'Culture of conflict needs to be addressed,' says Brennan

GAA President Nickey Brennan has called for the culture of conflict which is creeping into the Association to be addressed, after recent incidents including the Cork players/County Board dispute have failed to be resolved.

Brennan was speaking at the launch of the Ulster Bank Sigerson Cup at host college IT Carlow.

The Kilkenny man strongly urged that action needs to be taken "sooner rather than later" before more disputes develop.

"It is an issue for society in general that we tend to be more confrontational with everything. I spoke about it in relation to aspects of the educational system, because I was in an educational establishment, where students and teachers tend to be challenging," he said.

"A teacher's life is a tough one now because they are been challenged on all fronts. It's something that has probably crept into the GAA as well where there is generally a challenge.

"I wasn't particularly referring to the Cork situation, but I am saying in general that tensions seem to be growing more and more between the player and officials and that's at all levels right down to the club - even at underage level.

"It's something that is taking up an awful lot of people's time when they could be devoting their time to other more productive activities. It's something we have to face up to."

Brennan is hopeful that a resolution to the impasse between the Cork County Board and its players can still be found, even though the crisis seems to be deadlocked.

"The matter will be dealt with by the CCCC. I made it quite clear that Cork's involvement in the leagues was hanging by a thread and those were the words I used in the statement last week.

"That remains the same and time is running out. There is a very, very narrow window now to make something happen on the matter. This is something really that has to be sorted within Cork at this stage."

The GAA President may have taken a back seat publicly as new Director General Paraic Duffy and LRC chief Kieran Mulvey took the front line in talks, but Brennan has been frantically working towards a solution behind the scenes.

"Albeit we had an involvement in it (nationally), and while I may not have been seen to be at the front line, you can take it that I wasn't sitting on my backside behind the scenes."

Brennan was heavily active yesterday and was on the phone for six hours, talking to both sides to try and find a resolution to the impasse.

"To be quite frank about it, it has taken up an enormous part of my time and hopefully in the next few days this thing might be cracked."

He also believes that a charter, similar to the one which is in the pipeline for managers, needs to be drawn up for players and officials, to ensure respect is maintained on all levels.

"I think there is a strong case also for having a charter for players and officials and how they respect each others roles.

"Whether we like it or not, we have all put inter-county players and the pressure of games on a pedestal now and we are demanding and expecting an awful lot from them," Brennan added.

"I certainly don't want to see any conflict between officials and players and we need to understand each other's roles better.

"There is a challenge for us all there and it's something people at my level have to work at over this year.