Seán Moran On Gaelic GamesDepending on where you stand on the issues, the Government awards scheme and the current strife in Cork are either separate matters or inextricably linked examples of GPA-inspired mischief.

What they do have in common, however, is the ability to generate dispiriting waves of hostility towards intercounty players.

This is part of a trend that has seen a growing division between the grassroots of the GAA at club level and the shop window level of intercounty competition and mass-appeal spectator sport.

You can't have one without the other but the relationship between the two spheres has become fractious and resentful. Intercounty players frequently get characterised as a pampered elite, out to line their pockets and with no loyalty to the organisation at large.

If this seems a poor reward for delivering the events that bankroll the GAA it symbolises the uneasy relationship between the elite players and membership at large. This mightn't be a majority view but it is significant enough to poison the atmosphere whenever players fall into dispute with officialdom.

Some of it stems from a patronising attitude to players. As long as they're out there playing away they're grand lads and their humility and generosity with their time will be praised. Their virtuosity in front of large, paying attendances will be celebrated and their effortless return to everyday life widely admired.

If they give up their evenings to attend functions - when they're not in the gym or on the training ground - so much the better. In many cases an envelope 'to look after' them will be produced. Frequently players will decline the looking after. And everyone's thrilled. But if they start looking for the envelope that's different; it has to be someone else's idea.

Not all intercounty players prove great club men. Others do and put a good bit of recreational time into their community. They're also great lads. But if county panels look for an input into the work and preparation expected of them, they're trying to take over.

Similarly county board delegates can often be exemplary GAA members who have put a lot into the association sometimes by coaching youngsters and senior players for years on end, sometimes by fretting and improvising to keep a club going and capable of supporting its activities within the community.

Other county board delegates mightn't have proved as useful to the association. But between them - competent and incompetent - do they actually know more than players about what's required for the optimal administration of a county team? It's easy to see how players can get frustrated.

The whole Cork saga has been a series of questionable judgments. The niggling away at the arrangements put in place back in 2002 was misguided if anyone believed that the players could be manoeuvred back five years without noticing.

Autumn's desire to pare back the autonomy of the intercounty football management couldn't have been devised with the wellbeing of the team as a priority.

Depending on what you believe, it was either an indirect way of making Billy Morgan disappear or else an expression of the clubs' desire to curb the ability of any new management to interfere excessively in local fixtures. Neither was a good enough reason to handicap Morgan's successor with imposed selectors.

Then the players got in on the act threatening a strike as their first card on the table and then calamitously agitating for a second vote without any certainty that they could win it, let alone get the necessary, weighted majority.

If appointing Teddy Holland as football manager was entirely within the board's powers it was also provocative. Holland may have been a willing participant in the provocation but he has also been used as a tool in the struggle and it can't be comfortable for him to find himself at the centre of the current contention.

Criticism of the players for introducing the demand that they have a player representative on the county executive distorts the issue. It mightn't be a great negotiating play because the county board can't deliver it but it was intended to symbolise the sort of concession that might persuade them to play under Holland.

The situation is critical. Maybe the players will relent although it seems unlikely. Maybe they will continue to stay away. But if anyone thinks that a season out will purge the situation and reaffirm the county board's authority it's worth bearing in mind the remarks of Tyrone chair Pat Darcy, responding to the threat of a national strike in the context of the Government awards scheme. Although an opponent of the scheme Darcy showed a firm grasp of what was at stake.

"Strikes by their very nature end up ugly affairs. Trust is lost. Blame and counter blame dominate. Bitterness prevails. This is already happening. Relationships break down and divisions may take years to heal.

"It may not be wise to attempt fielding substitute teams . . . Substitute players may be open to vilification and ridicule from striking colleagues. Splits may emerge in clubs and counties between players on strike and colleagues who play. Such a scenario could tear the GAA apart and should be avoided at all costs."

smoran@irish-times.ie