McCarthy admits he does not have backing of Cork hurlers

[orangeman]

Interesting article in the Irish News today if anyone can post it.

[heffo]

Courtesy of Brendan Crossan in the Irish News:

http://www.irishnews.com/irishnews/597/5764/2009/1/30/608930_370795743901Cork8217.html

THE first thing that struck me about the 30 Cork hurlers that posed for pictures in several newspapers on Tuesday morning was their bristling youthfulness.

The huge majority of them were in their early 20s. Fresh-faced. So committed to one another and unbending over this God-awful strike business.

For they walk the righteous path. They have truth on their side. As a point of clarity, we're talking about a game of hurling here. Not Gaza. Not the Argentine Mothers of the Disappeared. Not child slavery in Burma. So don't expect John Pilger to appear on the Leeside any time soon.

Once we were all 20-years-of-age. Radical and bullet-proof. Once we picked fights when we were 20. Some of them good. Some of them bad. Once stubborn resistance was a virtue. A badge of honour. Compromise was a dirty word, practised by the weak, and scorned by the strong.

The 30 Cork hurlers refusing to play for their county are strong young men. You sometimes

wonder how the GAA got to this point. The negative energy, the ugly brinksmanship, ultimatums, claims and counter-claims, and the 'withdrawal of labour' because Gerald McCarthy has been retained as Cork's hurling manager.

Whatever happened to hitting a small leather ball and out-smarting the man next to you; that untouchable sense of freedom only a green field can yield.

Everything is confused, political and torturous. The new era decrees that the players get a vote. They want respect. No longer are they prepared to work within the confines of a tyrannical system.

Maybe the most recent strike action by the Cork hurlers is merely a microcosm of relations within the GAA.

Maybe the stubbornness that exists on both sides of this dispute is an epoch-defining moment in the Association's history; a necessary process that will purge the tyrants from our Games.

This weighty issue down in the Rebel county might in some grand way serve the common good and finally end generations of

administrative mismanagement across the country.

For a brief moment in 2002, Roy Keane, another Rebel, believed the common good would, in some way, be served by his World Cup finals walk-out in the Far East.

Keane was correct. The facilities in Saipan were a joke. The training pitch was like a car-park.

Mick McCarthy, according to Keane, was an even bigger joke. Some Irish players weren't

prepared to put the hard yards in. So Keane, who was at his absolute peak, walked. He walked the righteous path.

He had his principles. There were too many bluffers to keep him on board. You have to understand this was Roy Keane we're talking about here, a legend, not some insignificant upstart in the Irish squad.

Consequently, the FAI produced the much-vaunted Genesis Report. Really, it didn't change a lot.

Six-and-a-half years on, Roy Keane has expressed regret about not playing in a second World Cup finals. Once deemed a badge of honour, his stubborn resistance was his ultimate weakness in Saipan.

If he had his time again, it's probable he would have bitten his tongue and played for a second-rate manager, and appeared in the World Cup.

Nobody cares about Roy Keane now. At the time we supped pints, debated his reasons, and

supported his passionate stance. And then we moved on.

Keane was the one who paid the ultimate price. It was one of the saddest spectacles watching the Cork man make his international comeback a few years later under Brian Kerr.

That boat had sailed. The legs weren't the same. Your career lasts five minutes. Five minutes, and it's over. And the next bright, young thing comes along.

The Cork hurlers can rightly talk about the Mulvey arrangement being a sham – a vote rather than a process. They can rightly take issue with parts of Frank Murphy's stewardship.

It is their prerogative to pick holes in Gerald McCarthy's coaching and devalue him, and then be surprised at the man's 'audacity' to answer them back in the press.

Was the bungling Gerald McCarthy merely an innocent bystander when Cork ripped Galway apart in an unforgettable game of hurling last summer?

Was it Gerald McCarthy's fault Cork collapsed against Kilkenny? Where does the blame lie?

