CORK HURLING CRISIS: THE 2008 Cork hurling panel last night asked representatives of the county's clubs to go back and vote on a motion of no confidence in Cork hurling manager, Gerald McCarthy, in a bid to resolve the current impasse.

The panel had extended an invite to the county’s 239 senior, intermediate and junior clubs to meet them and around 142 clubs sent delegates with around 600 people packing the Maryborough House Hotel in Douglas.

The 2008 panel received a standing ovation when they entered the room for the meeting which lasted around two and a half hours before club representatives were asked to go back to their clubs and vote on two motions.

The first motion that the players asked the club representatives to vote on was similar to one proposed by Cloyne at a recent county board meeting that all county board delegates would be allowed discuss issues of significant importance with their clubs before voting at county board meetings.

The second motion which the players asked the club representatives to consider was one of no confidence in Gerald McCarthy and they asked club representatives to come back with the results of the club vote for another meeting in the Maryborough House Hotel in two weeks’ time.

Some 25 senior clubs, 46 intermediate clubs and 71 junior clubs were represented at the meeting and the junior clubs were especially vocal.

It’s understood that the representatives from many junior clubs – who are represented at county board level by two divisonal delegates – were annoyed at the fact that divisional delegates had voted on the recent motion of confidence in Gerald McCarthy without consulting them.

Afer the meeting, Tom Kenny, John Gardiner and Donal Og Cusack expressed their satisfaction at the turnout and said they would respect whatever decision the clubs made in relation to the two motions that theyve asked them to consider.

Cusack admitted that it was uncharted territory for the clubs but stressed that they would wait the response of clubs in a fortnight’s time to their request to discuss and debate the two motions.

The striking 2008 panel members had earlier slammed reports presented to delegates at a Cork County Board meeting on Friday night which suggested the players were willing to go back and play under McCarthy as coach.

Delegates were told in a statement from McCarthy and read out by county secretary Frank Murphy that incoming president of the GAA Christy Cooney and director general Paraic Duffy had indicated to him (McCarthy) “the willingness of the striking players to play for him”.

But the 2008 players strongly rejected this on Saturday with both Gardiner and Cusack going on several radio programmes to categorically deny that the players had ever agreed to play under McCarthy during discussions with Cooney and Duffy.

“We never agreed to go back and play under Gerald McCarthy – we are actually incensed and outraged at some of the stuff that’s being put out today in the papers and in the media because it paints us in a bad light because we never agreed,” said Gardiner.

“As far as we’re concerned and as far as we understood, those meetings were private and confidential and it should never have been leaked out . . . there were a lot of things discussed at those meetings and we went down every avenue to try and get a resolution.

“But, and I’m repeating myself here, at no time did the 2008 panel agree to come back and play under Gerald McCarthy,” said Gardiner to Trevor Welch on Cork’s 96FM on Saturday evening.

Cusack went further and suggested that reports that the 2008 panel had agreed to come back and play under McCarthy were an attempt by some to try to undermine the players’ efforts to meet club chairmen and win support for their case.

“What’s happened here is outrageous and it was obviously stated with a very specific purpose and I think that purpose is to undermine us as players and to cause confusion among the clubs.”