Cusack: Cork captaincy a great honour for my family and club
The Cloyne clubman was named as captain for the 2012 season over the weekend by new manager JimmyBarry-Murphy who gave Cusack his championship debut in 1999 against Waterford, with Patrick Horgan of Glen Rovers his vice captain.
“It’s a great honour for myself, my family and friends and for Cloyne to be made captain of the Cork senior hurling team,” said Cusack yesterday.
“I’d like to thank JimmyBarry-Murphy and the management team for giving me that honour, and I’ll be giving it everything I have – Corcaigh abu.”
Barry-Murphy said the goalkeeper was an obvious choice as captain for him and the other selectors.
“Shane O’Neill [the previous captain] came to me and said he wanted to step down, he’s had a lot of injuries over the last couple of years and he wants to concentrate on getting himself right. We felt Donal Óg was the obvious choice — he has the experience to bring to the job, particularly given the present situation, he’s a very experienced player and he’s been there a long time.
“With Patrick, we felt we wanted to give him some extra responsibility, that he can show some leadership up front as well. He’s shown fantastic form for his club in recent years and we wanted to share the responsibility around.”
Cusack is not the first Cloyne man to captain Cork — Christy Ring skippered the Rebels to All-Ireland success in 1953 and 1954 and in more recent years Diarmuid O’Sullivan was captain when Cork won the National Hurling League in 1998.
Cusack has three All-Ireland senior hurling medals – 1999, 2004 and 2005 — and is chairman of the Gaelic Players Association. He was centrally involved in the three Cork player strikes of the last decade.
He and Ben O’Connor are the two Cork players with the longest continuous service on the inter-county senior team, having both played since 1999; Sean Óg Ó hAilpín made his debut in 1996 but did not figure for Cork last season.
