Carey defiant on Cats' GPA stance after Cusack jibes
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DJ Carey has defended his former Kilkenny colleagues for their lukewarm support for the Gaelic Players' Association, a criticism raised by the association's chairman, Donal Og Cusack, in his forthcoming autobiography 'Come What May'.
Carey, a founding member of the players' body and one-time president, admitted he couldn't disagree with Cusack about Kilkenny's involvement with the GPA but added that Donal Og had to appreciate the different backgrounds they were coming from.
Carey said he condemned any personal abuse directed at Cork hurlers during the league game in Kilkenny earlier this year when the home side won by 27 points and got a standing ovation coming off the field.
Cusack claims a member of the Cork backroom staff heard a supporter in the stand roar, "Where's the nigger now?" in the first half, an apparent reference, he says, to Sean Og O hAilpin.
"I would challenge any supporter, from Kilkenny or anywhere else, if I heard that remark at a game. Of course it is unacceptable but abuse comes with the territory. I've been spat at myself coming off the field at games in Kilkenny."
Cusack is scathing in his criticism of Kilkenny and some of their high-profile players for not putting their collective shoulder to the GPA wheel in a much more meaningful way over the last decade.
"I always think that Kilkenny could have driven it on as much as we (Cork) did but maybe they were just genuinely happy with their own lot. That's their choice, but even they have benefited along the road," he wrote.
"We have made different journeys. We struggled and Kilkenny left us out there to walk the path alone. Through all the troubles we have had we have often thought how much easier and how much more effective for all players this would be if Kilkenny and Cork were marching together. Fine, let's flake each other on the pitch but let's pull together off it.
"It hasn't happened like that though. The more strife we have in Cork, the more pointedly 'of the establishment' Kilkenny seem to become. The more disorder there is in Cork, the more Kilkenny likes to be thought of fondly as the land of milk, honey and contentment.
"The GAA's version of 'The Stepford Wives'," writes Cusack.
"They went their way I suppose and we went ours. They are a great team but I wouldn't be gone on them bar say Eddie Brennan, who I know stands up for the GPA in a tough dressing-room environment.
"I understand they have their different ways and who am I to say which way is the best or right? We all have to take our journeys and do what we have to do, but Kilkenny? I wouldn't be gone on them. I imagine the feeling runs both ways."
argument
Carey said the backgrounds of both teams and their respective counties had to be factored in to give Cusack's argument about Kilkenny a perspective.
"Donal Og is someone who I have a lot of time for and without the input of the Cork players coming together, there wouldn't be a GPA. That's a fact. Their strength of unity in 2002 made the GPA. And I am still wholly supportive of the GPA even though I earnestly feel it is an organisation for current players, not past players.
"But prior to 2002 Cork didn't have a huge involvement in the Gaelic Players' Association. When they had their own troubles later that year it galvanised them, gave them the confidence to know that strength in numbers could get them places. They carried that to the GPA.
"At that time many of the current Kilkenny players were young; Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney, even Henry (Shefflin) was still in his early 20s. They were more concerned with making the Kilkenny team.
"There were no problems in Kilkenny. The players got everything they sought and more. And that's the environment they came from, which was wholly different from Cork. That has to be taken into context too.
"I agree that if Kilkenny had been more supportive, as Donal Og says, the GPA would have been stronger.
"But Kilkenny were so well looked after in their own county it was hard for these players to be militant against their own board, a unit of the GAA. There were never battles with the board. Brian Cody, and in particular Ned Quinn, made sure of that," said Carey.
"Cork were more conditioned to it because of what went on in their own county. And I admire them greatly for it. But in Kilkenny Ned Quinn made sure we never had to go public on anything. I always stood square with the GPA and I suffered in my own county for that. I took some abuse for it.
"But I had spent my time travelling the country listening to complaints from players in other counties. That's why I became so immersed in the GPA."
Carey said that if Cusack felt Kilkenny was a land of milk, contentment and honey, that's because it was.
"Because they were successful and so well looked after by the board, the Kilkenny players would have felt loyalty to the board and that factored in to the approach to the GPA. Every county is different." Carey admitted he too turned down a lucrative offer from Lucozade Sport because of respect for C&C and Club Energise.
Cusack holds up Sean Og O hAilpin as an example of GPA solidarity for turning down Lucozade Sport for Club Energise (ironically O hAilpin did a Volkswagen promotion last week despite Opel's sponsorship of the GPA awards scheme).
On the subject of the abuse last April, Carey is sure it came from a minority.
"There is a minority in every county. I've suffered from it in Kilkenny. I think genuine hurling people in Kilkenny and other counties appreciate Cork for the hurlers they are."
- colm keys
Irish Independent
