He grasped the nettle on this one.
In the aftermath of another mile-a-minute All-Ireland hurling final, Donal Og Cusack tried his best to put into words what Limerick’s four-in-a-row achievement meant.
On the afternoon and evening coverage, on RTÉ, the former Cork goalkeeper teed off about the daring, work ethic and majesty of the Treaty men.
“They’ve got generational players, which is probably the most important thing,” he said. “The 150 year anniversary of the GAA will be in 11 years time [and] some of those Limerick players will be in the mix for all-time greats of the game.”
Earlier in the day, Dónal Óg Cusack delivered a line that felt pre-planned, if a bit skewed from the Muhammad Ali expression that most of us know.
Ahead of his ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight against George Foreman, in 1974, Ali made the following proclamation:
‘Float like a butterfly sting like a bee – his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.’
Cusack served up a heftier alternative, though, as he leaned back on his chair, in RTÉ’s Croke Park studio, and declared:
“Float like a buffalo, sting like a bee. They stampeded the Cats.”
We check out that phrase and did, in Cusack’s defence, find a band called Float like a Buffalo, so perhaps he is a fan.
Donal Óg "Float like a buffalo 🦬 sting like a bee" 😂 @DonalOgC @RTE2 @TheSundayGame #AllIrelandFinal #Kilkenny #Limerick pic.twitter.com/sceRjDOjiw
— Seaca DeBurg (@Setants) July 23, 2023
"Float like a buffalo, sting like a bee," that's a new one on me Donal Og🤣 #AllIrelandFinal #Limerick
— Ian Cooney (@cooney_ian) July 23, 2023
FLOAT LIKE A BUFFALO STING LIKE A BEE??????
what.. ?#gaa #hurling #crokepark #limerick #kilkenny pic.twitter.com/rhKNNZq6mv
— AM (@snapplebabble) July 23, 2023
Donal Og Cusack on how ‘Limerick have raised the bar’
As Joanne Cantwell, then Jacqui Hurley, dug into what made Limerick the top dogs in the yard, Donal Og Cusack wondered aloud when a challenger would ‘come up with something different’ to test them.
“We’re almost all living in Limerick’s world here, playing the game that they’re so comfortable at,” he said. “In the first half there were some brilliant balls played out by the Kilkenny defence.
“Limerick were nearly happy that they were going for this type of game so it’s going to be really interesting over the next couple of years. There’s loads of different ways to play hurling and every great team brings their own way.
“Limerick have brought this way [so] will someone come up with a different way of taking them on? Because playing them at their own game hasn’t worked for anyone over the last couple of years.
“The great, great teams change the way sport is and from an overall standard Limerick have raised the bar well beyond everybody else over the last number of years,” Cusack. “From a physicality point of view, a skill execution point of view.”
Watch our All-Ireland hurling final review show with Davy Fitzgerald right here
Related links:
- All-Ireland senior hurling final: updates, team-news and talking points
- Limerick take lion’s share of The Sunday Game team of the year, but three other counties feature
- GAA JOE All-Star hurling team 2023
- Henry Shefflin gave a painfully honest interview after Limerick beat Galway
- Conor Whelan explains what All-Ireland hurling final week was like for an inexperienced 18-year-old
