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Post by Mickmack on Dec 2, 2020 15:34:02 GMT
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Tommy Conlon November 29 2020 02:30 AM
It was July 1997 and Bernard Cusack, at the age of 102, knew that his time left on earth could now be counted in days. He was ready to meet his maker, recalled his son Owen last week, "but he didn't want to meet him until the game was over".
The game in question was the Ulster football final, to be played in Clones on Sunday, July 20, between Derry and his beloved Cavan. Born in 1895, Mr Cusack had known all the glory days and seen most of them. He was there when Cavan were lords of Ulster for the first 50 years of the 20th century, and lords of Ireland in 1933, '35, '47, '48 and '52.
But by 1997 they'd been reduced to starvation rations. They hadn't won Ulster since '69. In the days of plenty it was inconceivable that they would have to wait 28 years for a provincial title. And having waited that long, Bernard decided that the God in whom he deeply believed could wait a bit longer for him too.
Owen Cusack is himself now 80. He remembers his father's final week like it was yesterday. Bernard had broken his hip a few weeks earlier. He was in Lisdarn Hospital in Cavan town. "And he was ready to - he was just ready to die. But he had his senses and all that."
A farmer in the parish of Lacken, he would regularly go for a drink in Phil Masterson's pub in nearby Ballinagh. "And then you see, he used to meet some of the Cavan footballers in Masterson's, Stephen King and (Bernard) Morris and a lot of them maybe after matches."
Bernard had the height of time for Stephen King, a midfielder who in his prime could stand toe-to-toe with the best midfielders in Ireland. The Killeshandra man was captain in '97 and on his last legs as a footballer.
He was pushing 35 and in his 18th season with the county. He had known nothing but the doldrums wearing Breffni blue but wasn't the type to mope about it; he loved his time in the county jersey, irrespective of the absence of medals. Bernard Cusack had seen all the Cavan greats over the previous 80 years and admired King as much as he admired any of them.
Three or four days before the '97 final, the doctors moved him to a private room. They could do no more. Phil and his wife Eileen were regular visitors during those weeks.
"So then Mrs Masterson went in to see him one day in the hospital before he died," recalls Owen, "and he was praying. And she said to him, 'What are you praying for?' 'Well,' he said, 'I'm praying that Stephen King will lift the cup, that Cavan will win the Ulster championship. I know I'm gonna die but I'll not die,' says he, 'until the game is over'. That was a couple of days before the match."
He lapsed in and out of consciousness during the following days. On the Friday he seemed close to exhaustion. But he rallied somewhat. Owen says he was always hardy - a country man, an outdoors man.
"Ah he was always tough, you know, he was a very healthy man. He was a great huntsman, a very active little man, blessed with good health and great memory." He'd been a footballer too. "He played with Bruskey in the 1920s, they had a team in Bruskey that time, there was no team in Lacken. They got to a final that time but he couldn't play because he got his back broke, a wall fell on him and broke his back."
In his room in the Lisdarn was a television attached to the wall. On the Sunday, Owen and his five sisters kept a bedside vigil around their father. They followed the match on TV.
It was an agonisingly tight game. The teams were level no less than eight times in the first half alone. Their father could only "see glimpses of it" but they were updating him with every score and he could grasp the ebb and flow. "Oh he could know, oh by God he could." Then young Jason Reilly, in off the bench, drilled the game's only goal ten minutes from time. The match had broken Cavan's way. They saw it out to win by the narrowest of margins, 1-14 to 0-16.
"And when the game was over he said, 'Thank God it's all over now, I can go'. And he died the next morning at five o'clock, the Monday morning. And Stephen King rang Masterson's, because we had no phone at the time, on the Monday about 11 o'clock to see when would he bring in the cup (into the hospital) but he had passed away."
It didn't matter. The man died peacefully and happily having his final wish fulfilled. He had lived long enough to hear the good news. King and Morris and several more of the victorious Cavan players paid their respects at Bernard's funeral.
After '97, Cavan would have to wait another 23 years for their next Ulster title, delivered last Sunday against all the odds with a performance that will go down in the local annals. Veteran followers of the county's fortunes say it is up there with their defeat of Down, then the All-Ireland champions, in '62, or their 1969 victory, also against Down who were again the defending All-Ireland champions. Owen Cusack was at those games and many more besides, like his father before him. In all honesty, he has to admit, he did not see last Sunday's performance coming.
