watching an impending train-wreck; there isn't a lot I can do on a practical level, but if the county board won't act, I will. It's only a few bob, a tenner a month, but if enough people decide that they too have had enough and cancel their subscriptions, it might just prompt the board into action. Might.

diarmuid.oflynn@examiner.ie

[Reillers]

Ye two bucks dont know much about Cork GAA affairs if ye think a mere vote by club delegates would convince FM to leve his guaranteed for his lifetime position.

Frank could not stand in the road of all the clubs. But it's only idle speculation as thee clubs are happy with Frank's handling of Cork's affairs.

Are they now?? See that's a blatant, factless lie.

[Reillers]

Ye two bucks dont know much about Cork GAA affairs if ye think a mere vote by club delegates would convince FM to leve his guaranteed for his lifetime position.

Frank could not stand in the road of all the clubs. But it's only idle speculation as thee clubs are happy with Frank's handling of Cork's affairs.

He can, and he probably would. What part of this aren't ye getting??

[Reillers]

The Fairytale of Cork.

It was Christmas Eve, Frank
In the ice bath
An old player said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
Banks of My Lovely Lee
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Played in Fermoy, we won
I've got a feeling
This team's completely new
So happy Christmas
I love you Frankie
Promised me a better time
When all my dreams come true

"They've got cars big as bars
They've got medals of gold
But when Canning goes right through you
'Tis no place for the old"
When you first took my hand
On a cold Fermoy field
You promised me
Glory was waiting for me

You were fearsome
You were tricky
King of Cork's hurling City
When the boys finished playing
They were thrown out the door
Sean Og came out swinging,
All the comments were stinging
But Ger fought his corner
And said training's alright

The boys of the Cork County Board choir
Were singing "Play Away"
And the bells were ringing out
Down Noreside way

We are done
We are sunk
Our hurling future is junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
Start talking and sort it
Don't let the Cats lord it
Get off your high horses
And find peace now that lasts

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I disowned you
I placed them in new lads
Whose hearts and minds I own
Go training all alone
I've built my dreams around youth

-RebelGAA, Two Hands.

[orangeman]

The Fairytale of Cork.

It was Christmas Eve, Frank
In the ice bath
An old player said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
Banks of My Lovely Lee
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Played in Fermoy, we won
I've got a feeling
This team's completely new
So happy Christmas
I love you Frankie
Promised me a better time
When all my dreams come true

"They've got cars big as bars
They've got medals of gold
But when Canning goes right through you
'Tis no place for the old"
When you first took my hand
On a cold Fermoy field
You promised me
Glory was waiting for me

You were fearsome
You were tricky
King of Cork's hurling City
When the boys finished playing
They were thrown out the door
Sean Og came out swinging,
All the comments were stinging
But Ger fought his corner
And said training's alright

The boys of the Cork County Board choir
Were singing "Play Away"
And the bells were ringing out
Down Noreside way

We are done
We are sunk
Our hurling future is junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
Start talking and sort it
Don't let the Cats lord it
Get off your high horses
And find peace now that lasts

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I disowned you
I placed them in new lads
Whose hearts and minds I own
Go training all alone
I've built my dreams around youth

Very, very good - 

[orangeman]

Reillers- read there was another trial match last Sunday - nine NEW faces.


Can you enlighten us any ?

[realrebel]

and the new players were from some clubs that were supposed to be with the players
its on the echo tonight that former kerry footballer aiden macgeralt might be added as a trainer to the team

[Reillers]

No one had a clue that the trial match was happening. It was kinda under the collar a bit.
Nine new faces, and yet so many missing, not just our senior panel but players who refuse to play who should be ahead of the boys that are there now.
The CCB really are something special, they are going to destroy two panels. Imagine a county that manages to piss off 60 or 70 of the best hurlers in one year.

Some say, and I almost feel to do so half the time, but some say it's best to put the 2008 panel to the back of our minds now and focus on supporting the 2009 panel.  and get behind them.
But Cork has always been succesfull in large, confidence is just bred into Cork players through the tradition of winning. We had an extremley tight knit group of players that were Ben, Jerry, Sean Og, Donal Og, Sully..etc. All extremley close, like, as corny as it sounds, brothers.."Blood Brothers". The group is so tight and so welcoming that you've got the players like Cathal Naughton and Pa Horgan just coming in and fitting straight into the team, finding their feet really quickly, something which not even KK players have.
Like Horgan came on against Galway I think and you could have sworn by the confidence from him that he was playing for years.
That will all go.
There will be no leaders on the field with experience. There will be nothing, we will have nothing, we will win nothing, and that's no disrespect to the kids but if we're realistic the least we can hope for is something that doesn't resemble a blood bath.

