Rebel star Cussen commits to hurlers
Rebel star commits to Cork hurlers
Michael Cussen has committed his future to the Cork hurling squad for the 2010 season.
Cussen has established himself on the Cork senior football team over the last three seasons but his failure to regain his place after injury earlier this season has convinced him that his future lies with the hurlers.
The 6'7" Sarsfields man has played a pivotal role at full-forward for his club over the last few seasons.
They won the county title in 2008 but were beaten in this year's final by Newtownshandrum on a day when Cussen grabbed four points, one of the few Sarsfields men to perform to any decent standard. His performance that afternoon triggered speculation that a future under Denis Walsh lay ahead.
Cussen has been involved with development squads in recent weeks and over the weekend he was pressed on a decision. It's a decision he says he's "happy" with and he'll be focusing on hurling for the foreseeable future.
Cussen will be a loss to Conor Counihan and his team, despite the fact that he was used sparingly with Cork this year, a bone of contention on Leeside.
Potentially Cussen has the ability to make it and could provide quite an inside attacking threat if he is teamed up with the 6'6" Aisake O hAilpin.
Cork hurlers are also likely to win the battle to secure the exclusive services of Eoin Cadogan, who also came on in the second half of the All-Ireland final against Kerry.
Cadogan made the full-back berth vacated by the retired Diarmuid O'Sullivan his own last season, but when Cork went out of the hurling championship he switched to the football squad to provide defensive cover.
Walsh said earlier this year he would be open to a dual arrangement in some cases, but Cadogan is unlikely to make himself available to both squads.
Meanwhile, Limerick County Board hopes to engage with the eight players who have downed tools in protest at the manner of Justin McCarthy's purge of the 2009 hurling squad in October.
Brian Murray, Damien Reale, Seamus Hickey, Donal O'Grady, Brian Geary, James Ryan, James O'Brien and Wayne McNamara have all quit the panel, leading to an impasse that threatens to engulf the county in the months ahead. They can expect correspondence in the coming days in a bid to entice them back.
The board have backed McCarthy with delegates giving him a 70-54 seal of approval at a special meeting last week. Neither the eight players who have removed themselves or those left out by McCarthy in that original purge have any plans to convene communal training as the Cork squad did 12 months ago.
Enraged
The current situation has enraged the former manager Tom Ryan, an outspoken critic of the County Board.
Ryan says no other manager would have survived after the mauling the county took from Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final.
"There's an elephant in the room here and I wonder who's really calling the shots. The County Board are in dread of their life to move him and McCarthy won't move. Why won't he go? He's doing immense damage to Limerick hurling," declared Ryan.
Ryan fears that the squad, in its current guise, will suffer the same embarrassment as Cork in the early stages of last season's league.
"We have the young players coming through but they're only in the process of being developed and if they get thrown in at the deep end they will be annihilated."
- Colm Keys
Irish Independent