"Not at all, no, not at all! I knew they had a bit of fight in them but sure Donegal, they were talking about them as the only team that'd bate Dublin and that." He has two young neighbours who starred last Sunday, Thomas Galligan and his cousin Raymond Galligan, the goalkeeper and captain. They live only "a stone's throw across the fields". He was extremely proud of them last Sunday.
In normal times, the county would have jacked the traces for a week of celebrations. Instead they had to make do with a cavalcade of cars on Sunday evening beeping their horns and flashing their lights in a drive-by salute to their heroes outside Breffni Park. The players stood up on an open-sided lorry and took the acclaim as Cavan's supporters cheered them from the safety of their cars. It was the best that everyone could do in the circumstances.
Owen lives on his own but had a nephew over for company. "The only regret is that there wasn't an auld pub open. But we had a couple of little sups. It wasn't tae now we drank, I tell ya."
Sadly, since '97, Phil and Eileen have also gone to their eternal reward. And their bar that was once the vibrant centre of community life for Cavan's standing army of supporters has also long since closed. Times have changed, society has changed, and one cannot but feel a pang of sadness at the passing, one by one, of these modest establishments that offered a home away from home for lovers of the game.
It was Phil himself who told this writer the story of Bernard Cusack a few days after Stephen King had lifted the cup. I had gone down to write a colour piece for the Sunday Times, knowing well that a county besotted with Gaelic football would offer rich material for a good story. But even knowing this, one didn't expect to hear about a man of 102 who literally postponed his own death until he got word that the team had won. In the circumstances it was surely meant to be: no one but no one could deny a dying man his heart's desire.
I wrote the story for the following Sunday's edition. The headline on the piece was 'Heaven can wait for Cavan'.
Sunday Indo Sport
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Post by Galway breeze on Dec 5, 2020 19:47:26 GMT
Dublin looking good for ten in a row only Mayo can stop them. Funny Mayo have been more successful in the last two years without Donie Buckley then the previous 5 years. Hopefully Mayo can finally get to the final and win it.
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Post by kerrybhoy06 on Dec 5, 2020 20:00:30 GMT
Dublin looking good for ten in a row only Mayo can stop them. Funny Mayo have been more successful in the last two years without Donie Buckley then the previous 5 years. Hopefully Mayo can finally get to the final and win it. What are you talking about? More successful? Are you nuts? How can you possibly think they had a more successful championship last year than years when they took Dublin to a replay? You might be anti-Buckley but there’s no need to make up bullsh*t stories to convince yourself Dublin beat them by 10 points in a semi final last year & you think that’s more successful than making a final and bringin it to a replay? Do you understand football? Do you understand the scoring system or the concept of round by round progression?
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Post by Mickmack on Dec 5, 2020 20:29:55 GMT
Dublin looking good for ten in a row only Mayo can stop them. Funny Mayo have been more successful in the last two years without Donie Buckley then the previous 5 years. Hopefully Mayo can finally get to the final and win it. for your information, in 2018 Mayo lost to Kildare and in 2019 Dublin beat then by more than 10 points.
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Post by Kerryman Randy Savage on Dec 5, 2020 20:42:39 GMT
Could anyone lock Bernard Brogan out of his Twitter account? Some absolutely shocking takes since retiring and is only damaging his reputation now.
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Post by Galway breeze on Dec 5, 2020 20:54:50 GMT
IMO reaching finals is not successful winning them is. Mayo won National league last year and Connaught so far this year (all Ireland 2020 who knows) in comparison to two Connaught championships between 2014-2018.
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Post by southward on Dec 5, 2020 20:55:26 GMT
Dublin looking good for ten in a row only Mayo can stop them. Funny Mayo have been more successful in the last two years without Donie Buckley then the previous 5 years. Hopefully Mayo can finally get to the final and win it. for your information, in 2018 Mayo lost to Kildare and in 2019 Dublin beat then by more than 10 points. Not to mention Kerry destroying them in the super 8s last year.
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Post by kerrybhoy06 on Dec 5, 2020 21:05:13 GMT
IMO reaching finals is not successful winning them is. Mayo won National league last year and Connaught so far this year (all Ireland 2020 who knows) in comparison to two Connaught championships between 2014-2018. We won the league this year, was it more of a success than last season?
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Post by taggert on Dec 5, 2020 21:09:13 GMT
As much as it was great to see Cavan win Ulster for their county, it robbed us of what I thought could have been a very good test of the Dubs against a pumped up Donegal.
