Ex Cork managers divided on strike prospect

Two former Cork managers are divided over the Rebel hurlers and footballers’ decision to threaten strike over the current impasse regarding inter-county selectors.

Former hurling boss John Allen, the last man to lead the county to All-Ireland glory in 2005, believes that the County Board have gone down the wrong road completely in changing the format whereby a manager can choose his own selectors.

However, football icon Larry Tompkins believes that a clear compromise would be to get a manager in and then allow him to have some say, without giving him full control over the selectors.

“Maybe there’s a case where you have got a manager saying he wants to have two guys he knows with him and then let the Co Board nominate two of their chosen people,” said Tompkins.

“There’s a time when the players maybe have to take a step back as well, and just think about playing football rather than getting too involved in the nitty gritty of picking managers or selectors.”

In a hard-hitting exclusive column in today’s Evening Echo newspaper, Allen outlines his reasons why the board must step back from the decision taken a few weeks ago and let the very successful process where the manager chooses his people continue.

“It does not surprise me that the Cork hurlers and footballers have come out so strongly against the board’s decision to pick the selectors from now on.

“For too many years the Cork hurlers and footballers have been poorly treated. For too many years, players who showed any modicum of opinion were quickly discarded and for too many years there’s been a them and us situation.

“There had, pre 2002 days, always been far too much interference from the Co Board on match days.”

Allen believes that the board is determined to try and claw back some of the power that they had before the hurlers took their stance five years ago and sought and won far better conditions for themselves.

“Therein lies the crux of the latest problem. Power and the repossession of power is, in my opinion, the reason that the County Board decided to rush through a motion that would put them in a position of control again.”

Allen, one of Cork’s greatest servants at all levels of the game, went further and suggested that the incoming manager of the Cork football team should be chosen by a panel of people that would include a former player, a former manager, a club representative, a County Board representative and a total outsider.

“These people would be chosen by the senior clubs representatives. Maybe that’s a bridge too far, yet but worth considering.

“For now, though, I hope that common sense prevails and that the County Board will reconsider this ill thought decision.”

Article courtesy of The Evening Echo newspaper