No ‘ulterior motive’ in squads

CORK County Board chairman Jerry O’Sullivan says there is “no ulterior motive” behind the existence of development squads in Gaelic football within the county, despite suggestions at Tuesday night’s county board meeting that those squads would replace the county senior footballers if they withdrew their services at the conclusion of the National Football League.

O’Donovan Rossa delegate Noel Kearney said at the meeting: “There are fellows in clubs being asked to train with so-called development squads who will replace the footballers when they go out. This is happening.”

However, chairman O’Sullivan strongly rejected those suggestions yesterday.

“There is no ulterior motive,” O’Sullivan said. “These development squads have been in existence for many years, since my own time as coaching officer with the board.

“The purpose of the development squads is to expose promising young players to high-quality coaching in hurling and football with a view to developing them to the stage where they are able to compete at senior intercounty level.”

When the dispute between the 2008 Cork senior hurling panel and the Cork County Board erupted last October over the reappointment of manager Gerald McCarthy, the board was able to field a development squad for the St Colman’s anniversary game in Fermoy in late November.

The development squad has subsequently provided the bulk of the players who have lined out for Cork in the league this season.

The Cork senior footballers — currently in warm-weather training in Portugal — have pledged to withdraw from action after their last NFL game this year if the current impasse is not resolved to the satisfaction of the football and hurling panels.

Meanwhile, GAA President Nickey Brennan says a “tweaked” version of last week’s peace proposals, tabled by President-elect Christy Cooney and director-general Pauric Duffy, may help resolve the row.

“We’ll continue to probe and prod and keep in touch with people, and who knows?” said Brennan yesterday. “We still believe we put a lot of effort into the document that was presented and perhaps that or a tweaked version of it may offer something at the end of the day, but we don’t know.

“We are continuing to keep abreast of the situation and are continuing to keep in touch with the various parties as you would expect us to do.

“Right now the situation is as of last night and the county board meeting — it hasn’t moved on from there. Croke Park has no magic formula it can come up with in terms of breaking the log-jam at this stage.”

Brennan added that the dispute needed to be put in context.

“Clearly the positions that people have taken, if there is going to be any resolution people will have to step back from the very strong positions they have taken at this point in time.

“Indeed somebody or a number of people will have to say ‘enough is enough’. This thing needs to be considered in the wider scheme of things.

“There’s a lot happening around the country at the moment that is not GAA related but is putting a lot of people under pressure and maybe we need to put things in context.”

“I suspect maybe the whole Cork situation has been taken out of context in terms of other issues happening in the country at the moment.”

However, GPA chief Dessie Farrell says the dispute may have “gone beyond” a compromise.

“I’d imagine it’s a situation where one side will be victors,” said Farrell. “We’ve been very supportive of the stance taken by the panel and we’re anxious to see it resolved.

“It’s amazing to watch the twists and turns in this because initially there was a lot of criticism of the players’ stance. The 10- or 12,000 people that marched in Cork and now the meeting with the chairmen was one of overwhelming support.”

Farrell added: “If the democratic wishes within clubs are properly expressed, you will see the players back this year. Ultimately it will be the clubs that make the final decision and Sunday night was one step in that process.

“There seems to be a consensus among clubs in Cork that there needs to be reform. Now obviously those feelings have to back to the clubs in Cork and motions tabled.

“If the sentiment from the club chairmen is anything to go by, there seems to be a lot of support for the ‘08 squad. There may be an opportunity to remedy big issues that have been at play within Cork GAA over the last number of years.

“There is a great deal of frustration coming from clubs in that they believe there is a democratic deficit. This is a big issue for Cork GAA — how come the county board called an emergency meeting last Friday night and club delegates hadn’t been mandated or weren’t aware of the issues that were coming up? That has annoyed a lot of people.”