Murphy’s power came from weak colleagues

IN a fast food restaurant at the weekend with my wife and kids, the sound coming from the PA system was an extremely annoying, repetitive, three note sound byte, a pathetic, synthetic piece of drivel masquerading as music, of the type popular at the modern drug driven ‘raves’, where kids dance themselves into a stupor.

Is that what kids want to hear, what a fast food chain feels would be popular, acceptable nowadays? I don't know, didn't give a damn anyway; it was driving me crazy, this needle stuck loop, round and round and round and round. Went to the counter, asked them to stop it, and they did, with a smile.

It had been driving them mad, it had been driving the several people who thanked me on the way back to the table mad, even the one table of teenagers seemed relieved, signalled with a smile and nod. But why did no one else take action? Believe me, this was not the first time in my life I stepped forward, won't be the last. But why does it always have to be me, or someone like me? Why do so many people put up with so much that annoys them, without complaint, without taking action?

Frank Murphy would have taken action, in that restaurant. It's one of the things I admire about him, one of the many, that he is decisive, strong. But it's funny the way life works. The very people who have indulged the Cork County secretary over the years, those who have claimed skeletons in closets, but were always too peppered to put any flesh on dem bones, are now the very people hoping like hell that he will be brought down in this current crisis affecting Cork hurling. But hold on a second lads, let's examine some of the work of Frank Murphy.

Thirty years ago, the Blackrock man took over the reins of administration in Cork. During that period, Pairc Ui Chaoimh was developed and paid for, Flower Lodge was taken from under the noses of Irish soccer, to become Pairc Ui Rinn, a modern, cosy, floodlit, mid sized stadium, also fully owned; there are millions in the kitty, a steady stream still coming in and that's just on the structural side.

On the organisational side, even though Cork has more clubs, more teams than any other county in the country, is a dual sport county also with real possibilities every year, its championships are run off in more timely fashion than almost any other county in the country. Much of that, and in fact I would go so far as to say most of that, is down to the genius, the vision, the courage, the administrative ability, of one man Frank Murphy.

Outside of the county, on the provincial or national floor, the best represented county on any question you care to name, whether it's getting games fixed for Pairc Ui Chaoimh, thorny disciplinary questions involving its own county or individual players, is Cork. Again, the influence of Frank Murphy.

The wonder is that he was never snapped up by one of our top industrial companies for big money, but the probability is that he would have turned down any offer anyway, such is his devotion to Cork. This current crisis then, and the way he is portrayed in it, even if his leathery toughness won't allow him to show it, has to be tearing him apart.

The question is does he deserve the bad press he has been receiving, in this affair? Sadly, the answer is yes, in large part.

Frank Murphy is an administrative genius, no question, his total mastery of even the most minute GAA details making him practically a dictator, in the cloak of democracy; no one comes even close to knowing as well as he, what's going on (the recent Cork debate on the Strategic Report a case in point, where item by item, Frank had to explain to the delegates what was being proposed). He is not, however, a master of people management, of man management, has left a trail of bruised and bitter people in his wake at national and provincial level. The story is the same locally.

In this dispute with the players, he has seriously miscalculated the depth of their anger, the strength of their resolve, and most of all, their unanimity. In large part, that has led directly to this crisis

But blame? A powerful genius can do wonderful things, but allowed run unchecked, can also do seriously not so wonderful things. I've said this before, don't fault Frank Murphy for being a powerful individual; I fault the weak people around him who allowed that power develop. The music is still playing lads, who's next to the counter?