It's In The Right Hands

4th Nov 2008

It's In The Right Hands

Cork City FC 2
Glentoran 1

Hard fought and much deserved.

In many respects Cork City's victory over Glentoran in the All-Ireland Setanta cup was a bigger result than the U.S. elections - for Ireland at least. The only major silverware brought to Leeside this year was the Munster Football title when Graham Canty's men thrashed the Kingdom in near-apocalyptic weather conditions at Pairc Úi Chaoimh.

So The Rebel Army's journey through financial adversity not only brought relief to the club's coffers to the tune of €150,000 but aptly demonstrated that age-old grit and determination so often associated with Cork sportsmen and women.

Cork City's players don't just grab their crest in a fake show of pride like the many multi-million pound blow-ins at Premiership clubs. When these young men signed for City, through their own Cork heritage and life experiences, they came with Cork pride pre-installed.

This isn't just gleeful poetic post-match prose and a list of clichés from the book of told-you-so's. The proof is on paper and would still count had Glentoran gone home with the silverware - the staff's efforts and more importantly sacrifices would simply seem more in vain had we lost last Saturday night.

These men were asked to take huge cuts in their salaries to help steady the ship - unprecedented calls for players who could, in theory at least, easily harden their professional skins and walk away with justifiable excuses about mortgages, family and common sense.

Would you accept even a 15% pay-cut from your employers to prevent them sinking or would you jump ship? Few would.

Cork City Football Club: it's in the right hands.

ARE YOU WATCHING CORK GAA?
An aspect of Cork City FC that warms the heart and has ensured its longevity is the club's continuous positive relationship with its fans. Although the commercial realities of the club must come first in the professional era, fans at the Cross are acknowledged as much as possible with an official supporters club, priority ticket sales, coaches for away games, fans forums and many other pro-supporter services.

"Cork City football club - is in the wrong hands" sung the crowd in powerful unison during the club's lowest ebb in August but in reality it has been in the right hands all along as fans who ply the turnstiles with cash demand common sense.

Would you half your wages for this? They did.

The parties involved in the current "crisis" in Cork GAA must not bury their heads in the sand with regard to the views of the Cork public and those who dedicate their time and money to support their team, buy the jerseys, books and endorsed products.

At the same time angry supporters must not appear like the uninformed Walmart-moms who blindly supported Sarah Palin because they simply felt a certain way about her - shouting ill-thought out slogans about wasted pride and player ingratitude contributes nothing.

The situation is complex, albeit a touch farcical, and needs time to be resolved - preferably behind closed doors.

This year it seemed there was hardly a quote from any Cork GAA personality to acknowledge the massive swathe of fans that roared on the Rebels through thick and thin. Any comments that do emerge, often in long heart-on-the-sleeve diatribes in Sunday newspapers or via anonymous text messages on radio, tend to lean negatively towards the words or actions of a minority of hurlers-on-the-ditch and not the type of fan, young and old, who can hardly sleep on a Saturday night with the excitement of seeing his or her county in action.

Cork City
Scorers: Murray (57mins), Kearney (75mins).
Starting Line-Up: McNulty, Horgan, Murray, Sullivan, Danny Murphy, Kearney, Gamble, Darren Murphy, O'Connor, Behan, Dudfield.
Substitutions: Ryan for Kearney (90mins). Subs not used: Devine, Forde, Lordan, Cambridge, Kiely, Kelly.

Glentoran
Scorer: Neill (14mins).
Starting Line-Up: Morris, Nixon, Neill, McCabe, Ward, Fordyce, Halliday, Scullion, Simpson, Taylor, Hamilton.
Substitutions:Waterworth for Scullion (63mins), McGovern for Halliday (70mins), Fitzgerald for Fordyce (77mins). Subs not used: Taylor, Boyce, Gardiner, Black.

Referee: Ian Stokes (Dublin).