GAA issues document after Cork dispute meeting

The GAA have outlined the brief for last night's meeting in Cork which saw GAA President elect Christy Cooney and Director General Pauric Duffy meet with Cork GAA officials, senior hurling manager Gerald McCarthy and the striking 2008 Cork hurling panel.

Following 12 hours of discussions last night no resolution to the conflict was found although it appears some progress has been made.

Speaking about the issue at this morning's launch of the Martin Donnelly Interprovincial Hurling Championship, Cooney was coy in his comments about the meeting.

"The situation is that we will be issuing a copy of the document to all parties along with a very short statement and we have no further comment to make."

However Cooney did outline his regret that following talks, which concluded at 2am this morning, a resolution to the conflict has still not been realised.

"We have issued the full document that we issued to all parties," he said.

"It is self-explanitory and we made a conscious effort, myself and Pauric, over ten hours of discussions yesterday to try and bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion for all concerned.

"Sadly we weren't in a position to do that, much to our regret, but that's where we are and we'll have no further comment to make on that at present."

Cooney praised all involved for making some sacrifices in order to move towards an agreement.

"There was a situation for all parties that there was a certain amount of sacrifice that they had to make and that was important in trying to bring the parties to a satisfactory conclusion and move the process forward. At the end of the day we couldn't come to a satisfactory conclusion."

Among the proposals contained in the document was that the 2008 panel work with Gerald McCarthy and his selectors and that a new coach is added to the management team.

The GAA will also appoint a person in Croke Park to examine best practice in other counties in relation to panel preparation and make available a set of recommendations to Cork ahead of this summer's Championship campaign.

Meanwhile, an independent three-person committee will also be established by Croke Park to review relationships between the players, management and County Board in both senior football and hurling.