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

The Cork hurling panel of 2008 put on a united front in the Maryborough Hotel last Monday night, but is there any way back from here? Emmet Moloney writes...

It’s time to stop this nonsense in Cork. The escalation of the dispute is now moving well beyond the playing fields. It is in the clubs, pubs, schools, streets and, worst of all, the homes. GAA folk in Cork are split – and it is very close to being down the middle. This means tempers are frayed and you can trot out your own Civil War politics cliché here. But the GAA in Cork is being riven.

That’s the truth of it. In Cork right now you are either for the players or for Gerald McCarthy. Somebody needs to look down the road. And quick. The potential for long-term bitterness is already upon us. Clubs are already being forced to nail their colours to the mast. Those that have provided players for Gerald McCarthy’s 2009 squad are looking warily at clubs that haven’t. Certain clubs feel obliged to support their striking stars and in the middle of all this are the development squad, now called the “current Cork team”.

There are now 30 or so young players getting their chance to represent Cork in senior hurling, 30 players who it is fair to say would never have got their chance had this mess not happened. What will happen to them if the dispute is resolved? “Good luck, lads. Thanks for the effort”? How will they be treated on the Cork club fields when they play for clubs in championship later on in the year? Will they be barracked and abused? Will they ever see the red jersey again?

The 2008 panel are 30-strong. And strong they are. Anyone who thought this episode was over when Gerald McCarthy did the media rounds last week saying he was now concentrating on the current Cork squad was naive in the extreme. This will never be over while Gerald McCarthy is in charge of the Cork team. The depth of feeling in the county is now reaching Saipan levels.

Whichever side you are on is irrelevant. It should never have come to this. And for this, the Cork County Board stand badly indicted. This split in Cork GAA is their legacy. They have engineered this crisis and positively nurtured it. They knew exactly what would happen when the appointment of Gerald McCarthy was ratified in the manner it was. They knew that the players would not play for Gerald again and after “enduring him” for two years (as the players feel they had done), they expected him to fall nobly on his sword.

There were constant troubles throughout the McCarthy reign between the squad and the manager and his record on the field was poor. Yet he was reappointed post-haste. A week of reflection back then would have gone a long way to preventing this. But the County Board pressed on.

Forget for a second the “democratic vote” by County Board delegates. That night those delegates did not know what they were voting for. The County Board clique did. They were voting to antagonise the players into action. Now we have the entire county taking one side or the other. This conflict will leave a bitter taste in many mouths for a long time to come.

No matter what way this goes now, it will end in tears for Cork GAA. Gerald McCarthy’s reputation has been shredded. Frank Murphy’s reputation has been shredded. The players are reduced to ill-conceived press conferences and they are in danger of being remembered, not for the All-Ireland medals won, but those that could have been won. They too have been badly advised. No-one will emerge with credit.

The Cork supporters will naturally fight among themselves. There has been and will be ill feeling and forms of abuse thrown by all sides. Club matches will assume an edge and mark my words – there will be violence on and off the field that will be directly attributable to the strike. I am not a drama queen. It will happen. Some player will be offended by something said to him on the field and as sure as night follows day, there will be a row. You don’t think that drink hasn’t fuelled squabbles in pubs already?

And Croke Park doesn’t want to get involved? That’s another one in the eye for the Cork County Board. This mess is hurting the association. It is dragging the association through the mud in arguably the biggest GAA county in Ireland. It is pitting club against club. Of course Croke Park should get involved. We must ask why it won’t. The National League starts this weekend and we should be talking about that. Instead, the Cork hurlers are featuring on the six and nine o’clock news on a Monday night. How did it ever come to this?

My views are known. Gerald McCarthy should never have been reappointed. His two years of non-achievement should have ensured that - in this day and age of high expectations. Five championship losses and not even a Munster final appearance? Two more years for Gerald? Who are we kidding?

I keep hearing the words “player power” as if it is a new phenomenon. As a neutral, did you shout for Waterford in last year’s All-Ireland final? Of course you did. Yet that squad ditched their manager mid-season and players themselves phoned leading figures in the game to plead with them to take over the management of the team. Before they even ngot to Davy!

The 2008 Cork hurlers have thrown themselves at the mercy of the clubs and their chairmen. Good luck with that, lads. Like any good “cute hoor” knows, you should only subject yourself to this process if you are sure of the result. The striking hurlers have made bad move after bad move in their PR battle and I suspect they are not entirely sure of their reception at the hands of the clubs. They have been out-manoeuvred before and it could happen again. Their salvation ultimately lies with the supporters. Should they disband and walk off into the sunset, the ripples will haunt Cork GAA for years to come. But we could say the same thing about Gerald and Frank “disbanding”? Could it be any worse?

Thank God for the National League!

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