Players ‘not instructed’ to not attend funeral

DONAL Óg Cusack has disputed Gerald McCarthy’s allegation that senior Cork players instructed fellow panellists not to attend the funeral of the then Cork manager’s mother.

When McCarthy resigned as Cork boss in March he suggested in his resignation statement that Cork players had been told not to go the funeral, but Cusack says in his autobiography that that was not the case.

“If we all went to the funeral it would be inflammatory and would appear cynical.

“We would be accused of being seen to be there for show. If we didn’t go we would be described as heartless. No win.”

Cusack goes on to say that the panel signed a Mass card and decided that any player who wished to go could do so as an individual.

“The story went out that we, the ruling junta of senior players, had ordered players not to go. Absolutely false. As if we would begin instructing each other about whose funeral it was okay to attend and whose it wasn’t!”