Donal Óg’s mixed emotions

Kevin Cassidy crept into Donal Óg Cusack’s thoughts a lot last September, while Donegal were making their All-Ireland football title breakthrough without their former captain.

Cusack was happy for the team but sad for the man who gave his best years to Donegal’s cause but wasn’t around to enjoy the climax after being unceremoniously jettisoned for an apparent breach of team discipline.

A year on, Cusack now finds himself walking in Cassidy’s boots, retired against his will after a brief conversation with Jimmy Barry-Murphy earlier this year and looking in from the outside as his former colleagues chase a remarkable hurling title success on Sunday week.

First of all, the former Rebels goalkeeper is keen to stress he is happy for Cork to be back in an All-Ireland final.

More than that, he is proud of them.

But a tinge of sadness, regret even, is inevitable having been the core point of the team for the guts of 15 years and having won the All-Ireland in 2004, 2005 and under Barry-Murphy way back in 1999.

“There’s people coming up to you saying, ‘Isn’t it great, Cork are in the All-Ireland’, and it is great,” said Cusack.

“But the closest analogy I can give you that’s in my head, and this is coming from heart now; a person said to me the other day, ‘How do you feel, people coming up to you saying isn’t it great Cork are in the All-Ireland final, you must feel something?’ Of course you feel something.

“I imagine it’s like if the love of your life kicked you out. And a while later, you heard they were getting married. And people came up to you saying, ‘Isn’t it great they’re getting married?’

“Of course it’s great. I love that person, I love that game. But I’d still love to be in that relationship. That’s as best as I can describe it.”

Cassidy’s situation was more complex in Donegal. A former team captain and All Star, like Cusack, he was deemed to have broken their dressing-room bond by contributing to a fly on the wall style book chronicling the team’s progress through a Championship campaign.

“He often popped into my head,” said Cusack of Cassidy. “Especially with the way the Championship finished (last year). But sport is funny like that. You need to take it on the chin and learn what you can from it. There’s other people around Cork that I am friendly with, who are in not too different a boat to myself. This is what life is like, you just need to get on with it. The next couple of weeks, as much as possible, you need to enjoy it. If you played for Cork, you’re a Cork man Sunday week enjoying the occasion.”

If Cusack was bitter about it all, he could easily make Anthony Nash the sole focus of his frustration. After all, it was the form of Nash in 2012, when Cusack was struck down by a long-term Achilles injury, that presumably convinced Barry-Murphy to dispense with Cusack’s services permanently.

But if he does hold a grudge against Nash, the man who bookies have installed on short odds for another All Star award later this year, it is not apparent.

In fact, at yesterday’s launch of the One Direct Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Hurling Sevens tournament, he said he could understand the argument that his departure may have perhaps allowed Nash to fully explore his own potential, resulting in the Kanturk man’s excellence throughout 2013. “He is growing into the thing,” said Cusack of his former deputy.

“There was no question over his talent. There was no question over his reflexes or his shot stopping ability. But he has grown into the thing. For goalkeepers, for me in my own career, that has been so important for me, to feel comfortable with where I was, as to how well you could execute the skills.

“And he is after growing there and looks absolutely comfortable in the position.

“Maybe you could think about it yourself, if you were dropped into a position like that on the hurling field. Now goalkeeper is such a pressurised position, you make one mistake and as you saw in the semi-final against Dublin, one mistake can cost you big time. So you really need to be in a position where you’re comfortable. And he’s definitely at that level.”

Strange as it sounds, Cusack could end up managing against Cork in 2014. He has been linked with the Waterford vacancy, his name first publicly floated by John Mullane, and didn’t entirely rule out engaging with Waterford officials if they approach him.

“I’m a hurling man, I love the game (but) I know as much as ye do,” he said. Asked if he would manage outside of Cork, Cusack merely reiterated: “I know as much about it as ye do.”