The development squad is great but as it stands this squad isn't going to produce new addtions to the panel, which is what a development squad should do, what it's supposed to do, instead it's going to produce the entire panel. The pressure on them will be insane, all eyes will be on them, and it's not fair. Like a development squad is great.

But can the CCB and Gerald Mc actually say we have any chance of winning the AI, Munster or the first round match, or the League, with this new panel??

It's great that the players there now are getting an opportunity to play, but how more fulfilling would it be if they made it on the full panel?? How much better would it be for them to have th likes of Donal Og or Sean Og or the twsins there when things go wrong to show leadership and to say it's ok. There's zero experience on the team and that alone could kill us.
And for confidence as well, if they were included in the squad, in the real squad they would know that they're amongst the best 30 hurlers in Cork, but no.There as much pawns in this as Gerald Mac is.
The CCB and Gerald Mc are leading them up the garden path..."you'll be the next generation"....ya right, they will be the front runners, the face of the failure. Them and Gerald Mac are going to get criticized till the cows come home when they get beaten by double digits by Limerick, and the actual people behind this will sit there idoly by, completley to blame, people who saw this coming, people who wanted this to happen, this was their plan, and low and behold, are still untouchable.

And what happens to these players of the future to these players that Gerald is pitching as the next generation of greats, if the actual real squad agree to come back, they'll, with the exception of about 5 maybe, will get brushed aside so fast that their heads will spin. There are about 70 plus players who are better then them and who would be on the panel before them, and in a heartbeat if they made themselves available. They're being used.
We all know it.

[realrebel]

reillers
can i ask u something are u danny boy from rebel gaa site
the posts from him and u are nearly word for word and its not the first time i seen this
can u tell me the truth please

[INDIANA]

something which not even KK players have

yeah took years for tommy walsh, henry and cha to find their feet. Keep dreaming reillers. You'd swear this was the greatest team of all time with some of the shite you spin. As if no other team in the world was close knit. Do us a favour.

[Reillers]

It is the general oppinion by a lot of Cork fans that they will not support any players, mentors, trainers..etc who are currently involved with this CCB selection.
I feel the same at times, but I wont abuse them or anything of that sort I will simply ignore them. It was said before that

"We defeat the British Empire by ignoring it"..De Valera.
I think this could be what's needed this team..if enough people ignore them....ah what am I saying, they wont care.

The team at the minute, do not, imo represent the best or even nearly the best hurlers in Cork and are simply being used by the CCB hierarchy to get rid of a superb panel of players who have simply refused to lower their standards.
The CCB at executive level is malfunctioning at best and a lot more at worst and by them being able to field a 'Cork' team the staus quo will remain and Cork will continue to fall back in hurling and once the status quo is in place and the board have their power, they don't and wont care.

A shocking state of Cork hurling.

There's rumored to be some movement from behind the hurlers line and some MAY come back, but they are rumours at the best.


As for the Kerry lad. Some think it's great, the enthusiasm and youth and such..but I don't know. A bit strange I think. I think it shows how far they had to go to get a trainer.

He is young, engergetic, a winner and free from Cork politics. It's also a fresh and far-sighted appointment.  

But I don't know.

[Reillers]

something which not even KK players have

yeah took years for tommy walsh, henry and cha to find their feet. Keep dreaming reillers. You'd swear this was the greatest team of all time with some of the shite you spin. As if no other team in the world was close knit. Do us a favour.

No team has been through what this Cork team has been through. KK have nearly the entire season to get their team together, Cork don't.

And no, no Rebel I'm not, Danny boy, it's sometimes alike it because I'm pretty sure at the team I agreed with his oppinion at the time and was too lazy to put it into words myself.

[realrebel]

ok reillers sound
but u say why go outside the county for a trainer
they havent he lives in ballygarvan and works in carraigaline so i dont see him as a outsider
just because he played for kerry in the past
so what i cant see anything wrong with it if he is good enough then why not