No Surrender to County Board

28th Jan 2008

Imreoirí Chorcaí: Táimid Leo
Finbarr Barry

On Saturday night talks between Cork's GAA players and GAA officials broke down without agreement. The decisive issue is that the players want the football manager appointed by the County Board to resign.

Teddy Holland won't budge though. Like a sprinter refusing to come back to the line after a false start, he knows it's his only chance to strut the sidelines in the bainiseoir's bib.

It beggars belief how he can stand defiant in the face of such utter rejection by the squad he is to take charge of. If the County Board back him, there will be suspicion and questions over every team selection he makes. They will ask "has Canty been dropped because he spoke out against Holland". More uncertainty is hardly welcome.

The County Board don't want any more of this

WARNING SIGNALS
The players warned the county board before Holland was appointed that they were backing themselves into an irreversible situation if they appointed a manager under a system that reversed what had been agreed after the 2002 strike.

The players pointed out in writing that whatever manager was appointed after Billy Morgan's departure that they would not support him because it was not completed under a process that they subscribed to.

They did this in advance of a manager being appointed so that their position would be seen to be consistent and not dependent on the personality installed. Their motivation comes from the widespread belief that numerous potential candidates for the job of Cork football manager ruled themselves out because of the new rule preventing them from choosing their own selectors.

INCORRECT
A minority of twits texting local radio stations seem to believe that Cork's GAA players want to pick their own manager. This is very clearly not the case and it takes a myriad of misunderstandings to believe it could be true.

The players simply want the new manager to be allowed to pick his own selectors without influence from the Cork County Board. They believe that this independence enhances their chances of winning an All-Ireland title. It's a simple equation.

IN THE KNOW
Donal Óg Cusack, as negotiator-in-chief for the players, is in the best position to know what's required to do the job. He, more than any other player is renowned for his dedication to hurling, his notorious training regimes and penchant for the use of any method or technology to give him an edge are well known.

The rest of us, without a mantelpiece strewn with medals and accolades, can only guess what it takes to be the best.

How anyone could doubt Cusack's pride is beyond belief.

GACH UILE LIATHROID
Cusack's mysterious red eyes during big games were the result of a trial run of contact lenses that highlighted a moving sliotar slightly better than clear lenses, giving his brain a few extra micro seconds to identify the exact position of the ball's trajectory.

His double-wonder save during last year's drawn game with Waterford smacked of the crucial "extra mile" he is prepared to go, making him by far the most competent and reliable goalkeeper of modern times.

SOLID
It is this rock-solid belief in ensuring the best possible preparation that drives him and other like him to achieve the best for Cork. Greatly influenced by Roy Keane's "fail to prepare, prepare to fail" mantra Cusack and his troops seem to care little for ill informed public opinion that can sometimes be harsh and spiteful.

Instead he focuses on the greater good, rather than the stereotypical "lie down and shut up" players bred in such numbers, north of our borders.

THE DUCKS BACK
Spending years with his back to often hostile terraces, the taunts seems to roll off the Cloyne man like water on a duck's back. The naïve and ill-informed who issue pious statements about "lack of pride in the jersey" and "no commitment" are grossly ill-informed. The truth is that today's physically superior GAA players would demolish those of eras gone-by - a visual manifestation of the new commitment required to play at inter-county level.

Canty: Holland must go

When these winge-bags get up at 6am to fill their hot water bottles and return to the bed in the middle of February, Cork players will be hoping out of bed and heading for gyms around the county to get a session in before work.

When you slump on the couch to watch TV they are doing sprints in a dimly lit field. When you bemoan the rain beating against your window on a bitter Sunday afternoon in March, they are struggling in it - laying the foundations for the summer ahead.

FEAR
The GAA have, always, relied on the player's fear of the man in the suit. Pipe up and you're off the team. Fall out with the wrong board man and you're out the gate. We all know the stories and the names attached to them in Cork.

The tide is turning however and players are no longer as vulnerable to the old weapons. It's pitiful to watch the county board continually pulling the same old trigger only to find their bullets bouncing back at them.

If Cusack can face down scorching sliotars with just a hurley to protect him, a bunch of cranky old men in suits with biros will be the last thing to strike fear into his red raw rebel heart.

Imreoirí Chorcaí: táimid leo.