GAA stand-off - Time for sides to end the farce

THE old advice about what to do when you find yourself in a hole — stop digging — should resonate loudly with both sides in the humiliating and embarrassing dispute that has divided the GAA in Cork.

The poll indicates that a little over half of the people surveyed — 56% — support the players while not even half that number — 23% — opposes their position.

The players will be more comforted by these figures than the officials running county board but as three months of negotiations have not found a solution to this impasse it is unlikely that either side will be moved by these figures.

Neither side should take the finding as an endorsement of their position if that assessment is to lead to further intransigence.

Teddy Holland, who must be wondering what he

ever did to deserve such unwanted attention, will take little comfort from the revelation that almost two thirds of the people he hoped to represent by managing the Cork football team believe that he should stand aside in an effort at ending the conflict.

Each side believes passionately in their case but their intransigence, in what started as a petty row rooted in the players’ victory in the hurlers’ strike of 2002, shows them in an increasingly unflattering and amateur light.

Behaving like tin-pot despots and petulant children in a row that undermines the common purpose so dear to everyone in the GAA reflects badly on an organisation that has made huge strides in recent years.

It’s time each side took a good look in mirror and asked themselves a few honest questions about their motivations. It’s time they ended this farce.