Farrell to meet with disaffected Cork hurlers

GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell is to meet with a number of the Cork senior hurling squad disaffected with their treatment by the county board.

The Cork GAA scene has been embroiled in controversy for the past two weeks after senior players were critical of the current set-up and claimed they were intimidated against joining the Gaelic Players’ Association.

“I think I will be meeting with them,” Farrell said last night.

“Nothing has been confirmed yet, but I am hopeful that we can sit down next week.”

Farrell prepares for the meeting with rumours of player power action abounding. But he says that strongly worded comments in the association’s latest newsletter is nothing new.

“No, I think the mood amongst players has been militant and that was evident at the agm. We are still involved in talks with Croke Park and the PAG and if the result is futile then we will have to reconsider our position.”

But does this involve strike action?

“It has been mooted and while a lot of players are reticent and reluctant to go down that route, if all else fails it is a possibility. But we are optimistic that we can resolve this issue without such actions.”

Meanwhile, Jarlath Burns, head of Croke Park’s players’ committee, has expressed surprise at the militant tone adopted by Dessie Farrell in the latest GPA newsletter, where he tells players to prepare for “drastic action”.

Burns, who has undertaken a number of meetings with Farrell and the GPA in an effort to further thaw relations between the players’ group and Croke Park, said there was no indication the talks were dead-locked.

“I am very surprised at what Dessie said. We are still awaiting the minutes of the last meeting we had with the GPA, which was three weeks ago, and we have yet to arrange another meeting.

“As far as I was concerned, there was no dead-lock.”

While Farrell’s comments may add further fuel to this raging fire, Burns believes that progress was being made between Croke Park and the GPA. However, since the two groups last met, more controversies have arisen.

Firstly, Donal O´g Cusack sparked a revolt in the Cork hurling camp by airing his views on their season of turmoil in public. Cusack’s views were later endorsed by much of the Cork panel.

A few days later, Donegal county board chairman Danny Harkin made the startling admission that he believed players should be compensated to the tune of 300-400 a week for loss of income.

“While these issues have come up since our last meeting, they are separate side issues. Of course, they are important issues, but they are issues which can be included in the greater whole we are working towards,” Burns said.

The stance taken by the GPA will be looked on dimly by GAA authorities, particularly if the feeling around HQ was that progress, however small, was being made in the meetings between Burns and Farrell. However, the GPA were only reflecting a groundswell of opinion among its members.

Some players have expressed privately that the GAA is only a few months away from its first major players strike, and there has been speculation that GPA members might be asked to withdraw from the International Rules series.