IN ADDRESSING THE audience at the Clarion Hotel for the Bord Gáis Energy ‘Winning in Business’ function on Wednesday morning, Dónal Óg Cusack drew a commercial comparison to what he felt was the pivotal moment in the stunting of the progress of the Cork hurling team a decade ago.
Current Clare coach Cusack partook in a panel discussion alongside Roy Keane and Fiona Coughlan and, following on from a point made about high standards, he painted a picture of how the Cork County Board made what he felt was a big mistake after the 2006 season.
On John Allen’s departure, he was replaced by Gerald McCarthy rather than the board promoting Ger Cunningham from within the set-up, as the players would have preferred.
“From our point of view, a huge gulf had emerged between the players’ reality and the administrators’ reality,” Cusack said.
“Both groups would have loved Cork to win, but there was a huge difference in the belief as to how they should get there. In 2006, Cork were seen as being the market-leaders in having the most professional team in the game and had a serious management structure behind them. We won the All-Ireland in 2004 and ’05, Kilkenny beat us by one score in 2006 and, that winter, 15 of the 16 in the backroom team were wiped out.
“Cork had the biggest travelling support in the game, 25-30,000 people going to matches, and you had a bunch of players who were absolutely committed to being the best that they could be. If anybody ever looks back properly on the history of that whole thing, they’ll look at that winter.
“If that was business, you were the market-leader, number one in 2004 and ’05 and then slightly beaten in ’06, what kind of a board of directors would take out the entire management structure?”
Cusack is now part of Davy Fitzgerald’s set-up in Clare, happy to work with someone who was a rival during their playing days. Never a yes-man, Cusack agreed with one of Keane’s points that conflict can be positive within a team group.
“Whether we like it or not, most people are followers, so you have to make sure that they’re going in the right way,” he said.
“It’s all about small steps. People are talking about us playing Waterford in the championship but we’re playing them in the league final too and you genuinely can’t do anything other than train for that and do the small things right.
“The lads on Newstalk were having a laugh the other night that I said there’s no magic, but there’s not. It’s about all those basic things. Of course, you must have the overall aim of winning the Liam MacCarthy and it’s always interesting to hear about the journey compared to what you want to win.
“If you put all the right steps in place, it has a better chance of coming through. Conflict is interesting, I read a book a few years ago, The Five Dysfunctions of A Team, and of those dysfunctions was the fear of conflict.
“I’d encourage that, at work too. Guys would say, ‘You’re throwing in the ball there’, or ‘Don’t bring this up [at the weekly meeting] on Friday’, and I do exactly that.”
Fine margins. If the ref had not allowed an extra play, Cork would have been All-Ireland champs in 2013. The 2013 CLare vintage, re-discovered their pulse against KIlkenny last Sunday. Yet Tipperary probobly should have beaten them in Ennis. For the want of a solitary point, many a team perishes. For all the tactics and amazing players, luck plays a huge part also.
Very true Eddie, particularly for knock out cup competitions such as the all ireland, which suggests the league is prob a better gauge of strength in depth of a team over time
Awh ye, blame the poor auld ref lol.. match is never over till the whistle is blown eddie. Anyway we proved who were the real masters in da replay
I’d love a sitcom based on the Cork county board. Frank as a Basil Fawlty type figure
Unfair on poor Basil !
Cork could have been competitive for a few more years instead fading quickly after 06
If my auntie had liathroidi she’d be my uncle
Donal Og will get his day in the spotlight this summer. All the shitalk he has been spooning the Cork public and the country in general will be back to haunt him when Clare’s tactics get exposed under pressure.
A bullshit artist of the highest calibre
Jeez the begrudgery is strong in this one, the man was a very good communicator and analyst on tv, and he now seems to have contributed positively to a previously poisonous team, deal with it
Rebels? The only rebel they ever had they shot him!
Looks like your a bit of a historian there Vinny and i suppose you know who shot him too?? you little bolox!!!