Big plays, big calls on sport icons as managers drive for winning line

ANYONE who was worked as a manager in any organisation knows how difficult it can be to move people out entirely or into new, seemingly less important, positions.

It’s particularly hard when those people have been regarded as essential by others and know the esteem in which they are held. So there should be some sympathy for two Corkmen in difficult high profile sports management roles who have had to make such decisions about icons recently: Irish rugby coach Declan Kidney and Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy.

Both also have had to do so in the full glare of the public spotlight, accompanied by subsequent loud comment, much of it critical and some hostile. A Taoiseach dropping a cabinet minister might not have had such a hard time of it.

Kidney’s task was somewhat easier in that he “only” demoted Brian O’Driscoll from the captaincy of the Irish rugby team but kept him in the starting side. Barry-Murphy has gone further: his former captain Dónal Óg Cusack missed last season because of serious injury but having worked his way back to fitness has not been invited to return to the Cork senior hurling squad.

We know that O’Driscoll was “very disappointed” by the decision because, somewhat surprisingly and notably, that phrase was included in the official IRFU statement accompanying the decision. He has continued to talk about it. Many of his friends, such as former international, turned analyst, Shane Horgan (himself a former victim of Kidney’s ruthlessness), have commented angrily about “the way it was done”.

Cusack has been quiet on his situation, concentrating instead on his latest bout of admirable charity work in Breezy Point, New York, devastated as a result of the storm Sandy. But friends of his are certainly upset. Eoin Cadogan, who had recently abandoned his inter-county dual status to concentrate on his football, tweeted: “Seems strange a man who does nine months recovery, trains five-six times a week, doesn’t even get a chance to prove he’s worth a place on a panel.”

Kidney clearly has it somewhat easier in that O’Driscoll has remained as a player and, as he proved last Saturday against Wales, has not let his disappointment in any way undermine his effort. There is an argument that O’Driscoll took it up a notch on Saturday because of his hurt and that Kidney, cynically perhaps, sought this outcome, knowing it to be the likely reaction to the stripping of the captaincy, an honour that O’Driscoll clearly cherished. He has denied such motivation but here is the paradox: to accuse O’Driscoll of trying harder in an effort to deal with personal hurt is something of an insult. O’Driscoll said after the game: I still see myself as a leader within the team and helping Jamie out where I can, and I don’t think you play any differently whether you have the captaincy or not, you just go out and try to play the best you can and lead by the way you play.”

If sport is all about fine margins then giving a supposedly player in decline an extra motivation to prove himself might have been just what Ireland needed last Saturday. The Welsh felt that O’Driscoll was the difference between the teams.

Kidney almost certainly irritated O’Driscoll with talk of him needing to concentrate on his own game. But Kidney is hardly likely to care if he falls off O’Driscoll’s Christmas card list as a result of this, or if he takes a whack in O’Driscoll’s forthcoming autobiography, which we can expect late this year, if he retires&.

It has always struck me in talking to former Munster and Ireland players about Kidney that there is not always great affection shown towards him but there is enormous respect for what he helped them achieve. That’s probably how it should be. For any manager it is the results he achieves that matter, rather than the friendships he makes with those under his care..

Kidney is out of contract at the end of the season and needs at least two more wins in the Six Nations if he is to have a better bargaining position in new contract negotiations to take Ireland to the next world cup. To that end he was stamping his mark on the 2015 World Cup preparations by naming Jamie Heaslip as his new captain. It was a signal that Kidney also wants change and will implement it, no matter how settled some in the squad are. Kidney also has reason to worry about O’Driscoll’s fitness over the course of the season and of course there is to be the forthcoming distraction of a new baby, the first for he and Amy Huberman.

Kidney was uncharacteristically effusive in praising O’Driscoll after Saturday’s game, yet it was still worth reading between the lines. When he declared “the bottom line is you would love to have the guy around forever” it could also be taken for meaning that he knows that he won’t be and that he is preparing for that. “If you look at the performance he put in, that’s not easy on the body,” Kidney said, in a further calling of time. Even when there was praise — “Huge credit to him, given the amount of game time he has had, to come out and give such an international class performance like he did” — there was a caveat contained within, implicit justification for his actions.

Dónal Óg Cusack unfortunately has not been able to decide the time of his own departure, after a stellar career as Cork’s hurling goalkeeper. It was cruel luck in the extreme last year that he was injured seriously, rupturing an Achilles tendon during the league semi-final against Tipperary. His replacement Anthony Nash had a remarkable year, culminating in an All-Star award. He had to be first choice for this season.

So should Barry-Murphy have recalled Cusack to the squad, especially bearing in mind what Cadogan said? His decision is understandable. Cusack is 35 and there is another good young keeper in Darren McCarthy available who, like Nash before him, deserves his chance. But then again goalkeepers can prosper at an later age than other players and Cusack is so dedicated it would not be hard to imagine him playing inter-county hurling until 40.

Barry-Murphy has not retired Cusack and circumstances could lead to his return. There will be some who will be glad to see him gone, regarding him as some kind of trouble-maker over the last decade.

THEY would be wrong. Cusack has always acted in the best interests of those playing hurling for Cork and with the intention of making Cork winners. Barry-Murphy’s choice of him as captain for last year was a massive statement of support; he has clearly made a hurling decision rather than a political one in omitting Cusack from the squad. It must have been a difficult decision for him, and it might not be the right one, but you can’t imagine it was done for anything other than the most honest of reasons.

One of the beauties of sport is how we can now speculate on the effects of these decisions. O’Driscoll is favourite now to captain the Lions this summer, which he should, as long as he stays fit.

Meanwhile, Cusack’s discretion in remaining quiet may help if he has any ambitions to be Cork’s manager in the future. One may be more probable than the other but I reckon both could be good bets and, more importantly were they to happen, good decisions.

- The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.