Croker trio hunt new Rebel boss

GAA Director General Pádraic Duffy, President Nickey Brennan and incoming Uachtaráin Christy Cooney are the men tasked with recommending a successor to Gerald McCarthy as Cork senior hurling boss.

The trio are believed to have set a three-week deadline before communicating their decision to Cork County Board.

The involvement of the three Central Council representatives in the process — the one favoured by 72 club representatives at Monday night’s meeting — comes at the worst possible time for the leadership in terms of preparing for Congress next month, but it is being given top priority because of its urgency and its national importance.

The understanding is that Duffy will play a central role in the procedure, in much the same way as he did in presenting the proposals contained in the seven-point document circulated on February 19 which McCarthy and the county board accepted but which was turned down by the 2008 squad.

At that time, Duffy was accompanied by president-elect Cooney and Feargal McGill, who is Duffy’s assistant in Croke Park. GAA President Nickey Brennan wasn’t directly involved, but played an important role behind the scenes.

The expectation is that Brennan and Cooney will spearhead this process, with Cooney also playing an important role — not alone because of his position but for the reason that he knows the Cork scene intimately. At the same time he will be expected to remain detached from the process in so far as being seen to be independent.

The view within the county is that the Croke Park grouping won’t find it easy to identify manager/coaches who would have the respect of the players — because several potential candidates are not interested in taking the job.

Already, Donal O’Grady has ruled himself out, while it’s understood former manager Bertie Óg Murphy (who guided Sarsfields to success in last year’s county championship) has indicated privately he would not be interested either, and interim boss John Considine also firmly ruled himself out.

Tomás Mulcahy, nowadays best known as an analyst on The Sunday Game is being linked with the position and the name of Ger Cunningham keeps cropping up. Currently involved with Ballygunner in Waterford, he was reported to have been the players’ choice at the time Gerald McCarthy was appointed two years ago.

Another name suggested for a management role at that time was Newtownshandrum coach Patsy Morrissey. However, whatever about any possible interest on his part now, he would be ineligible. He is currently Gaelic Games Promotion Officer in UL, and, as a consequence of the policy recently adopted by the Central Council, anybody in such a full-time position in the GAA (such as ex-Kerry manager Pat O’Shea with the Munster Council) is precluded from becoming involved in county level management.

It’s not clear if the Central Council delegation will follow up on some of the proposals contained in their original document, where for instance, it was recommended that a person designated by Croke Park would review “best practice” in other counties in the matter of panel preparation and player/management interaction.

While the view has been espoused that Cork County Board’s acceptance of the document was tantamount to handing over control of their affairs in this area to the Central Council, Chairman Jerry O’Sullivan made it very clear at the time that there were elements in it which they were quite unhappy with. He explained they only agreed “to take the pain” at that time because of their anxiety to see the impasse resolved.