If the Donegal footballers acted like the Cork hurlers, then they would be calling press

conferences up in Ballybofey and standing shoulder-to-shoulder over the county board's broken promises.

Kevin Cassidy would be reading out 3,000-word statements about tyranny within Donegal GAA

circles.

Remember, the Donegal players were told that they would be consulted over the appointment of a new manager. They weren't. They slated their county board in the press and moved on. They didn't mobilise. They wanted to play football for Donegal at any price.

To claim victimhood, as the Cork hurlers appear to be doing, and adopting language reserved for the dispossessed and disenfranchised is a dangerous policy, specially in times of economic stress in Ireland.

In such difficult times, we cling to our hobbies and sports ever more tightly. For they represent our escapism. But football, hurling and soccer are only important for as long as the game lasts.

The Cork hurlers are not the great agitators of our time. Although they have merit in their argument, their actions are resented by many people. This is hurling, after all. A game. Nothing more.

Nothing less.

What the 30 Cork hurlers are doing is ultimately self-defeating. If they don't win this debate, they are wasting some of the best days of their lives. They have already wasted a winter. Let's hope they don't come to regret their decision later in life.

You can imagine an RTE documentary 15 years down the line, and some of the Cork strikers, a little greyer and wiser perhaps, tentatively expressing regret about their decision to lay down their hurl in protest in 2009.

As they play Russian roulette with their sporting careers, the camaraderie felt among the 30 players at this time must be hugely comforting.

But when you retire and you lose that 20-year-old revolutionary zeal, all you're left with are your medals and memories.

In life, some things are worth protesting against. Gerald McCarthy staying on as Cork hurling manager is not one of them.

[The GAA]

Couple of questions for those opposing the hurlers:

1) On what evidence do you claim that they have lost the support of the hurling public in cork?

2) Why do you believe for second that motions through the clubs would have succeeded in replacing the ccb and put proper structures in place when numerus attempts at this in the past failed?

[heffo]

Couple of questions for those opposing the hurlers:

1) On what evidence do you claim that they have lost the support of the hurling public in cork?

2) Why do you believe for second that motions through the clubs would have succeeded in replacing the ccb and put proper structures in place when numerus attempts at this in the past failed?

1) In response to question 1 - who are the 'Cork hurling public' and why should the opinions of non-members of a membership based organisation like the GAA, matter a damn?

2) You don't know until you try - meet the officers in advance and do like a I suggested yesterday..

[The GAA]

1) In response to question 1 - who are the 'Cork hurling public' and why should the opinions of non-members of a membership based organisation like the GAA, matter a damn?

These people apparently:

Its called due process Reillers and they decided to go on strike again rather than even explore the option of going through the clubs. A strike should be a last resort, not a first one. No-one on this messageboard alienated the players from the public, they did that by themselves. Thats the bottom line.

2) You don't know until you try - meet the officers in advance and do like a I suggested yesterday..

And you believe that has never been done?

[The GAA]

With respect to Brendan Crossan, that article is written by a soccer lover from west belfast. as much as he has come to like hurling over the last few years, having had to cover it for his job, he will never love the game nor understand the passions it stirs.

[dowling]

GAA do you think if the GPA had an offical role in this situ it would be helpful?
Surely there are good hurling clubs in west Belfast.

[theskull1]

Thats quite a good article of Crossans and your ad hominem argument against him doesn't hold because his main arguments are regardless of the sport. Reillers has never liked me stating to him that he is too young to realise that what the strikers are doing is the road to no town, but in time himself as well as the striking players will have massive regrets about how they have represented themselves in this dispute. Time changes a man and yourself and Reillers will be no different than the rest of us in that regard.

