PLAYER REVOLT IN CORK: Seán Moran looks back on the tumultuous events in Cork and how the players' dispute has highlighted the pressures on top-flight GAA stars.

Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork on Tuesday night last and chaos theory, that ever-present influence on GAA affairs, is put into practice. This is multi-layered chaos. Certainly there are trivial examples such as an insufficiency of documents to go around the delegates and a randomly mutating media strategy, but on this night in December significant forces will be unleashed. It mightn't be Pandora's box but the GAA is being pulled into a world of increasingly volatile change.

The strike declared by the county hurling panel just a few days previously lends an air of gravity to this county board meeting. The day before Jim Forbes, who takes over as county chairman at tomorrow's convention, had declared the county board meeting would be open to all - it could be recorded by both radio and television. The board, he said, wanted the same coverage as the hurlers had got.

Yet the first item on Tuesday's agenda is to ask the media to leave. Delicate commercial matters will be touched on during a presentation by Nemo Rangers on the club's relocation plans. After this concludes comes the announcement by county PRO Pat Horgan that only the print media may return. Forbes's multi-media promise has come unstuck and photographers and camera crews must wait outside and no sound recording is to be allowed.

As the press approach their tables inside the hall, chairman Jim Cronin clears his throat: "Eh, lads, you're a bit premature . . ." Amid much grumbling the media return to the familiar surroundings of the concrete corridor beneath the stand. It will be an hour after the officially announced starting time of 8 p.m. before the real business gets under way.

FOR those attending in the hope of experiencing some antediluvian colour, the board must have come as something of a let-down. There are no delegates jumping up to denounce the players or to sternly warn about the tail wagging the dog.

The only frisson is provided by St Nick's delegate Denis Owens who denounces outgoing hurling selector John Meyler for being a Wexford man and invokes the apparently unquiet spirit of Christy Ring to emphasise the point. In fairness, this herrenvolk theorising provokes a storm of protest.

But, in general, the keynote is regret and sadness at the state of relations between the county's senior players, the flag bearers and the county executive. If anything the only extreme tendency is the one wanting to give the players anything they want.

It's been no secret that although the hurlers demur from having a public position on the matter, their selection committee have to go as a sine qua non to progress on resolving the strike. Although the selectors resigned in a letter to the county board, one of them is said to have taken more persuading than the others and the outgoing management responded to the hurlers' published list of grievances a week earlier by rebutting several complaints in a document that would have been circulated had there been sufficient copies.

It emerges later in the week the hurlers were particularly irritated by this parting shot and rebutted the rebuttal by pointedly standing over every one of their complaints. What complaints in particular? "I haven't time - there's about 20," replied one hurler. The selectors' response contains 21 points.

Virtually everyone accepts the players should be granted most of the concessions sought. For days there has been genuine embarrassment at revelations of hurlers being subjected to return bus trips to Derry, the image of a bleeding player unattended on the journey home and the most squalid of the lot, that the hurlers had to urinate on the floor of the Páirc Uí Chaoimh gymnasium because of dressing-room problems at the venue.

There are two points to be made about this conciliatory approach. One, it does appear genuine. The top table were not obstructive in responding publicly to the players' demands and the delegates couldn't believe it got this far.

The second point is that for all the apparent goodwill these responses were shrouded in a certain ambiguity. Qualifications were attached to undertakings - maybe out of honesty but in the eyes of the players such grey areas carry the potential for foot-dragging and bad faith.

"My own view is this means nothing," was one player's downbeat appraisal the next morning. "The same people will be in charge and unless we get things in black and white, nothing will change."

The irony is that at a meeting, which bent over backwards to placate the players, the least tangible concessions related to the very issues on which they had broken from negotiations with the county executive.

Consequently it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise that the footballers decided to down tools on Wednesday night. One player acknowledged that because of their happier managerial environment they wouldn't have gone on strike had the hurlers not done so previously but added: "It mightn't have happened now but it would have happened down the line."

