By John Martin
The weird and wonderful saga that is the 'Late 2008 Cork Hurlers' Strike' continues to take as many twists and turns as the River Lee with still no sign of settlement on the horizon.
The fielding of a development squad by Gerald McCarthy in a charity match two weeks ago certainly struck a blow for the 'management side' - to use a trade union term - and will no doubt give the younger players from last year's panel plenty to ponder over Christmas.
One week after the charity game against the St Colman's College Select, one of the more bizarre developments (even for this yarn) took place when the 2008 Cork squad got together for a training session at Mallow.
It was a baffling move by the players, and due to the fact that newspaper photographers were invited along to capture the frost-bitten Rebels going through their paces, it was clearly a statement of some sort.
Just what that statement is however isn't exactly clear. Conspiracy theorists have already credited the move to the brilliant mind of Frank Murphy, king of the GAA loophole.
With the ink barely dry on the Congress motion to ban county squads from collective training during November and December, Frank has orchestrated grounds for a strike, contrived a walkout from the players which allows last year's squad to train on their own, and in the first week in January there'll be a swift and amicable resolution to the current impasse, and Cork's training schedule will be six weeks ahead of every other team in the country.
Pure genius. McCarthy will also have had the added bonus of having a look at up-and-coming talent in the county in the St Colman's game.
If only.
The situation in Cork seems no closer to solution. Nickey Brennan said this week that Croke Park had no intention of getting involved. And to be fair, what could he do? Cork County Board have appointed a manager; that manager has named a team, and as far as Brennan is concerned, Cork will be fielding a team in the National League in February. The fact that 20 or 30 better hurlers exist in the county is of no concern to Brennan. If Croke Park were to get involved now, it would be akin to them asking John McIntyre why he didn't include Alan Kerins in the Galway squad for 2009.
The public slanging at least has stopped but relations between all parties have hardly been sweetened. Rumours of phone-calls to players asking them not to play for McCarthy prior to the St Colman's game have further soured the situation.
Whether or not this is true, McCarthy's squad of 31 had very little county experience from recent minor or under-21 sides. There were also several notable clubs such as Na Piarsaigh, Killeagh, Newtownshandrum, Erin's Own, Castleyons and Cloyne which had no representation.
A split among clubs would escalate the stand-off further, but going by past history it is unlikely that Cork clubs are going to suddenly form into breakaway factions. They do however have the capacity to help towards a solution. Club AGM season is upon us and the Cork clubs owe it to their county to have a full and open debate about, not just the players' strike, but all the side issues that are thrown into the mix as well.
Chief among these is the lack of underage development by the Cork County Board. Grassroots critics of the board in Cork will tell you that their county's success is by virtue of sheer weight of numbers. It is simply because they have more clubs and more players than any other county that they have reached four All Ireland finals this decade, but that their underage system is a shambles.
Gaels in Antrim and Dublin may disagree with that synopsis, and a look at the stats would suggest that there must be at least some degree of cohesion within the county at juvenile level.
Cork have reached the last five Munster minor finals, winning four of them, and losing only to a much-vaunted Tipperary side in 2007. They may have lost out on the All Ireland stage, but how many Kilkenny players who won the McCarthy Cup in September had All Ireland minor medals? Two or three at most.
Regardless, this and the other issues that are frequently used to beat the board need to be thrashed out by the Cork grassroots, and brought to Frank Murphy by the clubs. For whatever reason, clubs have shown a reluctance to conduct business in this way before, but with the full glare of the nation's media on every move within the corridors of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, this is surely the time to start.
Closer to home the Ulster final has been fixed for June 28 as a stand-alone fixture. Credit where it's due - the Ulster Council have had their share of criticism for treating the province's hurling showpiece as an afterthought in the past.
