THE PROSPECT of the longrunning Cork hurling crisis reaching some sort of endgame has finally improved with the decision of the Cork County Board delegates to vote in favour of intervention from Croke Park.

It follows the decision of the striking players earlier this week to put their case to chairpersons of all the Cork clubs, and if support wasn’t forthcoming, that they would disband.

Tuesday’s meeting of the delegates was the first of the New Year, and inevitably the main talking point was the stand-off between hurling manager Gerald McCarthy and the 2008 panel. But in voting 94-24 to accept an offer from Croke Park to help mediate in the dispute, the delegates may at least have established some sort of closure. In agreeing to this, however, the delegates stressed that McCarthy’s position as manager was in no way up for discussion.

Croke Park have yet to confirm how or to what extent they’ll get involved, while the striking players have also to confirm their participation. Yet the GAA’s involvement in the similar strike last year, where they appointed mediator Kieran Mulvey and ultimately brokered an agreement, at least gives the situation some hope of conclusion.

In the meantime, however, McCarthy issued yet another statement yesterday in response to the statement read by the players at their press conference last Monday, and once again he didn’t pull any punches: “I have read the players’ statement and while I found it self-serving and just some more of the same really, I was disappointed that they failed to answer why they haven’t and won’t engage to try to resolve this dispute. At this stage I am not going to respond in full to the players’ statements, but I do intend to do so sometime later.

“I can only repeat what I have said previously: Does any real or perceived grievance justify the harm being done to Cork hurling?

“I must say I found some of the players’ comments distasteful, grossly exaggerated and less than truthful. Most of those comments had been leaked to pet pundits at the beginning of this dispute and having already responded to them, I have no intention of doing so again.

“However, there is one new comment I would like to respond to: Kevin Canty’s grievance that I failed to visit him earlier in hospital is disingenuous, to say the least. How any young lad could stand up at a press conference to suggest that I was unmindful of the fact that he was in hospital, when he knew that I had visited him twice (and brought him some DVDs on my second visit) is deeply shocking to me.

“Many of the other players’ comments are invested with the same kind of construction and selectivity and confirm for me some of the influences that are at work here.

“I must say I am astonished that a simple incident like Kevin’s could have its way into the public domain and play any part in this dispute. I have always been aware of my responsibilities to players who are injured and have always exercised that duty of care to the best of my ability.”

McCarthy concluded with a further claim to his cause: “As a result of this dispute, a lot of GAA people will be called on to make big calls in the next few weeks.

“The men and women who represent clubs are ultimately going to determine what set of values will shape Cork hurling for the future. And for me that’s worth fighting for. The people who mark the fields, who wash the gear, who ferry kids to games have a very important role in all of this.

“As far as I am concerned, they, and not the leaders of any group of elite players, represent hurling in Cork.”