Not unlike Kerry against Cork, I firmly believe the Donegal players and management team simply felt they would not lose to Cavan and took their eye off the ball by thinking about the Dubs a game too soon - when they realised they were in a game in their provincial final, it was too late to flick the switch. A complete waste of time tonight as a result.
No doubting the greatness of the Dublin machine since 2011 and some of the finest exponents of the code ever in their ranks, but I dont subscribe to the theory that they are unbeatable and I would hate to see the County split in 2 to even the competition. Its always been the case in sport that a majority are usually also rans and only a minority are real contenders. Dublins narrow All Ireland wins does not tell me they are uncatchable....
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 21:09:15 GMT
Great, a debate about which losing team is better
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 21:14:05 GMT
As much as it was great to see Cavan win Ulster for their county, it robbed us of what I thought could have been a very good test of the Dubs against a pumped up Donegal. Not unlike Kerry against Cork, I firmly believe the Donegal players and management team simply felt they would not lose to Cavan and took their eye off the ball by thinking about the Dubs a game too soon - when they realised they were in a game in their provincial final, it was too late to flick the switch. A complete waste of time tonight as a result. No doubting the greatness of the Dublin machine since 2011 and some of the finest exponents of the code ever in their ranks, but I dont subscribe to the theory that they are unbeatable and I would hate to see the County split in 2 to even the competition. Its always been the case in sport that a majority are usually also rans and only a minority are real contenders. Dublins narrow All Ireland wins does not tell me they are uncatchable.... Some team will beat Dublin of course but then Dublin will go onto win 8 of the next 10 at least again
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Post by gaelicden on Dec 5, 2020 21:37:04 GMT
Can anyone entertain me on the banning of the hand passed goal in the 80's. The legend I've heard is that it was to curtail the Golden Era Kerry team. The only reason I ask is because I feel the palmed goal could easily go the same way. Dublin once again palmed the ball into the net against Cavan tonight. Can't remember such a team that palms the ball into the goal very regularly, maybe I'm just exaggerating it. But the game is called football, not palmball.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 21:48:30 GMT
This guy has no shame
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Post by southward on Dec 5, 2020 21:51:38 GMT
Can anyone entertain me on the banning of the hand passed goal in the 80's. The legend I've heard is that it was to curtail the Golden Era Kerry team. The only reason I ask is because I feel the palmed goal could easily go the same way. Dublin once again palmed the ball into the net against Cavan tonight. Can't remember such a team that palms the ball into the goal very regularly, maybe I'm just exaggerating it. But the game is called football, not palmball. The palmed goal from a handpass should be banned. Nothing to do with football, little or no skill involved; it's a cheap way of scoring goals.
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Post by Kerryman Randy Savage on Dec 5, 2020 22:01:16 GMT
Same energy and delusions
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Post by wideball on Dec 5, 2020 22:01:40 GMT
Wonder when that realisation struck him? Some people actually have no self awareness. He is actually boasting about a policy decision which has lead to the uncompetitive rubbish that the game has become. Unbelievable.
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Post by onlykerry on Dec 5, 2020 22:42:32 GMT
The change to the hand passed goal came due to a general reaction to the style of hand pass allowed and used by Dublin and Kerry in particular in the 70's - the hand pass itself was under scrutiny if memory serves me and the upshot was the banning of the overhand hand pass (passed with the fingers pointing skywards for a better description) along with scoring a goal with a direct hand pass. I don't see a problem personally with the palmed goal provided it does not originate with a hand pass - a kick pass being fisted or struck by a hand to the net is ok in my book. The one I think is turning into a cheap one is the forward mark - no skill whatsoever being rewarded with a free kick on goal. Dump it or at the very least change the kicking position to having to originate inside one 45 and being caught in the other. Overall the first semi final has done nothing to lift the doom and gloom - Dublin's dominance is becoming tiresome. The lack of emotion shown by Dublin at making another AI final speaks volumes about the dominance which is becoming soulless and joyless.
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Post by john4 on Dec 5, 2020 23:24:17 GMT
Twitter is full of people from all over the country questioning where the inter-county (football) game is going. This momentum cannot be ignored,
The final could be a seminal moment with regards to the issue of funding.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 23:54:34 GMT
I hope Dublin win the final by at least 15 points
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Post by baurtregaum on Dec 6, 2020 0:31:42 GMT
I hope Dublin win the final by at least 15 points Spoke to a Mayoman before last years final and he expressed similar sentiments. He would normally have gritted his teeth and cheered for us, he said, but a Kerry win in 2019 would be used by the GAA as an example of a competitive championship for years to come and no action taken.
