Cork’s heroes of ’06 still await medals

Limerick’s win over Tipperary last Sunday means that manager John Allen has a chance to add a third Munster SHC title to his coaching CV, but amazingly the members of the last side he led to provincial glory are still waiting to be presented with their medals.

Conor Cusack, a member of the 2006 Cork hurling team, wrote on Twitter earlier this week that the players are waiting for that year’s medals. Contact with various panellists has confirmed, despite Allen’s efforts on behalf of the panel to get the medals presented in the interim, that they still don’t have them.

“What normally happens is that the Munster Council get the medals made,” said Munster Council PRO Ed Donnelly, “24 or 26 or whatever and then more if the county requests them, and they are then passed on.

“It is up to the county then to organise a presentation and while someone from the Council would usually be present on the night to present them, everything would have been arranged by the county.”

Cork have not won a Munster senior title since and Conor Cusack, Anthony Nash, Ciarán McGann, Cathal Naughton, Pa Cronin and Shane O’Neill were the only players without having previously won Munster medals. While the fact the players were not given medals remains a mystery, moves are being made to rectify the situation.

“This only came to my attention on Sunday night, when I saw a tweet which said that players were waiting on their medals,” said Cork PRO Tracey Kennedy.

“The matter is now being looked into, and it will be discussed at the next meeting of the county board executive, next Tuesday night.”