Rebels runs the rule over Croker

As the debate on Croke Park intensifies ahead of next weekend’s Congress, attention has turned to Cork, and whether trenchant opposition to Rule 42 change will continue at a County Board meeting on Tuesday. Michael Moynihan and Colm O’Connor sampled the mood of club officials.

NOBODY roots for Goliath, and the most successful county in the GAA can attest to that. However, Cork's status as one of the most powerful branches of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael is not wholly due to the county's haul of 100-plus All-Ireland titles on the field of play.

Cork's ability to punch its weight in committee-room tussles sometimes chafes with outsiders when the county's footballers avoided sanctions for fielding an extra substitute in the replayed Munster football final of 2002, for example, it was held up as a prime instance of Cork's nous with the GAA rule book.