Cork County Board have come in for quite a bit of criticism today after a statement was released addressing the departure of Brian Cuthbert as the Rebel's senior football manager.
Cuthbert stepped down last week following an eight point defeat to Kildare in the qualifiers. Despite that, there has been quite a bit of good feeling towards Cuthbert in the past week with Colm O'Driscoll perhaps the most vocal in his support of his now former manager.
Given that he stepped down of his own accord, it was not entirely clear how the Cork County Board felt about his departure. However, they have now moved to put their feelings on record and it is fair to say their statement will raise more questions than it will answer.
Beginning by thanking Cuthbert for his efforts in his two years in charge, the statement quickly turns to address the decision by Padraig Hughes to award Kerry a penalty in the Munster final.
The tremendous performance of the team in the drawn Munster Final has been widely acknowledged, and it is quite probable that but for a totally wrong refereeing decision in that game, Cork would now be in an All-Ireland Semi-Final. The short turn-around time between the replay, played in exhausting weather conditions, and the qualifier game against Kildare, cannot be ignored as a factor in that defeat.
Bringing Hughes' decision into it is one thing but to say that it is 'quite probable' that Cork would be in an All Ireland semi-final if it wasn't for the penalty award is surely pushing things a tad too far.
The Board go on to hit out at the media for what they deems continued 'personalised' abuse of Cuthbert in the aftermath of his departure.
Brian was acting as an unpaid volunteer, as are all Cork team managers, coaches and selectors. As Senior manager, he left no stone unturned in his efforts to bring success to Cork, despite facing regular, unjustified and personalised abusive criticism from certain elements of the media and which has continued since he has stepped down as manager.
Although, at the time of writing, the statement has only been released in the past half an hour, it's probably unsurprising that the initial reaction has not been particularly positive.
@OfficialCorkGAA absolute joke. Epitomises the bubble the board is living in. No responsibility no accountability. #shitsickofit
— Mike Boland (@galteeboy84) August 3, 2015
@OfficialCorkGAA Embarrassing statement to be issuing. References to Killarney penalty and replay weather are cringe-worthy.
— Kieran O'Brien (@K_O_Brien) August 3, 2015
Embarrassing. Totally totally embarrassing. Accept defeat, move on. Leave the conspiracy theories to supporters. https://t.co/Wk9ZGVkW53
— Cormac O'Malley (@cormacpro) August 3, 2015
Cork County Board claims the footballers would now be in an All-Ireland semi-final but for Padraig Hughes' decision. #examsport #GAA
— John Fogarty (@JohnFogartyIrl) August 3, 2015