In a touch of intrigue the football panel announced they had three demands to add to the hurlers but would be keeping them secret for the time being. These are small-scale and relate to the treatment of individuals associated with the panel. The players had not consulted those involved and decided not to drag their names into the public arena without first talking to them.

The fact the hurlers and footballers will be represented by a joint negotiation team makes sense and allows the problems of both to be addressed simultaneously.

If the response to players' demands was the least clear-cut element of the county board's deliberations the prevailing mood also took the county board off in more surprising directions. Towards the end of the evening a spontaneous discussion on how best to run the county team ended up with granting the new Cork hurling manager - whoever that is - the unprecedented power to choose his own selectors.

THE only remaining restriction will be that one selector must come from the county champions and even that ancient provision just about survived. Its removal required the support of two-thirds of those present, 60, and received 59.

Of more far-reaching significance was the earlier urgent debate on the hurlers' demand for compensation for time off work. This - together with ticket allocation - is one of the issues on which the county board says its hands are tied.

This is a justifiable position. The GAA is an amateur organisation and the up-to-date interpretations of this policy (The Amateur Status report, 1997) rule out payment for earnings lost through intercounty commitments. But many delegates felt the rule was unfair.

It was revealed that a new committee is to advise GAA president Seán McCague on this matter (see panel) and its deliberations are not expected until the New Year. Yet the Cork County Board appeared to reach a consensus that the county should push for a change in national policy on this issue.

It will be interesting to see to what extent this consensus is reflected in the minutes and whether the county actually completes a surprising U-turn from being regarded as one of the most conservative in the GAA to leading the charge for further dilution of amateur status. This was also a rare example of the initiative for such a major national issue to have arisen from the floor rather than at the top table.

"Board delegates hate this business of supposedly being yes-men for Frank (Murphy, county secretary)," according to one delegate. "And it's true that on local issues they'll fight for their clubs but what he says goes nationally. No one challenges him on those sort of matters.

"I think the whole thing has reflected badly on the executive. They're dealing with a gullible audience but I think there'll be questions. The board can feel misled by Frank Murphy and Jim Cronin who kept telling us the negotiations with the hurlers were amicable and being sorted out when that doesn't seem to be the case at all. I'd say people didn't want to raise it in an open meeting but that it will come up again."

Whereas it was obvious from the meeting that Murphy remains more knowledgeable and articulate than virtually the entire attendance, it was also evident the events of the week hadn't just cost him his place as a selector but had also cast a shadow on his administrative standing.

IT is accepted by all involved the discussions have to conclude before Christmas. The players need their grievances resolved and the hurlers need new management in place before training resumes in the New Year.

Some of the players' demands are straightforward. Paying up for gymnasium subscriptions is relatively easy. Booking flights to league matches in Ulster - or at least devising less gruelling itineraries than bus trips - is costly but manageable.

Delivering greater quantities of leisure wear similarly wouldn't tax an administrative genius. But the bigger issues - compensation and tickets - will prove thornier.

One of Cork's problems is the lack of a powerful supporters' club. These institutions operate outside of the county board's control - anathema in Cork - but useful if players are to be "looked after" for whatever reasons.

Obviously the furtive nature of such arrangements is unsatisfactory and that is where the wider picture looms. For how much longer can intercounty players be subject to escalating demands without compensation? During the summer Cork footballer Ciarán O'Sullivan talked about the pressures of having moved home to the Beara Peninsula and set up his own oil distribution business. When he lived in the city O'Sullivan could be at training in 12 minutes. Now it takes two hours.

"I won't come the poor mouth with you but there are times when it's hard. The weekend we went to Donegal, I left at 11 on a Saturday morning and wasn't back until around 2 a.m. on Monday. I'm lucky local people understand but it puts me under pressure. I could work longer hours if I didn't have to get into the car.

"I can make up some of it but you can also lose business by not being around. I drive the truck myself and don't have a relief driver because we're only just set up and couldn't afford that. I could be on the way to Cork when someone rings up looking for a delivery and I have to say no and let the business go."

Unless there is a development at national level it's hard to see how this sort of pressure on players can be addressed. Unless it's addressed, something's going to blow.