Bangers and Nash

17th Jul 2012

When Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack mangled his knee in the league semi-final win over Tipperary last April many Rebels could be forgiven for thinking that JBM’s plans had suffered a major setback.

That dark cloud has now shown a silver lining in the glorious form of one Anthony Nash who not only delivers those monstrously long puck outs and pops over frees from over 100 yards out but has now established himself as an ace penalty taker too.

Kanturk will be renamed Nashville if Anthony eventually bags an All-Ireland senior hurilng medal

As he sprinted back the 130 metres or so to the Town End on Saturday evening having put the manufacturers of the Wexford goal net to the test (not to mind the hapless and misfortunate Wexford threesome who were elected to stand near the sliotar’s terrifying trajectory) the Cork crowd on the terrace gave him a rousing reception.

There were some ferocious shouts of “G’wan Nasher boy!” from underneath the scoreboard as the early anxiety of Wexford’s successful assaults on the Cork defence lifted. He had arrived in more ways than one.

Watch out Mars!

Later when Cork’s full back line lost their concentration and gifted Wexford a late goal, Nash could be seen (and very much heard) barking at the guilty parties in red jerseys.

The Kanturkonian’s leadership and authority between the posts is starting to bud and an unexpected question was floated around the terrace at half time:  if Donal Óg was fit again, would he be a dead cert for the number one jersey now that Nasher notches up a couple of scores per game?

Cork are now paired with our eastern neighbours ‘The Blahs’ for a quarter final showdown in Semple Stadium on Sunday July 29^th. While our team is clearly in flux and still finding its feet, a win against the Deise would give to Cork’s reputation what Nash did to that penalty last Saturday evening: a much needed blast!

In JBM we trust.
 

Don't worry, the Cats will be along another day Nasher!

 

FACT(ish) 
Did you know Nasher's hometown Kan-Turk was named after the town defeated an army of Turkish invaders in 1786 with nothing more than a set of hurleys and sliotars? Years later Eurovision winner Johnny Logan penned a famous song about his Turkish wife whilst sitting outside Bob's bar called 'What's Another Year'. Nasher is believed to have used this as his personal motto while being Donal Óg's under-study.