Standing up for what they believe in
Cork’s principled footballers fortified by same resolve as their more famous forebears
SAME OLD Cork, sigh those inclined towards scepticism and weariness. And in a way, the controversy around a venue for the Munster SFC meeting of Cork and Kerry does have a link back to the days of tumult that intrigued the country in the 2000s. Those disputes involved some of the most compelling figures to ever play Gaelic games pitched against a county board led by Frank Murphy, a legendarily powerful administrator.
The short-hand description of the battle was young, ambitious players committed to best modern practices, running into a board with a much more traditional attitude to power, who should wield it, and how that should be done. It was Dónal Óg and Seán Óg versus Frank. Cusack, Ó hAilpín and the rest of that extraordinary generation are long retired. Murphy has left his position as county secretary, too.
This current dispute is not a row of the same nature, either. And as it moves towards resolution, the radicalism of old is absent.
But it is about a group of young GAA people taking a stand on what they believe is a point of principle, against a background of questionable decision-making.
The Cork footballers, on their best days, enjoy nothing like the support commanded by the county hurlers.
And the 2022 vintage are especially low profile. They required wins over Down and Offaly in the final two rounds of the Allianz League to stay in Division 2 and so avoid the humiliation of the Tailteann Cup.
This is not a group that can count on much in the way of a following, but their determination to insist on the May 7 game with Kerry going ahead in Páirc Uí Rinn borrows something of the boldness and principle that backboned the actions of the rebels that went on strike.
That steadfastness may yet have to
This is not a group that can count on much in the way of a following
soften to some extent, amid the emergence of a possibility that the Gaelic Grounds or Semple Stadium could be pressed into service as a neutral venue, but their determination not to be forced to Killarney – and the painful consequences that would surely follow – should not be doubted.
They have been driven to this position, indirectly, by the kind of decisionmaking that drove that earlier generation to distraction.
The rebuild of Páirc Uí Chaoimh has been riven with controversy, with the cost of the project estimated at €96 million by Tom Ryan, the director general of the GAA, in 2020.
With the county board’s debt towards the rebuild at almost €30 million, and with two years of lockdowns and restricted attendances to consider, too, then the need to attract sell-outs like Ed Sheeran to the stadium is obvious.
Sheeran is playing two dates in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (Thursday, April 28 and Friday, April 29), and the works involved in staging the events means the ground is unavailable for the following Saturday week, when Kerry were due by the Lee.
That led to the suggestion of playing the games at the much smaller Páirc Uí
Rinn instead, but that ambition was shot down by the Munster Council last week, who switched the game to Fitzgerald Stadium.
It was in Killarney that Cork were destroyed in last year’s Championship, and there can’t be many, within or without the Cork football community, who believe the outcome will be any different if the game goes ahead there this year, too.
Hence the demands from the squad that the game go ahead in Cork. However, their refusal to revisit Killarney – they lost the Munster final by 22 points there in 2021 – is complicated by the homeand-away arrangement between the counties, which is limited to Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Fitzgerald Stadium.
And a neutral venue was part of early considerations among the football squad before their position later hardened. But if they do agree eventually to Limerick or Tipperary as alternatives,
it is no surprise that Cork are reluctant to surrender anything approximating an advantage to Kerry given their current playing travails.
The Cork chairman, Marc Sheehan, has explained that the Sheeran concerts were agreed before the Championship format for 2022, accommodating a split season and therefore necessitating an earlier start to the inter-county summer, was finalised.
The Sheeran concerts are estimated to be worth €1m to the board, and to an organisation with a mountainous debt to address, the attractions of the arrangement are obvious.
Defenders of Cork’s stance argue it is trite to illustrate the economic motivations behind the leasing out of the ground for concerts, but it is absurd to try and dilute their relevance, too.
County board accounts at the end of last September recorded their Páirc Uí Chaoimh debt at €29.74m, and the consequences of the stadium redevelopment run like water through the affairs of the GAA in Cork.
