A silly old affair - It all got a little farcical in the end but that will probably be lost on the Cork County Board. They had to fire the man they hired a few months earlier and boy did they vote to put him down: 89 in favour of the removal of the management team versus 18 against is a slaughter in any man's language. The result was hardly out when the old boys network kicked into action. Some weeks previous members of the board had argued vehemently that their rules prevented them from getting rid of their appointed management team. It seems they found a way around them eventually. Readers of this column will be familiar with my long held belief that while the GAA has rules for just about every eventuality, the truth is those tasked with applying them hate doing so. In fact they will go to great lengths to avoid having to punish any party for wrong-doing and this applies whether the offence/infringement is on the field of play, close to the environs of the pitch or indeed a million miles away from it. The Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) called a meeting to consider the fine mess Cork had left the GAA in nationally. Its chairman Jimmy Dunne was able to tell us: 'The rules state very clearly that if a county does not fulfil two fixtures they can be disqualified, but we are hoping to find a way to accommodate Cork'. And so we reached the start line post the Cork saga. The committee knows the rules but is not persuaded to enforce them if at all possible. They might have to screw the Roscommon's and Monaghan's of this world and the lesser teams of the Division because if you accommodate Cork it must be at the expense of somebody else. We'll give the points to Dublin and Meath and skew the competition immediately. Was the Cork inability to fulfil fixtures considered forfeitures, cancellations, deferrals or walkovers? Let me know when you get a chance. In fairness to the committee, they were true to their word and gave some handy league points to the mighty powers of the game and told the rest of the teams to grin and bear it. No sooner had these announcements been made but Cork was on the blower again, reacting to the offer of a re-fixture (I am struggling for the correct technical term here!) by Kilkenny hurlers. The Leeside chairman Mick Dolan came out with the quote of the campaign so far in asking for 'common sense to prevail so that the game (versus Kilkenny) can go ahead'. He had some neck to ask for common sense, a commodity so 'common' his entire board had failed to find a thimble full of it during the previous four months. And left the GAA more or less in disrepute as a result. So, I hope you have the patience to revisit this laugh a minute PR disaster the Cork officials visited upon themselves during that period. At a time when the FAI emerged, for a change, from the manure pit sucking a lollipop and boasting of a 'world-class manager', you have to wonder what was going on in the Deep South. First up let's study the outcome and using any measuring tool the winners in this particular face-off are the hurlers and footballers of Cork. And you can throw in the hurlers and footballers of each county in Ireland. Because now they have a template, a means of working their way through any matter that is not to their liking. Cork GAA proved the long held theory that, like it or not, the GAA is about players and the playing of games. If you do not have one, you can not have the other. Indeed the performance of the board (bored?) officials was so abysmal as to make their positions untenable but that will hardly worry a board that came up with the super idea of appointing the selectors themselves. Consider for a moment the concessions: The manager and selectors appointed by the county board were asked to leave and when the refused, Teddy Holland and his men were voted out. Despite failing to have this request on their agenda, the players now get two places on future committees that are tasked with picking a new manger-pretty impressive strategy by the board or what? The NO strike clause applies only to this group and this matter In fact, the players lost out in only one respect really, a call that was always going to go unanswered. Sean 'Og' O' hAilpin, in his now celebrated interview with Tom Humphries in the Irish Times, noted that the removal/resignation/retirement of county secretary Frank Murphy would greatly help the situation. How innocent was that remark? It was the last we heard about the matter and it is safe to say it was never going to happen. So, why did the board elect to go down this road in late 2007? Who was the mastermind-the real mastermind, not the delegate who stood up to start the ball rolling? And why did they go on a journey of destruction? I was going to use the plural 'masterminds' but maybe not. The answer to why they did it? Well, you know the story of the canine, his cajones and why he does what he does. Because he can of course. In all of this a few good men, although slightly naive men must for now back away from what might well be a life's ambition to train and manage their county team? It is a sad day for those gentlemen but this is always a possibility when you enter the political hotbed of the GAA. There is little doubt there was a bit of badness on both sides' and we know from our history books that confidence on both sides of any dispute can eventually lead to war. We got the sporting version of this over the Winter/Spring season and I suppose a few good laughs always help to pass the long nights. My advise to the supporters of this famed county is simple enough really - as the Mallow farmer said to his son: 'Finbarr, take plenty of no notice of them'. Tweet

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