The striking Cork hurlers' hand was strengthened last night at a meeting with county club members regarding the stand-off with manager Gerald McCarthy.
More than 400 club members voted overwhelmingly for the removal of McCarthy as hurling manager and to seek major changes in the way the county board does its business.
Virtually every club in the county was represented at the meeting.
The motion for McCarthy's removal was passed by 193 to 0. 44 delegates abstained and 23 clubs deffered voting.
After the meeting, 2008 captain John Gardiner told the Irish Times: ’We’re very happy with the result – our main goal at the start of this thing was to see democracy in Cork GAA and we believe that if that is democracy tonight, then we will be back playing as soon as possible – very soon in fact.
‘The people have spoken at grass roots level – it’s obvious democracy wasn’t working but from here on if the people of Cork at grass roots level and the clubs get their way, then these motions will be carried on Tuesday and we’ll be back playing hopefully.
‘And that’s been our goal all along – all we’ve ever said from the start is to play for Cork and hand over a better system to the people coming after us – the clubs have spoken in our favour, the people of Cork have spoken and surely now the county board will have to listen.’