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Post by Mickmack on Dec 6, 2020 0:38:44 GMT
As much as it was great to see Cavan win Ulster for their county, it robbed us of what I thought could have been a very good test of the Dubs against a pumped up Donegal. Not unlike Kerry against Cork, I firmly believe the Donegal players and management team simply felt they would not lose to Cavan and took their eye off the ball by thinking about the Dubs a game too soon - when they realised they were in a game in their provincial final, it was too late to flick the switch. A complete waste of time tonight as a result. No doubting the greatness of the Dublin machine since 2011 and some of the finest exponents of the code ever in their ranks, but I dont subscribe to the theory that they are unbeatable and I would hate to see the County split in 2 to even the competition. Its always been the case in sport that a majority are usually also rans and only a minority are real contenders. Dublins narrow All Ireland wins does not tell me they are uncatchable.... Some team will beat Dublin of course but then Dublin will go onto win 8 of the next 10 at least again Whats needed now is 10 in a row and let the split up of Dublin take place.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Dec 6, 2020 2:10:03 GMT
So we're basically advocating surrender?
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Post by Kerryman Randy Savage on Dec 6, 2020 3:00:11 GMT
So we're basically advocating surrender? no, there's always hurling
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2020 4:10:32 GMT
So we're basically advocating surrender? I guess we should volunteer a bit more than Dublin or as ‘Berno’ said perhaps we are not working as hard in the gym or practicing the frees like rock enough. Let’s keep pretending that’s all that needs to be done. How has that worked so far
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Dec 6, 2020 7:02:10 GMT
So we're basically advocating surrender? I guess we should volunteer a bit more than Dublin or as ‘Berno’ said perhaps we are not working as hard in the gym or practicing the frees like rock enough. Let’s keep pretending that’s all that needs to be done. How has that worked so far Kerry and Donegal certainly can't say they did everything as well as they could have this year (this odd year).
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2020 7:50:38 GMT
And they both still lose to Dublin by 6-10 points if they had
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Post by Galway breeze on Dec 6, 2020 9:20:01 GMT
It’s very easy, just ban Dublin from the championship and Kerry will have a better chance of winning it. If Roger Federar or Usain Bolt were taken out other athletes would have won their sport. Money doesn’t buy the smartness of Dublins tactical play or how clinical they were in front of the posts yesterday it down to practice. Dublin are ahead and constantly producing new players each year unlike all other counties. It’s disheartening to think that rather then developing better players and train harder to catch the top people want to take the easy route and get rid off Dublin. The towel has been thrown in by a lot of counties.
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Post by taggert on Dec 6, 2020 10:22:55 GMT
And they both still lose to Dublin by 6-10 points if they had 6 to 10 points? When have they last beaten Kerry by 6 to 10 points in League or C'ship. I'm not disputing Dublins dominance at the top table but is hammering any of the perennial also rans like W'meath, Laois, Meath and Cavan really a surprise? Its boring and hopeless for those teams but I woukd expect a fit and firing Kerry to rinse all those teams. Yes, Cavan won Ulster but could have lost all their games in Ulster, sone of which were against distinctly average teams. The truth is, if we hadn't taken our eye badly off the ball against Cork, a majority on this forum would be very confident of beating Tipp and Mayo (today), and quietly confident of beating Dublin in a final. Thats not me saying the 'funding' and 'Croke park for home games' are not real issues - they are and are compounded by the growing population in Dublin - but I do think we can topple Dublin.
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Post by pillar on Dec 6, 2020 10:30:44 GMT
I hope Dublin win the final by at least 15 points Dublin winning margin in finals and semi finals,excluding yesterday, is much much less.Taken to replays,last minute points.The Dublin invincibility is built in Leinster where there is no one to threaten them,and teams beaten before a ball is thrown in.An argument can be made for an open draw.Id imagine an away trip to Castlebar,Omagh,Ballybofey,Killarney would be a better experience for them than a routine pasting of poor old Wicklow in Croker!!
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Post by taggert on Dec 6, 2020 10:37:16 GMT
I hope Dublin win the final by at least 15 points Dublin winning margin in finals and semi finals,excluding yesterday, is much much less.Taken to replays,last minute points.The Dublin invincibility is built in Leinster where there is no one to threaten them,and teams beaten before a ball is thrown in.An argument can be made for an open draw.Id imagine an away trip to Castlebar,Omagh,Ballybofey,Killarney would be a better experience for them than a routine pasting of poor old Wicklow in Croker!! Agreed.
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