GAA president says Dónal Óg Cusack’s comments on the Tailteann Cup ‘weren’t helpful’

In time, Dónal Óg Cusack might eventually be namechecked as the GAA’s foremost Tailteann Cup promotional campaigner – an inadvertent one-man marketing band for also-rans.

The former Cork hurling goalkeeper has come in for criticism because of his recent comments on the second-tier football championship, but his pronouncements have helped generate a level of unexpected commotion around the competition that would get PR companies weak at the knees.

GAA president Larry McCarthy has now poured fresh fuel on the fire, acknowledging Cusack’s disparaging remarks hadn’t gone unnoticed in Croke Park.

“They weren’t helpful,” said McCarthy. “We obviously have a very successful tiered system in hurling, and to make comments like that about the tiered system we have introduced in football was just simply unhelpful.”

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The first spark in this debate was lit by Cusack on The Sunday Game earlier this month when, on the back of GAAGO’s allocation of live hurling fixtures, he delivered an impassioned speech questioning if anybody in the corridors of power “had the back” of the small ball game.

He then followed that up on RTÉ radio with remarks in relation to the Tailteann Cup that resulted in significant kickback.

“The GAA schedule has two provincial football finals and the start of the Tailteann Cup, which if you haven’t heard of it, is a sort of Gaelic football Grand National for disappointed also-rans,” stated Cusack.

On their own, the comments carried a fair dollop of derision, but given Cusack’s position within the Gaelic Players Association, the phraseology was curious as it appeared to scoff at a large proportion of the GPA’s membership.

A terse and uncomfortable exchange followed between Cusack and Joanne Cantwell before last Saturday’s Munster SHC coverage on RTÉ television, when the Cork native took umbrage at being asked to explain his Tailteann Cup comments.

“We’re here to talk about hurling and now we’re talking about Gaelic football,” replied Cusack.

[ The Tailteann Cup deserves better than the casual derision of Dónal Óg Cusack ]

Given the unprecedented number of championship games taking place this year, it is quite remarkable how the Tailteann Cup has remained so newsworthy – albeit more for what is happening off the field than on it. This is the second year of the second-tier football championship.

“It’s still very young,” added McCarthy. “I would suggest that we don’t want to have a sophomore slump, I think I used that phrase before.

“I think it’s going well in the context that counties are getting games and that’s what they asked for, and then we’ll see how it evolves. It will be interesting to see when we get to the playoffs, and then obviously the final is going to be in Croke Park.”

McCarthy was speaking after welcoming representatives from the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were in Dublin to formally launch their NFL marketing rights arrangement for Ireland. The GAA president believes a regular-season NFL game will take place at Croke Park within the next five years.

However, McCarthy does not see the International Rules between Ireland and Australia being revived in the near future.

McCarthy says there are no plans to reignite the series, highlighting the new split season as a contributing factor in the GAA’s position.

“Yeah, it’s off the table for the foreseeable future because what you’d be doing is asking a player to decide between his country and his club,” explained McCarthy.

“Players who are going to be on the international rules team are more than likely going to be on successful club teams, and that’s unfair. It’s not completely gone but let’s see how the split seasons settle in, and then maybe we can revisit it.

“But I mean at the moment, it is off the table. They [Australia] haven’t been requesting it and I visited with them when I was at the Australasian games in Melbourne in October. They were understanding of it, so we agreed that it’s not going to happen in the short-term, but it’s not obviously dead either.”

McCarthy is also reluctant to raise expectations about a potential Katie Taylor rematch with Chantelle Cameron at Croke Park. Earlier this year, the GAA and Eddie Hearn had a somewhat prickly exchange in terms of the cost of renting Croke Park, and ultimately the Bray boxer fought in the 3Arena last Saturday night.

McCarthy says there have been no conversations with Hearn or his team about a rematch taking place in Croke Park.

“We haven’t had any application for them to come back,” said McCarthy.” We’d certainly talk to them, but I don’t how realistic selling out Croke Park in the context of selling out the 3Arena.”

They could always get Dónal Óg on board as a promoter.