That debt has ramifications for the activities and ambitions of officials and volunteers in the county, and the stand-off over Páirc Uí Rinn is simply the most newsworthy current example of that.
And the episode has shone a fresh light on a project beset by controversies, claims and counter-claims. It also asks questions again of the decision-making of the ancien regime in Cork GAA.
And it begs wider questions of infrastructure projects in the GAA, of the wisdom of supporting them with taxpayers’ money when sporting events rarely sell them out and they need to be pressed into service as gig venues to help pay the bills.
In his 2020 annual report, Ryan devoted a whole section to the stadium titled, ‘Páirc Uí Chaoimh: An ongoing challenge’.
It was here that Ryan estimated the total cost of the project at €96million, as well as revealing that ‘a further round of financial support’ had been required for ‘critical stadium completion works’, which took the form of a €10m loan from central GAA funds. This is part of the near-€30m debt.
He noted, in rather dry but still devastating language, that while the stadium rebuild was initially estimated at €78.5million, ‘project costs escalated and budgetary control proved inadequate’.
Ryan also said that the approach to future infrastructure projects in the GAA will be influenced by the Páirc Uí Chaoimh experience. He said professional project management would be required. Central funding would be released contingent on the progress of a project, and such projects should only be allowed to start when all funding is in place.
He could have gone further: a dedicated infrastructure team in Croke Park, which would assess the actual need for proposed new or redeveloped stadia, is also urgently required.
Big new stadia that cost a fortune and tangle county boards in extreme difficulties are nothing new, and nor is the sight of a sparkling venue that is rarely full to capacity.
These are not matters that should impact on the Cork footballers or Keith Ricken, their manager, in the coming days. Once they are not obliged to relinquish home advantage to Kerry, this will be viewed as a triumph for Cork, and they have had few enough of those of late.
Ricken has proven a fresh and unadorned figurehead since taking over from Ronan McCarthy.
It seems that he clearly understands the depths of Cork’s current difficulties, and that he is determined to start improving their plight his way: he is not promising short-cuts or making big claims.
Restoring Cork to a point where they can compete in a meaningful way against the best teams in the Championship, is a daunting job.
However, that ambition will be serviced by the huge amount of work that has already been done at underage level.
And this marks one of several significant points of departure with how business used to be done in Cork GAA. Under CEO Kevin O’Donovan, there has been a complete transformation in how business is done. A commercial director has been appointed, as well as a finance manager and a high performance manager.
Conor Counihan was chosen to be football project co-ordinator, charged with implementing an ambitious five-year plan for football in the county.
He is effectively Cork’s football czar, a highly respected figure under whom signs of rebirth are detectable. The county are reigning Munster Under 20 champions, while they also currently hold the Munster minor football title.
The seniors are unlikely to shock Kerry in three weeks’ time, irrespective of where the match is played, but there is definite proof of change in Cork football.
And the flintiness of the players’ statement on the Páirc Uí Rinn issue showed as much.
‘The decision to take the game to Killarney is driven by the financial benefits resulting from a larger crowd,’ they claimed towards the end of it. ‘We feel this reasoning sets a bad precedent, it is wrong and it goes against the values of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
‘As such, we are preparing for the Munster Football semi-final on 7 May 2022 to be played in Páirc Uí Rinn.
‘We will not be playing the match in any other venue.’
That determination in a generation of ambitious Cork GAA figures has been detected before.
Twenty years ago, the group were a gifted collection of hurlers already renowned nationally and well acquainted with success.
Circumstances now are more modest but, as in the early 2000s, they are set on standing up for what they believe in.
That fiery generation understood that progress almost always entails compromise, and it seems as if there is a deal in the offing in the row over Páirc Uí Rinn.
And it looks as if it could be one that keeps Cork out of Killarney. That is a sliver of encouragement amid a messy situation with roots in Cork’s complicated legacy of officialdom.
Future GAA infrastructure projects will be influenced by the experience