’Players must keep testing themselves’
Cocky young fellas, waiting to be impressed.
The answer is to put the focus back on the people who are supposed to be doing the work. That’s what good coaches do.
“You might see a bit of that, players expecting to be impressed, but in general the guys we have, we haven’t had that,” said Cork selector Ger Cunningham.
“The training drills, the practice games, what we do in training is always a chance for them to enhance and improve their skills.
“Obviously the players have a certain skill level, otherwise they wouldn’t be there, but they shouldn’t be waiting for me, or for us as a group, to come up with some new way to improve those skills. They need to test themselves all the time, and that’s the message we try to get that across to them all the time.
“We train twice a week and play a game at the weekend, and the players have a gym programme they have to keep up as well, but it’s the stuff they do away from those sessions — the extra bit in the ball alley, the extra bit of speed work — that’s what makes the difference.
“I don’t think you can survive in today’s game with just the two sessions a week. You’ve got to do more, and that’s where you come back to that message we’ve been trying to get across — to improve yourself.”
Cunningham’s focus on the skills of the game is unsurprising: in his autobiography Justin McCarthy described the former goalkeeper as a player who fulfilled his playing potential to the maximum. Now he handles much of the coaching of the Cork side, with Dave Matthews putting the Leesiders through their physical paces.
“The game’s evolving all the time — there’s probably more speed work involved now, speed is king, almost. Look at all the top teams, the corner-back is practically the fastest player on each team.
“Dave’s brought a different aspect to the thing, he’s been a big advantage in that sense — and the response of the players has been top class as well, though that’s only what you’d expect.
“They’re probably doing more running now with Dave than they have done in recent years but in general terms there’s an enthusiasm to try to get Cork back on top, and Jimmy [Barry-Murphy] obviously is a huge part of that in the sense that there’s huge respect for him and huge focus on him.
“Who better to have that focus on him than Jimmy? He’s been well used to that spotlight for years, he’s well able to handle it and it’s ideal from that perspective.”
The endorsements for Cunningham’s coaching aren’t confined to Cork: Waterford star Paul Flynn can remember playing golf with him in 2005, not long after Cork beat Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final, when Cunningham was a Cork selector with manager John Allen.
“I asked him if he’d be interested in managing and he told me he loved the coaching side of things, that he was big into it.”
A couple of years afterwards Cunningham was coaching Flynn’s club, Ballygunner, to the Waterford senior title. Flynn could see trace elements of other coaching approaches in Cunningham’s sessions.
“Yeah, you could see the influence of Gerald [McCarthy], of Justin [McCarthy] and his own ideas. Anyone who’s played under a particular coach would take bits and pieces from that coach when they became a coach themselves.
“When it comes to training sessions he’s well organised, willing to embrace new ideas and avenues, particularly off the pitch — head doctors, video analysis and so on.
“He’s very approachable. I’d think he’s a players’ man.”
Flynn fleshes out what might appear to be a backhanded compliment: “When I say organised, by the way, I don’t mean having a bus ready or having the sandwiches made for after training. I mean that the training sessions are structured in a way that you move from one drill to another and there’s no hanging around. That’s important when you consider the quality of player you’re dealing with.
“Variety may not be as important at intercounty level compared to training a mediocre club team, oddly enough. With a club team where there are lads looking to be entertained. In an intercounty team they’re there to work on something specific — catching, first touch, whatever — and it might look monotonous, but they’re there to work and they get on with it.
“With a club team the lads who wear the jersey numbers from 18 to 24, though, may be looking for a bit of entertainment at training. That’s where the need for variety can come in.”
Former Cork centre-back Ronan Curran experienced the Cunningham approach with his club St Finbarr’s and the Rebels’ senior side. He echoes Flynn on Cunningham’s efficiency — “Training goes along quickly, it’s very intense and efficient” — while noting his clubmate’s approach to individual players.
“He’s very detail-oriented but that’s linked to good man-management skills. Every player’s different and Ger is very good to pinpoint what he needs to improve.
“His appreciation of tactics is very good, too — he’s good to outline what a team should be doing, where the ball should go to get the maximum return. When he trained us with the Barrs he got us to the county semi-final, where we lost to Erin’s Own, who were very good at the time.”
Now Cork are in a semi-final tomorrow themselves, though Cunningham views the Rebels’ first outing of the league campaign was crucial.
“Winning that first game was a big plus, it was a good test for us and playing at home, people wanted to see how we were going... it gave us a good starting point.”
And Tipperary? Cork could end up playing them in the Munster SHC semi-final in two months, after all.
“It’s a cliché, but it’s all about tomorrow. We’re eight weeks away from our championship game, so we’re not looking eight weeks down the road — anything could happen in that time, injuries or whatever.
“There’s talk Tipp have injuries, we have a couple ourselves, and that may be a chance for someone else on the panel to stake a claim to a place.
“There’s a chance we could be playing Tipperary in that championship game, if they beat Limerick, but we’ll take care of that when the time comes. ”
There’ll be plenty of chances to impress the selectors before that, in other words.
