JBM: I wouldn’t coach any county other than Cork

Michael Moynihan

Friday, November 18, 2011

JIMMY BARRY-MURPHY didn’t dawdle when the call came.

"The [Cork] County Board approached me when they were appointing a new coach and asked if I’d think about it and I did straight away.

"It was very quick. I thought about it overnight and I said I’d do it. Simple as that. I go to all the games but it hadn’t really occurred to me, coming back."

He wouldn’t have gone anywhere else: "I wouldn’t coach any county other than Cork. That wouldn’t arise. I was never asked, anyway."

The former dual star rejoins three players he gave senior debuts to, but he insists "that made no difference" to his decision.

"Coming back in, you have a job to do, and if some of the players are still involved, that’s of no relevance. If I consider them good enough I’d favour picking them, but it’s not an issue.

"It’s the same as it was back in 1996 with the older players then. Now there are three players involved from my last period in charge — Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Donal Óg Cusack and Ben O’Connor. That’s it."

Ó hAilpín’s reinstatement caused a media flurry, but Barry-Murphy says his inclusion in the training panel is "not a huge deal".

"It’s as simple as this," said the manager. "He’s part of an extended panel for training and he’s aware, obviously, that he’s been out of intercounty action for a year. When we sat down as selectors we felt that on the basis of what was available he might have something to offer.

"It’s not a huge deal as far as we’re concerned — it’s a training panel, and Seán Óg knows, having been out for a year, that it may not be easy for him to get back, but we feel he brings qualities to the panel and we’ll assess it going forward."

Barry-Murphy has a mix of youth and experience among his selectors as well.

"Ger [Cunningham] has done a lot of coaching and has a lot to offer on that side, he’ll have a major role in that side of things.

"Seanie [McGrath] would know the underage scene from being with the minors, I played with Kieran [Kingston] and I worked with Johnny [Crowley] before, so I know them all and trust them. You have to have good people with you and spread the workload.

"We wanted to bring in someone with a different outlook, a change of approach, and Dave Matthews was recommended to me. I met him and was hugely impressed.

"Obviously it’s early days, he’s given the panellists a training programme and we feel he’ll bring a new perspective to the whole thing. He competed in two Olympics and still holds the Irish 800m record, and we feel he can bring something different to bring us up to the level of the top teams."

Adopting a common-sense approach to both social media and the press, Barry-Murphy is clear about the bigger task to hand.

"We’ll talk to the players about social media and so on, but I’m not a believer in locking players away from the press or stopping them expressing their views; I encourage players to do that, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

"There’s nothing to be gained from locking players away if they’re strong enough personalities: if they can handle playing in front of 50,000 people they can handle talking to a reporter.

"Denis [Walsh] did a lot of work introducing new players and there’s a period now of continuing that work. I learned from my previous experience that you must blend the older players with newer players coming through."

The challenge for the new Cork management team is in judging players, he says.

"You have to judge whether a young player is ready for the Munster championship, whether he can make that step up. That’s the test for our selection committee and one good thing about the league is that we’ll play five of the top teams in the country. We hope to use those games to identify players who are ready to play championship in June, particularly the younger players.

"With the older players it’s a matter of identifying those who can stay the pace and blending the two, and I’d be fairly confident that can be done.

"We’ve also identified a number of players outside the panel and they’ve been told they may be in our plans later in the year — some very promising young players."

Two of the most promising young players in the county, of course, are involved with the Cork footballers — Aidan Walsh and Ciarán Sheehan.

"The dual player situation is awkward, in that my experience, or Brian Corcoran’s, or Sean Óg’s, is totally irrelevant because the back door at club and county level has changed the scene totally," said Barry-Murphy.

"The number of games and the level of preparation required means it’s very difficult to do both nowadays. That’s not rocket science.

"Obviously Ciarán and Aidan would be phenomenal assets to have — let’s be honest, they’d be on any intercounty panel — and we’d love to have them available, but I’m fully aware that they’re with the footballers.

"All we’ll be doing is keeping the door open and hopefully at some stage they may be available to us."

For all the challenges, the Cork icon is energised by the new post.

"I’m excited, it’s a big job. Genuine hurling people in Cork, people who know the game, will know that we have fallen a bit behind Tipp and Kilkenny. We’d be foolish not to realise that — let’s be realistic.

"But I see no reason why we can’t aspire to be back competing at the highest level within a short space of time."

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, November 18, 2011