Cork board motion on hurling job wins vote

THE Cork County Board executive motion to appoint three executive members and three club delegates to select the county’s next senior hurling manager was last night rubber-stamped by the delegates at a board meeting. The motion received 70 votes and defeated five other motions that were proposed on the night by various clubs.

The closest challenger to the executive motion was by the Passage club, which received 52 votes for their proposal that specified county chairman Jerry O’Sullivan and board PRO Ger Lane would sit on the appointments committee along with three club delegates.

A request from Passage club delegate Matt Aherne for a second vote to be taken with the four lowest motions being eliminated was turned down by O’Sullivan. Aherne criticised that decision as ‘totally undemocratic’ and insisted that procedures as used in a political election should have come into play.

But O’Sullivan responded by saying that “a straight vote was how things have always been done by the board and the decision is final”.

The vote will see the powers of selecting the next Cork senior manager return to board members after a three-man independent appointments committee consisting of former Cork hurling legends Jimmy Barry-Murphy, John Fenton and Denis Coughlan had previously selected Denis Walsh in March 2009.

The three club delegates elected were Pat Horgan (Midleton) representing the senior clubs, Michael Byrnes (Ballyhea) representing the premier intermediate and intermediate clubs, and former Cork senior football selector John Corcoran (St Mary’s) representing the junior clubs.

The county board executive will select their three representatives to sit on the committee. The executive motion will allow the new manager, who will be appointed for a three-year term, appoint his own selectors and recommend backroom personnel for approval.

An amalgamation of a Douglas, St Nicholas and UCC motion which requested that a representative from the current senior hurling panel sit on the committee was amongst those defeated, while a Blarney motion that sought a reprisal of the system used to select Walsh failed to receive any support.

A motion from the Dohenys club which called for this year’s U21 hurling management team, headed by Ger Fitzgerald, to be appointed, was withdrawn at the start of the meeting.

Delegates were also informed at the meeting that the outgoing Cork minor football manager Brian Cuthbert is not set to go forward for consideration for another term.

Cuthbert’s two-year tenure came to an end after Cork’s recent All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Dublin and after serving for two years as a county minor football selector before that, he has decided to opt out.

Meanwhile, Limerick attacker Kevin Downes is still hoping to prove his fitness ahead of next Saturday’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland U21HC semi-final against Galway as he aims to overcome the broken hand he sustained during a recent club game.

“I must see the specialist again this week and I’m getting physio on it. I got the bang against Cork in the Munster final but it was really in a club game two days later that I did the damage to it,” he said.

“I’ve just been doing basic fitness work and catching balls. I’m trying to keep the eye in as much as I can but I still haven’t been able to hold the hurley properly.

“Getting an injection for the pain wouldn’t be ideal and isn’t the kind of road that you want to go down. You could do a lot of damage for yourself that way. I’ll have to discuss it with the doctors.”

If Downes is ruled out, Patrickswell player Mark Carmody will be in pole position to start after grabbing 0-3 when introduced in the Munster final victory over Cork. Limerick are also without defender Cathal McNamara as he has a shoulder injury, with Brian Cleary and Barry O’Connell potential replacements in that sector.