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Are players willing to renege on commitment not to strike again?
THE Cork hurlers would have been aware that they weren’t going to win any popularity contest with their stance on Gerald McCarthy’s recent appointment as team manager for another two-year term.
As part of the binding arbitration process drawn up by Labour Relations Chief Executive Ciaran Mulvey which led to the resolution of their dispute with the County Board last year, the players had agreed that there would be no more strikes. But they have now intimated that they are prepared to renege on their commitment, and are determined not to play for Cork if McCarthy remains at the helm for another two years.
So, public support for the hurlers’ reaction to McCarthy’s appointment is bound to be a little thin on the ground. McCarthy, for his part, is adamant that he is not going to bow to player power, and he has told the players he regards it as a great honour to be asked to continue as Cork hurling supremo.
Curiously, McCarthy initially refused to accept the position when approached by the County Board following the decision by John Allen not to remain on in the wake of Cork’s defeat by Kilkenny in the 2006 All-Ireland final McCarthy cited work, family and club commitments as the reasons for his rejection of the offer to fill the post in the first place. But he was eventually persuaded to change his mind and it’s anyone’s guess as to what prompted him to relent. Perhaps a factor in McCarthy’s reluctance to return to inter-county management with his home county, after spending five seasons involved with Waterford between 1997 and 2001, was the success enjoyed by the Cork team in the preceding four years.
That made it a very intimidating assignment, and it meant that McCarthy would almost certainly be regarded as having underachieved with the team unless Cork extended their sequence of All-Ireland final appearances to five in 2007. That didn’t happen, although it’s generally accepted there were mitigating reasons for Cork’s elimination by Waterford in an All-Ireland quarter-final replay last season, not least being the fall-out from the Semplegate affair.
Weakened by the suspensions meted out to three key players resulting from an investigation into the infamous fracas prior the commencement of the second half of the Munster championship clash with Clare, Cork went under narrowly to Waterford in the provincial semi-final. As a consequence, they were forced to participate in the All-Ireland qualifiers, and the team, having been involved in four championship games in a very short space of time, simply didn’t have enough left in the tank after the quarter-final clash with Waterford went to a replay.
Nobody considered laying the blame for Cork’s failure to collect any silverware in 2007 at McCarthy’s doorstep. And equally it was felt that Cork’s defeats at the hands of Tipperary in Munster and Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final this year reflected a diminution in the capabilities of a team that had a lot of mileage on the clock rather than any managerial deficiency.
Maybe so, but if McCarthy shared that contention, it’s hard to fathom why, considering he had to be coaxed into accepting the job two years ago, he now finds it so attractive that he is hell-bent on holding on to it, even in the face of opposition from the players to his reappointment. It’s no secret that the players weren’t entirely happy when the County Board chose McCarthy to replace John Allen for 2007. It wasn’t that they questioned McCarthy’s credentials, because he had an impressive track-record, having been involved in a coaching capacity with the Cork team that won the All-Ireland against all the odds in 1990, and transformed Waterford from no-hopers into genuine championship contenders during his stint in the Decies. But the players had been hoping for continuity in the backroom set-up put in place following their initial strike in the wake of a disastrous championship campaign in 2002.
Under the stewardship of Donal O’Grady, Cork reached the All-Ireland final in 2003, they went all the way in 2004, and, with John Allen promoted from selector to team boss after O’Grady vacated the hot seat, they retained the McCarthy Cup in 2005 before qualifying for another final in 2006.
It was a remarkable turnabout in Cork’s fortunes, and it clearly vindicated the stance taken by the players six years ago. No doubt, it owed much to the fact that all involved with the team had worked in complete harmony, hence the players’ preference that a replacement for John Allen should be found within the existing regime.
Ger Cunningham and Patsy Morrissey, who had served under O’Grady and Allen, put their names forward for the manager’s job, but their applications were ignored as the County Board relentlessly pursued the reluctant McCarthy. And one assumes it didn’t sit too comfortably with the players when McCarthy opted not to retain the services of any of the selectors involved during the back-to-back All-Ireland wins in 2004 and 2005.
Once the deal was done, however, it seemed reasonable to conclude that the players would have no difficulty in working with the new management team, and that McCarthy – an iconic figure in Cork hurling circles would automatically command their respect. But over the past two seasons, rumours repeatedly surfaced regarding the players’ discontent with the tactics that McCarthy wanted to impose on them.
From the outset, McCarthy had indicated that he favoured direct hurling over the short-passing possession game which had been the team’s trademark prior to his installation. Whether the team’s performance suffered on that account is a moot point. But perhaps it’s worth noting that Cork’s most compelling championship display this year was produced in the second half of the game against Galway when, reduced to 14 players following the dismissal of goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack, they had no option but to resort to the style of play favoured by McCarthy’s predecessors O’Grady and Allen.
McCarthy has always insisted that there was a great spirit in the squad since he took the helm, and, prior to the All-Ireland semi-final clash with Kilkenny, he vehemently refuted the suggestion that the management and players weren’t totally united. But the players have now made it clear that they don’t want to be managed by McCarthy, and the County Board would surely have been aware of that before the decision was made to extend his tenure.
That no other potential candidate was considered resulted in the two players on the seven-man committee chosen to select the Cork hurling boss abstaining when a vote was taken to put McCarthy’s name forward for ratification by the Board delegates. But the question has to be asked if Cork’s record over the last two championships is sufficient to cause the Board to regard McCarthy’s stewardship as such a resounding success that he should be returned unopposed for 2009.
Predictably, the Board delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal to retain McCarthy, and, now that he has been democratically elected, the ball is firmly back in the players’ court. In contrast to last year’s dispute – which saw the players rail against an attempt to remove the power of picking their own selectors from the county team managers, and later against the appointment of Teddy Holland, – public opinion would appear to be siding with the Board this time.
As long as that situation obtains, and there is no guarantee it won’t change especially if the footballers were to lend their support to the hurlers, the likelihood is there will be no backing down on the Board’s part in relation to McCarthy’s appointment. So, the stark choice facing the hurlers at the moment is either to row in behind a manager they have no confidence in or to bring the curtain down on their inter-county careers.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that relations between the players and the Board have been severely strained since the strike in 2002. The players won that battle, and they won last year’s one as well, but it now appears as if the Board are ideally positioned to win the war.
Maybe that’s the priority for the Board, but there could be a high price to pay as, in the event of the entire hurling squad opting out, it could take quite some time before a team capable of mounting a serious bid for championship honours is assembled on Leeside.