How Jack O’Connor helped the Cork hurlers

IT’S a phrase used so often its provenance is lost, probably forever.

This column has heard it claimed by Moycarkey, and by Brooklyn, and by Leeds, but the truth it expresses is incontrovertible.

A good big one always beats a good little one.

There’s a lot to be said for it. Last Sunday the Cork senior footballers left Killarney with at least one shining light on the horizon: Michael Cussen, their new full-forward.

At six foot seven, Cussen is hard to miss simply standing on the edge of the square, but his mobility and accuracy were also clearly visible last weekend. Cork pumped three balls in a row into Cussen halfway through the first half and he scored two points before breaking a ball behind him to give James Masters a brief glimpse of goal. After half-time he came out to midfield and gave Cork a foothold in the area.

The Glanmire clubman is the first player, but certainly won’t be the last, to be described as the new Kieran Donaghy. When Kerry were trying to find their way in last year’s qualifiers, manager Jack O’Connor threw Donaghy into full-forward and the big man was a revelation. Football coaches nodded and as a result, all over Ireland basketball centres and rugby second-rows were press-ganged and shanghaied down to their local GAA club, told to stand on the edge of the small square, and express themselves.

Right now Michael Cussen is the best-known example of that hunt for big men. Over the next year or two you can bank on more and more players who are six-five or bigger stretching a number 14 jersey (XXXL, no doubt) across their shoulders. Given the news that Australian Rules recruiters are now to target Ireland aggressively, coaches will be crossing their fingers and saying an odd version of St Augustine’s prayer for charity: make him a success at full-forward — but not just yet.

For Cussen the recruiters may be a little closer to home. Presumably the Cork senior hurling selectors noticed his display last weekend in Killarney. Cussen won a Munster U21 medal in hurling two years ago, and he drifted across the seniors’ radar earlier in the year, but at that point he had committed to the footballers. Now that he’s come to national prominence he’s unlikely to wave goodbye to Billy Morgan and company — certainly not in mid-season.

Down the line, however, Cussen may find the lure of the small ball harder to resist. Traditionally in Cork dual players gravitate towards hurling, given the higher profile and greater chances of All-Ireland success. Ronan Curran, Sean Óg O hAilpín, Tom Kenny, Diarmuid O’Sullivan and John Gardiner have all either played senior football for Cork or are regarded as being up to the required standard for intercounty football. There’s no real chance of them leaving their hurling colleagues any time soon.

Cork’s hurling tactics may be another issue for Cussen’s future. While Cork under Gerald McCarthy have not reverted to route one when delivering the ball to their forwards, every team in hurling is fond of a big target man.

Waterford have several tall options up front; Tipp have persevered with Micheal Webster and Limerick have brought Brian Begley back; even a magician like Henry Shefflin is big enough to win ugly ball at full-forward.

Cussen may not be in Shefflin’s class as a hurler — no disgrace there, it’s an exclusive club with membership limited to one (H Shefflin, president and chairman). But the Cork man can now add big-game experience to fitness honed in an inter-county football panel’s pre-season.

In terms of settling into the hurling team, there’s another advantage. Cussen is a clubmate of one of Cork’s brainiest forwards, Kieran ‘Fraggy’ Murphy. Having one play off the other would speed up the learning process — and seriously discommode opposition defences.

Unfortunately, if Cussen loses his heart to hurling it will mean the end of his football career. We now know that it’s impossible to combine the two. Bad news for those who’d like to see Cussen emulate one of his illustrious clubmates: Teddy McCarthy, who won two All-Ireland medals in a fortnight back in 1990.

So: a Kerry football manager unearths, by a roundabout way, a Cork hurling full-forward.

What’s the world coming to?

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