Uncertainty over process used to select Cork coach Holland

DOUBTS have been raised about the procedure used to appoint Teddy Holland as Cork senior football manager in November, with the appointments committee established to find a manager coming under scrutiny.

As agreed by a meeting of the county board in October, the committee to find a replacement for outgoing manager Billy Morgan was to be composed of four representatives of the executive and three club delegates. The four executive members picked for the committee were county chairman Mick Dolan, secretary Frank Murphy, treasurer Pearse Murphy and development officer Declan Walsh.

The three club delegates were Bob Honohan, Finbarr Hennessy (Dohenys) and Kieran Hegarty (Clonakilty).

However, though Honohan is a member of Bishopstown GAA club, he is not a club delegate but the county board’s central council delegate.

Though he is not a member of the executive of the county board, his appointment still means the clubs were short one representative on the appointments committee, with two delegates instead of three.

The row over the change in the system for appointing intercounty managers has led to the stand-off between Cork’s hurlers and footballers and administrators in the county. That change was intended to facilitate clubs in addressing the serious issue of fixture congestion within the county, but ironically it now appears that those clubs were not represented appropriately on the committee.

Though a technicality, the oversight means the appointments process may have to be revisited. A county board meeting is scheduled for tonight and while this issue is not on the agenda, it could be raised under any other business.

With last week’s peace talks under the direction of Labour Relations Commission chief Kieran Mulvey and GAA director-general Paraic Duffy having stalled, any avenue which may lead to a resolution is likely to be explored fully. Given that the players reiterated last Sunday night that they are unwilling to play for Holland, if the appointment committee were to be declared invalid it would offer both sides a way out of the conflict with neither being seen to ‘back down’.