They may not have a goalkeeper or a full-back or either of their wing-backs, but they have a cause. Irrespective of how many of their suspended quartet are free to take the field against Waterford this day fortnight, Cork have a new flag to rally around.

Irrespective too of how far they pursue it, the appeals process will, according to Croke Park, have been exhausted by then. Nobody, then, will take the field on 17 June with a cloud louring over him. If the worst comes to the worst, the Munster champions will cope.

Kanturk's Anthony Nash for Donal Og Cusack; Cian O'Connor moving sideways to full-back, with, perhaps, Shane O'Neill being tried in the left corner, where he featured against Waterford in the league semi-final; and perm two out of Peter Kelly, Graham Callanan and Kevin Hartnett on the wings. Naturally this worst-case scenario wouldn't look quite so apocalyptic had Wayne Sherlock and Killian Cronin not left the panel a couple of months back, but regrets for absent friends are an indulgence Cork can't afford.

To say they didn't cover themselves in glory seven days ago is manifestly obvious, even if the trouble that preceded the throw-in was considerably less offensive to the eye than the 35 minutes of hurling that immediately followed it. A Cork team who pride themselves on their professionalism and self-control will reflect that they were anything but professional and self-controlled in an admittedly unforeseeable scenario, a failure the more galling for Gerald McCarthy's warning beforehand to avoid getting dragged into any rough stuff.

Yet some plain speaking from their elders wouldn't have gone astray either. It would have been immensely refreshing had, for instance, both county boards seen fit to deplore the incident publicly.

Instead, by announcing that they're backing their respective flocks to the hilt, they've given the (accurate) impression that Sunday's trouble was no big deal in their eyes.

Our county right or wrong: plus ca change. . .that Cork's attempt to unpick the sanctions is being led by the man who acted as midwife at the birth of the new disciplinary structures is simultaneously unfortunate and unavoidable. As an employee of the Cork county board, Frank Murphy's first duty is to go to bat for his boys . . . and Frank is, of course, Bradman in these matters.

A pity, however, that the unfolding of the saga returns us to the usual starting point when the county are involved in an appeal, with the larger GAA world concluding that the rules, not unlike those computer games that contain secret passageways for those in the know, are stuffed with arcane escape-hatch subclauses than can only be accessed by Cork folk.

From the point of view of PR and general goodwill, it would actually be no harm for Cork if some of the sanctions were ultimately to stick.

In the circumstances, the last thing Cork GAA needs is to be seen to evade justice on a technicality yet again, freed by Houdini Murphy in a single bound. The indications are that they may settle for getting back two of the four suspended players.

Sean Og O hAilpin ought to be one of them. Given that Brian Cody's good record was taken into account by the authorities after he lost the rag during the 2004 All Ireland qualifier against Galway in Thurles, there's a shining precedent for letting Sean Og . . . as exemplary a role model as hurling could have . . . off with a warning. (Cork may choose to point out in his defence that Sean Og didn't have a hurley in his hand when it all kicked off whereas Gerry O'Grady, pictured in Friday's Irish Examiner with his hurley up to John Gardiner's head, wasn't one of the four Clare players to be fingered. ) But let Sean Og off for being Sean Og while punishing Diarmuid O'Sullivan for being, well, Diarmuid O'Sullivan? Or upholding Donal Og's suspension and having it be said . . . as it inevitably would be . . . that the GAA were out to get Donal Og for his GPA activities?

People who complain that the Irish Independentwent to town on the story on its back page for most of the week miss the point completely.

Inevitably the Indo went to town on it. That's what newspapers do, particularly in situations that yield loads of juicy pictures. Must we always take aim at the messenger first?

In the meantime, Cork have a cause. A week or two ago, Waterford were shaping up as likely Munster champions.

They might just be a little less likely now.