Murphy signals departure date

Frank Murphy’s official involvement with the GAA is nearing an end.

The man who filled the position of full-time Secretary of the Cork County Board and is widely regarded as one of the most powerful men in the Association, indicated at last night’s meeting of the Board that while he has had his contract renewed, he does not intend staying in office beyond 2011.

Club delegates were informed that Murphy’s contract included a clause which allowed for it to be renewed. The understanding is that this emerged from a recent review of the contracts of all the full-time employees of the Board was carried out by a sub-committee, including Chairman Jerry O’Sullivan and Vice-Chairman Bob Ryan.

According to official sources, in his personal case it was concluded ‘in a very cordial and fruitful manner.’

It was reported that he has accepted an extension of contract to September 2010 and following this there will be a further review. However, there were suggestions last night that he might not exercise an option to continue for a further year.

A graduate of UCC and a teacher in the Sullivan’s Quay CBS school before being appointed one of the first full-time Secretaries in the GAA in December 1972, he came to administration via the Blackrock club, where he filled the role of Secretary.

His late mother was a member of a well-known Ballinlough family while his late father came from Kilkenny and was associated with the James Stephens club.

Apart from being a long-time delegate to the Munster Council, over the years he filled a variety of executive positions at national level, including Chairman of the then Games Administration Committee. He was also one of the driving forces behind the introduction of what was known as the ‘back door’ system in the All-Ireland senior hurling championship (in 1997) when the losers of the Munster and Leinster finals were re-admitted.

A recognised authority on the rules, in more recent times he chaired the Rule Book Task Force which carried out an exhaustive review of the official rule book. And, as has been well charted, his expertise in this area has served the county and individual players well in terms of mounting successful challenges to proposed suspensions.

He was an accomplished and respected hurling referee at inter-county level, handling the All-Ireland finals of 1971 and 1981, as well as six National League finals (between 1971 and 1986) and 10 Cork county senior hurling finals.

The year 1971 was a special year for him, because apart from refereeing the All-Ireland final between Tipperary and Kilkenny, he handled the League decider and the Munster final (both involving Tipperary and Limerick) as well as the inaugural All-Ireland club final between Roscrea and St Rynagh’s.

His involvement at the head of administrative affairs in Cork over four decades featured a number of controversies, such as the suspension of the Cork senior football team for disobeying a Board directive on playing gear in 1976. But he also presided at a time of considerable success on the playing field. In all he was involved with 14 All-Ireland winning hurling teams (four senior, five Under-21s and five minors as well as two Munster SFC titles.), the highlight being a selector with the three-in-a-row hurling team of the 70s.

He was a senior football selector and when Cork refused to play extra time in a National Football League quarter-final against Dublin in Croke Park in 1987. As a result they were thrown out of the competition.

As part of the executive which came in for a storm of criticism over player welfare, which led to the first strike in 2002, and, more recently, the fall-out from the appointment of Teddy Holland as football manager and re-appointment of Gerald McCarthy as hurling manager this year, he was subjected to personal criticism from a few players and sections of the media.