Remedy must be found for Cork malaise

SHAKESPEARE’S Hamlet proclaimed: “Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark”.

Now fast forward a few hundred years, change a couple of words something's rotten in the statelet of Cork.

Let's take the hurling situation first. A week ago, Donal Og Cusack came out and did his own Roy Keane, launching a broadside on radio against the senior hurling team management set-up, and against his own county board. Unlike Keane however, the Cork goalkeeper waited until after the dust had settled on the championship before coming out with his grievances. Many of those to whom I've spoken believe that was a good thing. I don't.

Let me make it clear I admire Donal Og immensely for the courage he has shown and I applaud what he has done. But I also believe he left it too late.

As a few of you might suspect by now, I am not one of those who doesn't believe in rocking the boat. In almost every situation where things are going wrong, the time to act, I believe, is now, immediately. before things get out of hand completely. The problems within the Cork senior hurling camp developed early this year, much earlier than either of the championship defeats. That was the time to deal with them. This wouldn't necessarily have meant going to the media, it could have been addressed and sorted in-house.

But herein lies the problem. In an interview with RTÉ on Monday, after last Sunday's All-Ireland senior football semi-final loss to Kerry, Cork captain Colin Corkery kept referring to a 'lack of respect' shown to him by referee Brian White (and more about that anon). That lack of respect for players isn't confined to referees, it's pervasive within the GAA.

Their opinions, their feelings, are not respected within officialdom generally, and worse, sad to say, the same applies with many of the fans. 'Who the hell do they think they are?' is the line; 'why don't they just shut up and appreciate the fact that they have the honour of wearing their county jersey? Spoiled ungrateful bastards'. This is the reality and it's a problem that has to be faced head-on by the players. How?

By standing up for themselves, coming together early every season and deciding on some basic ground rules. It's not just about money, expenses and loss of earnings, it's about lost respect, about being treated as the least important element in a sport, a business that wouldn't exist without them.

The most basic demand is that players should be treated with personal respect. Anyone crossing that line on the management team (two-way street, by the way), should be rebuked. If it persists, then, just as would happen to a player not cutting the mustard, the axe should fall. All other problems, gear, gym, expenses again, the players should unite everyone in the panel, either passing through or permanent, and set out their stall from the start.

With the hours being put in there, GAA inter-county training grounds have now become a workplace, and these are basic workplace rights. There are of course other problems in the Cork set-up, the five-man selection committee being the most obvious, allied to the fact that four of those are imposed on the manager people with whom he wouldn't necessarily be compatible.

There are those also who believe the county secretary should stick to administration, a job at which he excels. But contrary to popular opinion, I think Frank Murphy is getting a bad rap on this one. It's not his fault that he was elected as a selector.

On the football, I think it's time for a change of management. Six years, no All-Ireland, not a good record, but that's not the only reason. I don't like the tone of this present Cork football team.

It's a moan, an annoying whine, specifically at referees but it can spray in all directions, especially at the media. And that tone is set at the top. Now I've been lambasted for saying this before, but I'll say it again. Pulling, dragging, 'attention', as it's euphemistically called, is part of the game. If it's done intelligently, the officials won't spot it, at least the referee won't. Kerry are masters at it and Cork were given an object lesson last Sunday. Do you think the Kerry corner-backs would have given Russell and Cooper the latitude they got from Cork? As a forward, you learn to deal with such 'attention', learn to dish out a little of your own.

It may be an unsavoury part of the game, but if it's all good clean fun you want, the Aquadome is still open.