GAELIC GAMES CORK HURLING MANAGEMENTTHE CORK County Board last night voted to offer under-21 manager John Considine and his selectors temporary charge of the county senior hurlers in the aftermath of Gerald McCarthy's resignation earlier this week.
The meeting also voted against the proposal to ask former All-Ireland winning manager Dónal O’Grady to act in the caretaker capacity. When put to the meeting in a secret ballot O’Grady was defeated 77-39. His name was raised by the executive, who had been informed by last year’s senior captain John Gardiner that the former manager was willing to take on the role on a temporary basis.
Whereas the man who guided Cork to the 2004 All-Ireland after taking over in the wake of the initial dispute between the senior hurling panel and the county board in 2002 had obvious credentials there was felt to be resentment at his role in the players’ awards scheme organised by the Gaelic Players’ Association as well as his criticism of his St Finbarr’s clubmate McCarthy’s reign.
One delegate expressed the opinion that O’Grady would not be “a unifying figure”.
Considine, an All-Ireland winner in 1990, has plenty of experience at underage level having coached the county minors. His selectors include other well-known former hurlers Tom Cashman and Tony O’Sullivan as well as Paddy Daly and Denis Ring.
Last night there was no word on whether the under-21 management were willing to undertake the task but if they are, they will take charge for the next two matches, against Clare and Limerick. Cork are currently adrift at the bottom of Division One of the National League with no points after three matches involving selections that were effectively fifth- or sixth-choice teams.
Other business at the meeting centred on the process to be adopted for the selection of the new management team that will take Cork into this year’s Munster championship, which begins in just over two months with a match against defending champions Tipperary.
A number of proposals on this process must be brought back to the Cork clubs and next Monday another county committee meeting has been scheduled to make a decision on how the new management will be appointed.
The county executive favour the scheme proposed by the Croke Park delegation of GAA president-elect Christy Cooney and director general Páraic Duffy, which was part of a settlement proposal turned down last month. That proposal would hand over the power to make the appointment to an independent three-man committee appointed by Croke Park.
Meanwhile, Cork footballers, whose involvement in the dispute raised the prospect of a withdrawal from county activity at the end of the National Football League, have made four changes to the team that beat Fermanagh for the trip to play Laois.
Ray Carey, Paul O’Flynn, John Hayes and Kevin O’Sullivan come into the team in place of Paudie Kissane, Nicholas Murphy, Fintan Goold and Daniel Goulding.
Paddy Bradley returns to the Derry team for the National League Division One game against Dublin at Parnell Park tomorrow night.
Matty Forde returns to the Wexford team to play Meath on Sunday in one of two changes from the side that lost heavily to Kildare last week. Forde missed the last match because of injury. Brendan Doyle comes in at centrefield at the expense of Eric Bradley.
Kerry seniors David Moran and Tommy Walsh are named in the county’s team for tomorrow’s Munster under-21 championship meeting with Cork, as the county begins its defence of both All-Ireland and provincial titles at the grade.
The Connacht under-21 match between Mayo and Galway in Charlestown tomorrow has contributed to the postponement of Mayo senior manager John O’Mahony naming his side for Sunday’s trip to face Division One joint leaders Kerry in Tralee.
- The St Martin’s club in Wexford is holding a coaching conference on Monday next, March 16th in the Talbot Hotel. The theme is local sporting excellence and a broad range of speakers have been assembled from the county’s highest profile sports figures.
Billy Walsh, manager of the successful Ireland boxing team at last year’s Beijing Olympics, developer and youth soccer coach Mick Wallace, rugby international Gordon DArcy and All-Ireland winning hurling manager Liam Griffin will all speak.
TYRONE(SF v Westmeath): J Curran; Seán O'Neill, Justin McMahon, M Swift; D Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan; K Hughes, E McGinley; R Mulgrew, A Cassidy, O Mulligan; N Gormley, S Cavanagh, Shaun O'Neill.
CORK(SF v Laois): A Quirke; R Carey, N O'Donovan, A Lynch; N O'Leary, G Canty, M Shields; A O'Connor, P O'Flynn; C McCarthy, P O'Neill, J Hayes; K O'Sullivan, M Cussen, D O'Connor.
DERRY(SF v Dublin): J Deighan; K McGuckian, N McCusker, SM Lockhart; P Cartin, B Mc Goldrick, SL McGoldrick; F Doherty, E Muldoon; E Lynn, P Murphy, P Young; Paddy Bradley, E Bradley, B McGuigan.
WEXFORD(SF v Meath): A Masterson; D Walsh, P Wallace, B Malone; C Morris, A Doyle, D Carter; B Doyle, D Fogarty; PJ Banville, S Cullen, C Byrne; C Lyng, P Colfer, M Forde.
KERRY(Under-21F v Cork): T Mac an tSaoir; P O'Connor, S Browne, S Enright; J Lyne, M Moloney, R Horgan; D Moran, S Hennessy; A Greaney, G Sayers, JB Spillane; A O'Donoghue, T Walsh, BJ Walsh.
