It seems to me that Ger Cunningham‘s standing has grown through the years. Certainly when he arrived on the scene first he was seen as flaky. He was never commanding in the air despite his height in an era when you had to be. He certainly had way more than one episode of a high ball landing behind him. A terrific shot stopper there can be no doubt about that and he obviously worked very hard on his game because he became more dependable as the years went by. I never saw him as anywhere near being absolutely top drawer though. There were always calls for him to be replaced, particularly down Midleton Way. Those calls were legitimate in my view because Ger Power probably had the edge on him for some of those years.
His puck outs were amazingly long but they played right into the hands of Kilkenny in 1983 and 1992 when he turned Ger Henderson and Pat O’Neill into stars by constantly putting the ball past the centre back but the two lads just dropped back and mopped up everything. This was a particular problem in 1983 when Cork had a huge wind in the second half and Tom Cashman, Pat Horgan and particularly John Fenton, all of them great ball strikers, were screaming for the ball around the halfway line but he kept going long. So much for Cork always having cuteness on the sideline. 1990 was a tour de force performance but it was his clearances, not puck outs, and of course saves that made the difference. Galway didn’t have time to set themselves in position for his clearances and Cork created wreck from them. A great servant to Cork without a doubt but for me Cusack was a steadier keeper. That should go down well here but Cusack was up against Cummins, Davy and particularly Damien Fitzhenry in his day and they were all fabulous keepers. I think they drove each other on and there was certainly nothing comparable to them in Cunningham’s day. I think it was easier for him to stand out in a way.
