Let’s all keep a close eye on the Sunday Game punditry panel next year.
They faced off countless times on the pitch but Dónal Óg Cusack and Henry Shefflin have saved the real battle for the pages of their autobiographies, with Shefflin waiting six years to reply to the former Cork goalkeeper’s 2009 salvo.
In an extract from his new book, ‘The Autobiography’, in today’s Sunday Independent, 10-time All-Ireland winner Shefflin admits he was furious at Cusack labelling Brian Cody’s team of the noughties “Stepford Wives”… once he figured out what it meant.
“I was at a media function in Dublin one day and the journalists were fussing for my reaction to Dónal Óg’s ‘Stepford Wives’ line, which was all over the newspapers,” writes Shefflin.
“I hadn’t read the book at that time and, at that point, I wasn’t sure what ‘Stepford Wives’ signified. I asked the journalists to turn the tape recorders off because I had no intention of commenting on something I didn’t understand.”
Cusack was referring to the Kilkenny team’s seeming reluctance to back the Cork hurlers during their first strike in protest against the county board.
The relatively new players’ representative body, the Gaelic Players’ Association, had decided at an EGM that the Cork and Kilkenny teams should stage a protest at the 2002 Allianz League final. A modest act of disobedience, they proposed both teams let their jerseys hang outside their shorts and leave their socks around their ankles for the parade.
Cats captain Andy Comerford was the only Kilkenny player to go along with the protest, leading Cusack to compare Cody’s team to the suspiciously submissive wives from the cult 1970s novel, which inspired a science fiction film version.
Not long after that press conference, Shefflin was at home when the film was shown on television. It dawned on him what Cusack was saying in his autobiography, ‘Come What May’, and he was not happy.
“I remember texting Tommy Walsh as it was starting: ‘I see we’re on TV Tommy!’ A short text back: ‘So I see!’
“Watching, the penny began to drop. I was bulling. I saw what Dónal Óg was implying. We’d no minds of our own. We just followed the leader. We were lapdogs. To me, he was out of order. Dónal Óg knew next to nothing about us as people. He was writing from a position of ignorance. I would have massive personal respect for Dónal Óg as a hurler and as a man. I’ve done a few GPA gigs with him and found him hugely likeable. But the ‘Stepford Wives’ thing made me angry,” writes Shefflin.
The pair are now arguably RTÉ’s most prominent hurling pundits, with Shefflin making his television bow this year after his retirement from intercounty hurling.
There has been no obvious tension between the pair but, by returning to the issue after all this time, Shefflin has ensured that both he and Cusack will be asked to relive this old feud when they next meet the press.
Cork had the upper hand early in their rivalry, winning back-to-back All-Irelands in 2004-5, but Kilkenny denied them the three-in-a-row in 2006 – the first title in an unprecedented period of domination, which would see them win eight of the next 10 Liam McCarthys.
Cork were disrupted by further strikes in 2008-09 but, while respecting the Rebels, Shefflin insists Kilkenny had no need to be firebrands as they were treated correctly by their county board.
“Look, if Kilkenny players seemed unusually compatible with our county board, maybe it’s because our county board was unusually progressive. In that context, I couldn’t speak highly enough of Ned Quinn. Cork’s story – their long battle for better treatment and facilities – was light years removed from ours. We’d see John Gardiner appearing on ‘Prime Time’ and none of it made sense.
“Let me say this. I absolutely accept Cork’s argument that they were fighting for a principle of better conditions for all teams, not just their own. In time, maybe less successful counties benefited from that stand. Maybe a lot of people now have the right mileage rate, the right food after training and the right gear because Cork raised their heads above the parapet.”
Shefflin may have respected the Cork players for their stance, but there is no doubt Cusack’s “Stepford Wives” barb left a mark.
“I consider Dónal Óg an iconic GAA figure. He brought goalkeeping to a new level, and the courage he has shown off the field will forever be recognised by anyone with a healthy GAA brain. But he misread us in Kilkenny.”
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