[The GAA]

I'm not sure the GPA are the best people to get involved. certainly the CCB wouldn't welcome it and it'd be ammunition for people, er those on this thread, who wish to blame the GPA for the debacle. i think someone from the world of sport - a mick galway or a larry thompkins - should talk to both sides and come to an agreement on playing the year out and getting a guarantee of action in the autumn.

on brendan crossan - and i particularly don't like attacking the tone of an article (agreeing with a lot of it) because of the author - but i know crossan and he's a fine journo. he loves the soccer and has to cover gaa to pay the bills.

there are a lot of good hurling clubs in w belfast

[imtommygunn]

In relation to your questions GAA -

1. How can you quantify what the cork "hurling public" think? I would love to see it properly quantified but all anyone appears to go on with this is hearsay.

2. So can the board not be overthrown at all? So has every attempt been futile? There's 110 people who voted on that board - it's a lot of people who can't all be corrupt.

Most people on here don't understand what's going on - myself included. It is very obvious all is not well with your board. You boys make it sound like some kind of fascist regime though so it's hard to believe it's that bad given there should be some element of democracy for these people to be where they are.

[The GAA]

Thats quite a good article of Crossans and your ad hominem argument against him doesn't hold because his main arguments are regardless of the sport. Reillers has never liked me stating to him that he is too young to realise that what the strikers are doing is the road to no town, but in time himself as well as the striking players will have massive regrets about how they have represented themselves in this dispute. Time changes a man and yourself and Reillers will be no different than the rest of us in that regard.

I absolutely doubt that

[The GAA]

In relation to your questions GAA -

1. How can you quantify what the cork "hurling public" think? I would love to see it properly quantified but all anyone appears to go on with this is hearsay.

2. So can the board not be overthrown at all? So has every attempt been futile? There's 110 people who voted on that board - it's a lot of people who can't all be corrupt.

Most people on here don't understand what's going on - myself included. It is very obvious all is not well with your board. You boys make it sound like some kind of fascist regime though so it's hard to believe it's that bad given there should be some element of democracy for these people to be where they are.

Very hard to quantify the cork hurling public in fairness. for that reason, talk of having won or lost the public support is futile. who knows? probably ttendances at national league may be an indicator?

i don't believ there are corrupt people within the CCB. certainly i believe there are self serving and power hungry elements but that does not make them bad people imho. as has been well documented, frank and the top table's hold is not easily explained. ways of influencing clubs vary. he has helped a lot of people in his 30 years and holds a lot of favours up his sleeve. help comes in many guises and that's all i'll say on the matter. attempts to remove him before were crushed, and i mean crushed, and those who supported them felt the reprecussions for many years.

i am not from cork.

[turk]

I think the hurlers have some valid grievances. Gerald McCarthy is a decent man but I think he had (by accounts) lost the dressing room  at the end of last year. The players since have no confidence in him. However, their timing was that he was re-appointed democratically before they announced they would not play.

It's a big stance to make, but as i see it, it is a stance that doesn't allow for much compromise or negotiation with the board. From that perspective it is hard to see it progressing positively for the players.

[orangeman]

The main obvious difficulty is that both sides, particularly the strikers have left little or no room for compromise. Mc Carthy has always finished up by saying that the door is open - I suppose he would have to say that even if he didn't mean it but the strikers have now said, done more than enough to ensure there is no road back for most if not all of them.

The article by Crossan even if he's a soccer man, covers the dispute well in my opinion and it would apply to most sports - there is passion in every sport, every code in GAA nand whilst Cork supporters might argue that they're more passionate than everyboydy else, that doesn't entitle the strikers to press the nuclear button each time a row breaks out.

Out of curiosity, can you all declare what side you were on in the Roy Keane issue ?


Keane or country

[stephenite]

1) In response to question 1 - who are the 'Cork hurling public' and why should the opinions of non-members of a membership based organisation like the GAA, matter a damn?

These people apparently:

Its called due process Reillers and they decided to go on strike again rather than even explore the option of going through the clubs. A strike should be a last resort, not a first one. No-one on this messageboard alienated the players from the public, they did that by themselves. Thats the bottom line.

Cop out - answer the question if you want an answer to your original question, who are the 'Cork Hurling public'?