Cork hurling in deep state of crisis

HURLERS ON STRIKE: When the Cork hurling team paraded before the National League final last May with socks down and jerseys hanging out it seemed a petty protest. Any discontent, said the county board officials, would be quickly forgotten come the championship.

Instead it was Cork's championship that was quickly forgotten, and the protest was merely the start of the deepest crisis ever to hit the state of hurling in the county. As things stand the players have thrown down their hurls, leaving the split with the county board as a gaping chasm.

Details of the fallout started to drip-feed from the players after their exit from the championship at the hands of Galway. Goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack and the 1999 All-Ireland winning captain Mark Landers began a series of revelations that came as a shock not just in Cork, but to hurlers (and footballers) all over the country.

Central to the crisis was what the players perceived to be the poor treatment from the county board, ranging from the limited issuing of gear to limited access to gyms. There were also complaints about the warnings sent to younger players that joining the Gaelic Players Association would jeopardise their chances of playing with the senior team.

Landers revisited one incident yesterday when he joined six other panel members in Cork's Imperial Hotel. "One bad experience was a trip to Derry, and was just a sign of the things to come," he said. "We were told on the Tuesday night that we were travelling at 1 p.m. on the Friday, by coach. The players felt it was a little unreasonable to ask them to go back to their employers on a Wednesday morning, and ask for the day off on the Friday."

As it turned out the bus didn't leave until 4.30 p.m. The trip itself was described as a disaster, taking eight hours to complete. One player also got ill on route.

On top of that there was no dinner made available, only sandwiches. They still arrived late to the actual game. When a player got injured only the Derry doctor was available, and then the player started bleeding again on the way home. In the end he had to be taken to hospital by his parents.

According to Landers, under the management of Jimmy Barry Murphy two years previous the team flew up to the same venue. "We just feel things have taken a step back in Cork," he added. "And these were the sorts of things that led to the drastic action now.

"I mean, I don't think it's unreasonable for a player to ask the county board to provide him with access to a gym facility within reasonable proximity to where he's living. We are aware of a situation in Clare where all the players, and their girlfriends, are being looked after in terms of a gym. I don't think it's unreasonable for a county that has won more All-Irelands than anyone to ask for similar.

"We feel at this stage that, having entered into negotiations with the county board three and a half months ago and gotten nowhere, we were left with no option based on the attitude of the executive.

"It's also been said that the executive told board members that the talks with us were harmonious at the moment. Well if that was the case we wouldn't withdraw our services. There are basic minimum standards that are required for inter-county players with the level of commitment that they are giving the game these days."

Running parallel to the dispute was the search for a new Cork manager. Bertie Óg Murphy announced that he was stepping down in late September after one year in charge, although he refused to get drawn into the controversy over the treatment of players.

At the same time, it appeared that the unrest of the players had been compounded by the decision of the Cork selectors not to follow Murphy's suit. Three of the four selectors - Pat McDonnell, PJ Murphy and John Meyler - remain in place as they are half-way through a two-year term while Blackrock, as county champions, have yet to officially reaffirm county secretary Frank Murphy as their nomination to the selection committee.

The players previously stated, however, that they never saw it as their right or function to interfere with the choosing or workings of selectors or managers for hurling in Cork.