Shooting from the hip in the line of fire

AS a goalkeeper, Donal Óg Cusack is used to life in the line of fire. However, Diarmuid O’Flynn found it’s not just sliotars he has to worry about.

IT’S ten years since Donal Óg Cusack’s first start as Cork’s goalkeeper, in the Oireachtas against Tipperary. It wasn’t a gentle one: “Declan Ryan came in on the charge, took me, ball and all!”

He felt privileged then to be wearing the red-and-white and feels even more privileged today. “Half-time in that first game, I couldn’t believe it, I was walking off alongside John Leahy, THE John Leahy! Ten years on, I enjoy every minute of playing for Cork. I appreciate even the bad days, the bad times; if a training session doesn’t go well, I can honestly say, I appreciate every moment I’m there.”

This is the man so often ridiculed by GAA fans, even the fans of his own county for his puck out system, because they feel he’s not a good shot-stopper and for his pronouncements as chair of the GPA (Gaelic Players Association). There are others who abuse him, though they’ve never even met him - the morons, the loutish element, yes, the GAA has them.

Then there are the traditionalists, some of them feel the new Cork possession system, of which Cusack is a central part, is destroying Cork hurling while others feel that as a leading light of the GPA Cusack is out to destroy the very fabric of the GAA.

Let’s take his goalkeeping prowess first. Last year Cusack was probably the most influential player in Cork’s retention of their All-Ireland title. On the field, he’s a leader who dictates the play, who has redefined goalkeeping and increased its importance far beyond mere shot-stopping. Before last year’s All-Ireland final Cusack already had a super season; the final was a virtuoso display of brilliant, brave saves and game-defining puck-outs. Surely he’d get an All-Star? He didn’t and was blitzed 11-2, by reliable accounts, in the voting. There was outraged talk that the All-Stars were in disgrace; but how did he feel?

“I got the phone call, heard I wasn’t getting it, made a couple of calls myself to let a few people know. That was it. It would have been a huge honour to get it, but in the bigger scheme of thingsI didn’t give it any more than five minutes thought. Put it this way, if I had ten things on my mind, that (disappointment) would have been number ten.”

Find that hard to believe? Don’t. Cusack doesn’t do baloney.

“I went up on the Friday night, was delighted to be there with Sully (Diarmuid O’Sullivan, All-Star full-back) and the rest of the Cork lads when they were getting theirs. I wasn’t the only fella who was unlucky on the night; Tom Kenny didn’t get one, must have felt disappointed - other fellas from other counties. Fair play to Davy; he got it. I spoke to him, congratulated him.

“Remember too; call a spade a spade. Back in 99 he’d have felt disappointed that he didn’t get the All-Star, so it all balances out.”

So how does he get on with the Clare ‘keeper?

“We don’t meet very often, we met in Boston with Munster last November (in the Martin Donnelly Interprovincial Championship) and I enjoyed training with him. Other than that, there wouldn’t be much more to our relationship, but I’d have massive respect for him as a competitor.

Nevertheless, there had to be other factors at play in that All-Star voting; Fitzgerald and Cusack were the front-runners, but on the evidence of their respective performances through the season, it was no landslide. Was his GPA involvement a factor?

“As GPA chairperson, 95% of what I do involves issues other than professionalism, and when I talk to a journalist, a lot of what we discuss revolves around those other issues - scholarships, insurance problems, getting work for fellas, yet, when I open the paper, it’s 95% professionalism, blaring headlines. They have their own agenda, I suppose.”

That’s because this issue is the most interesting one, but let Cusack represent himself.

“Hurling, football, is in the people’s blood, it’s in my blood, but the GAA is already well on the road to professionalism, and it’s the GAA itself who have beaten that path.

“What did they expect, when they started putting business names on guys’ jerseys, bringing in the major sponsors. Did they not consider where it was going to lead? And now, pay-per-view? They say, ‘We only used Setanta as a bargaining tool to get more money from RTÉ’, but hold on a second; we’re only an amateur organisation, we’re not supposed to be into things like that. Amateur? Shamateur.

“What other route is there for them now? Are they going to be different to every other major sport in the world, where else is it going to go? Everything is in place, the big stadia, people in administration getting paid, players getting expenses.

“If it’s true to its claim that it is still an amateur organisation, then tell everyone under the sun who’s involved that they’re not getting paid.

“If you’re in administration, I don’t care what level, put in your hours, the same hours as the top players, then go away and do a regular job somewhere else.

“If there’s too much work in the administration, get more people in, spread it out, but if they’re claiming that this is only a hobby, let us all be amateur.

“Stop doing what they’re now doing, selling hurling and Gaelic football as a product, everything about it professional except the players. They’re turning a blind eye to coaches. An awful lot of whom, even at club level, are getting paid, and whose job it is then to get the best they can out of the players. How do they do this? By demanding more and more time from the players, more and more effort.”

What about the charge that the GPA is elitist? That’s a laugh, he says, when you look at how the GAA itself treats its club players.

“If they really cared about players, all the players, if they were true to what they say about amateurism, they would never put off a club game for an inter-county game, never. Yet there isn’t a club player in the country who can plan a holiday, who can take even a weekend away, because they have no idea when they’ll be playing championship. Is that fair to the 25 club players on every panel, to their selectors, to the families, to the supporters?

“You know the reason for all this? The inter-county championship is where the big money is made, and that’s what the GAA cares about most.

“Cork pack the big grounds, Cork have the sponsorship, Cork bring in the television audience, so clubs like my own, Cloyne, have to sit back and wait. If they really cared, they’d have proper fixture lists ... from the start of the year, no postponements. And believe me, the GPA cares as much about that as they do about any other issue.”

I know Donal Óg Cusack and there isn’t a more dedicated GAA man or a more selfless individual, no-one who puts more into their club, their county and their sport. He spoke of his pride in Cloyne and the fact that three of his clubmates, including his brother Conor, will be in the panel for tomorrow’s opening NHL game against Offaly in Birr.

Regarding this year’s championship, Cusack is focused only on the opening Munster championship game, against Clare and is refusing to contemplate the possibility of the three-in-a-row: “We’re at the bottom of the ladder, no idea what awaits us at the top, one rung at a time.”

As for the other issues: “Let’s have a debate on this, but a reasonable, rational debate, without the hype or the hysteria.”

And let’s also have an end to the personal abuse of a guy who deserves much better.