The strike may be over but this long-drawn-out process has one more day to run after the Cork football management again refused to collectively resign yesterday.
Sources informed The Irish Timeslast night that manager Teddy Holland was willing to step down but at least two selectors from Teddy McCarthy, Liam Hodnett, Diarmuid O'Donovan and Mick O'Loughlin refused to let the county board executive save face after binding arbitration recommended the new management be replaced.
"The board executive and team management reached an agreement today and a full report will be presented to the county board tomorrow evening at 7.30pm," was the terse reply when the Cork PRO Bob Ryan was contacted yesterday.
At tonight's emergency meeting, the executive are expected to ask delegates to reverse their decision of November 20th, when Holland was fast-tracked into the job of manager. It was at the same meeting that delegates supported the decision, voting 77 to 35, to impose selectors on Cork senior hurling and football managers. The players immediately flagged their intention to strike.
This decision was reversed by the Labour Relations Commission chief executive, Kieran Mulvey, acting as arbitrator, last Friday. A vote to remove Holland and his selectors was not taken at Saturday night's county board meeting, the executive still intent on seeking resignations from the five men they championed to replace the Billy Morgan management team.
But the five, though they never took so much as a training session, refused to be, as they saw it, scapegoated by putting their names to a statement that would not reflect their position.
Holland, a retired Garda, did not want to comment further though he did allude to the scenario probably ending any future aspirations he held to manage the Cork footballers: "I suppose I paid the highest price of all. It is only sport but it is unfair how sport can treat you like that."
The Cork hurling manager Gerald McCarthy held his first training session in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday afternoon while a seven-man committee, to contain two current players, is expected to be announced this week as the search for a new football management team begins.
Conor Counihan, Ted Owens and last year's manager, Morgan, have all been mentioned as potential candidates.
The hurlers' first national league match, against Kilkenny, and the footballers' Meath fixture are expected to be rescheduled for Saturday when the Central Competitions Control Committee meet tomorrow. The Waterford (hurling) and Dublin (football) fixtures will also be refixed.
Several commentators, including former Kilkenny hurler Charlie Carter, suggested at the weekend Cork should forfeit the games they missed during the strike but this is unlikely.
Meath manager Colm Coyle confirmed his team won't play Cork in the national league. "We won't be playing Cork, we made ourselves available twice. We were meant to play them on the 9th or 10th February. Hopefully if our under-21s win next weekend they're due to be playing on 9th March. I don't know where they're going to fit them in."
At Saturday's management committee meeting in Croke Park, Cork's Central Council delegate, Bob Honohan, apologised to the counties affected.
Also at that meeting, GAA president Nickey Brennan gave a report on last week's meeting with AFL representatives in Dubai, where he was joined by Pat Daly, head of games, and former Derry player and International Rules captain Anthony Tohill.
A GAA release said: "The president stated the discussions had achieved more than he had hoped for which included agreement that: any sanctions imposed will in future apply to the AFL Premiership competition; an independent video match official will be appointed; a disciplinary tribunal will be established."
Brennan added that "it had to be concluded that the International Rules Series had no impact one way or another in the recruitment by Australian Rules Clubs of young Irish Players."
The intention now is to get the AFL to impose a policy that their clubs cannot recruit players under 19 years of age and that they must have an educational programme for players recruited.
A decision on the future of the Internationals Rules will be made at the Central Council meeting next month, though the Tyrone club Kildress have a motion to congress that seeks to end all formal connections with the AFL.
Finally, on the issue of player awards, Central Council agreed to sponsor the following motion for the agenda: "That Congress is satisfied that the scheme proposed by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, to recognise the contribution of senior intercounty GAA players and additional costs associated with enhancing team performance in the form presented to Congress is in accordance with rule 11 of the Official Guide and that Congress approves the introduction and implementation of that scheme."
