The management thing is exaggerated

Conor Counihan: Five minutes, five questions

When you sit down to pick a team, are you looking to finish with a better 15 on the pitch?

“Both. Some guys are fast starters. Some guys are better coming in to a game having sized it up for a while. Horses for courses. Circumstances often dictate selection. Is a guy coming back from injury? Did this fella do well with his chance the last time, so why should we drop him? Would this fella suit the man he’s likely to face, or be picked up by? All those things come before the thought of having your best team on the field at the finish.”

How different a coach are you now from 2010?

“Others will be better able to answer that. It’s not me as a manager or a coach. It’s about the management team and the players and how we’ve developed collectively over the past two years. It’s a cliché, but we’ll live or die by that.Tactics are a very fickle business. If you win, you’re a master tactician, if you lose you got it all wrong. So much of that is down to the opposition. Do they set themselves up in a way that suits you? I wouldn’t be saying this flippantly but the whole management thing is exaggerated. You manage and facilitate as best you can.”

Players win matches, coaches lose them?

“Maybe, but from my point of view it’s important to delegate to those around you to get the best out of the players. It’s grown so big now, so expansive, that you’d be a fool to think you could even manage half of the responsibilities involved. But the team very much dictates the agenda. What are we good at, what do we need to work on? You look at those things and set your schedule accordingly. It’s still all about the players.”

Has the physical coach become more important than the football coach?

“I would hope not. The physical coach is very important nowadays but it’s called football. It must be about kicking scores and getting people into watch and offering something that keeps them there and gets them excited. Great scores from great players.”

Is this Cork team worth more than one All-Ireland title?

“We’d like to win another All-Ireland for sure, but when we are all finished, we will have plenty of time to look back and reflect in history. But at this moment, we are in the now, preparing for an All-Ireland semi-final, and that’s the only controllable we have at the present time. So let’s focus on that.”