Sunday was great.
The FAI Cup final is always a good match, Dundalk and Cork have produced three stellar finals over the past three seasons.
They’ve been the two dominant teams in Ireland over the past four years, Dundalk captured three league titles in-a-row as Cork completed the double this year.
There have been two major things that have happened which has caused some serious animosity between Cork and Dundalk lately other than their rivalry.
- A claim that Cork City players rang Dundalk captain Stephen O’Donnell after their 2016 FAI Cup win to taunt him
- Star Cork player Karl Sheppard re-signing for Cork after Dundalk claiming he was ready to sign for them
Caulfield was on Newstalk’s Off The Ball to clarify a couple of things starting with the Sheppard incident:
“Why would you leak that our player has signed for the other team four days before the cup final? Stuff like that. The most important thing for me with the players was to ignore everything and get all their concentration ready for the game.
“At the end of the day, from my own point of view, some of the stuff that was said wasn’t right.”
And Caulfield also touched upon the phone call:
“That [phone call] 100% didn’t happen.
“Stephen O’Donnell will verify that. He’ll confirm that because he’s a gentleman.”
But the war of words continued as Kenny released a lengthy statement on the Dundalk website where he, firstly, addressed the Karl Shepperd situation:
“Karl Sheppard approached a member of our staff to say he was moving to Balbriggan and would we be interested in signing him. He’s a good player. He can play in a number of positions. Negotiations were concluded quickly and a pre-contract agreement drawn up by the club’s solicitor in September.
“Karl travelled up to the City North Hotel to sign the pre-contract agreement. A pre-contract is a big commitment both ways as, for example, the club would have been liable for this salary for the next two years if he had got injured for Cork. However, we undertook to do that.
“At that time, we could have announced that signing as a pre-contract signing however out of respect for Karl we didn’t. There had just been persistent questions in the weeks leading up to it. We didn’t confirm it but we just couldn’t keep denying it.
“It was like a situation with other players in the league. It wasn’t any different – like Greg Bolger going from Cork City to Shamrock Rovers or to Tobi Adebayo Rowling going to Cork City. There was a lot of speculation about it but we didn’t confirm or deny it.
“After the Cup final, Karl had a change of heart. It’s always difficult for a player to leave and go to a rival to be fair and as a manager there’s nothing you can do in that situation. It’s in the club’s hands now. The club will deal with it as they see best. ”
Kenny also spoke about the alleged phone call:
“In relation to John Caulfield’s accusation of lies on Newstalk’s programme where he claims I made the situation up about a phone call to Stephen O’Donnell, it is common knowledge that Stephen O’Donnell got the phone call.
“We had a meal in the AVIVA on Sunday after the FAI Cup Final. I shook hands with John Caulfield, John Cotter and Liam Kearney. I congratulated them on their FAI Cup win and John could have brought anything up with me then but he chose to go on to Newstalk and attack me personally, accused me of lying and all of that which is completely out of order.
“To suggest that anyone could make something up like that is absurd. It’s bordering on the ridiculous. ”
