Emmet Moloney writes for the 'Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

The latest power struggle down by the Lee will finally tear Cork GAA to pieces. A process that has been brewing since 2002 is at boiling point. Emmet Moloney writes.

It was 1998 that all this started, you know. And we in Clare must take some of the credit. In the Munster semi-final that year, Cork and Clare met in Semple Stadium. It was a cauldron. The Rebels had convincingly beaten the Banner in a league semi-final six weeks previously. In some minds they were favourites to regain Munster. In the last 15 minutes they were simply blown away. Physically blown away. In one telling vignette, Brian Corcoran was surrounded by three Clare players – all of them smaller than him – and muscled out over the sideline while in possession. Clare scored nine of the last 10 points in the game to win by 0-21 to 0-13.

Literally all of that Cork team went on to win the 1999 All-Ireland. By now, they were members of gyms and physical preparations were seriously stepped up. Never again, they vowed, would they be physically dominated.

Since then, they have had to strike twice to retain this kind of input. By 2002, the value of the ’99 win was wearing thin at county board level. We had strike one – the historic first of the walkouts. Nearly 100% of the sporting public stood behind the hurlers – socks were worn around the ankles and the GAA was never the same again.

Or was it? Strike two was said to be a football-inspired affair, with the hurlers showing solidarity. Not for a second. Strike two was about Gerald McCarthy’s first appointment. There was less public support this time and an agreement reached meant the players now had an official say in the appointment of managers.

But this strike had gotten dirty. Seán Óg called for Frank Murphy’s head in a newspaper interview and that could never be taken back. Frank, the secretary of the county board, had lost the battles of 2002 and 2007, but Frank, as his longevity proves, never loses the war. If Seán Óg and his cohorts do shuffle off to self-imposed retirement, Frank has won and can rest again on his throne as the cutest of them all.

So Frank railroaded the committee that included the two players’ representatives into putting Gerald McCarthy forward for another two years. The two players were completely ignored, views neither sought nor listened to. No other candidate was discussed or even mentioned. And what’s Gerald’s record at the helm like? Five championship matches have been lost in two years, not even a Munster final reached. Kilkenny have powered past them. Two more years? Who are we kidding here?

Nine senior players went to McCarthy on the morning of the county board meeting (to ratify his re-appointment) and told him they did not want him to stay. These were the views of almost every single player on the panel. But on he goes.

Let’s call a spade a spade here. Frank Murphy and most of the county board are fed up with Donal Óg and his men. They want them out and they want to go back to the good old days of players putting up with everything and anything. And they are prepared to park Cork’s chances of winning an All-Ireland for three or four years to do it. And they are prepared to put Gerald McCarthy through serious humiliation to get it done. That’s a nice county board to have running the affairs of hurling.

The players only want to win. They endured two years of Gerald McCarthy’s patently unsuccessful methods and, not unreasonably, now feel someone else should be given a chance. They have a right to this view and their commitment demands some involvement in this decision.

These are serious men and these hurling times demand serious men on and off the field. The Cork players know what it takes to win All-Irelands. They have walked the walk. All they want is respect. This means a voice when it comes down to deciding what is best for Cork hurling.

Those who think players should just do as they are told and put up with anyone who is appointed to manage them are living in the dark ages. The players have ownership today. And rightly so. All-Irelands are won with everyone pushing in the same direction: players, management, physios, sports psychologists, kit men, sponsors, video analysts, etc.

It’s all about edges and the Cork players want every edge going. Too big for their boots? Those are big boots.

I’m on the side of justice here. Frank Murphy and his committee drove a coach and four through the deal reached last spring by Kieran Mulvey. They completely ignored the spirit of the agreement. They have willfully caused this current mess. Almost gleefully so.

They’re out to get Donal Óg. They’re out to get Seán Óg. They’re out to get them all. In getting the job done, they have thrown mud in the face of Gerald McCarthy, deemed expendable in the pursuit of the players. Irony is in rich supply down in Cork. McCarthy and the players want to win All-Irelands. The county board have no immediate plans.

As a Clareman I have a dilemma here. To me and most right-minded non-Corkonians, they have enough All-Irelands won. But I can’t revel in their discomfort because it isn’t right. Good people are being shafted.

When I hear this nonsense about the players having too much power today I always laugh. Players always had power, some decided to use it, others didn’t know how. Does anyone think that Munster would have won two Heineken Cups without the strong off-the-field influence of players like Anthony Foley, Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell? Is it wrong when these guys are involved in the decision-making process?

I’ve never heard a chorus complaining about player power when the Munster rugby team is concerned.

Hurling men cannot sit idly by and let a generation of Cork hurlers retire en masse. Not on the back of this. To my mind, the players have never been more right. They made a deal and the other side did not stick to it. An open and shut case.

Come in Frank, your time is up.

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