Players won’t respond to the old-school coach

If there’s one Irish sports autobiography this year that every sports coach in the country should read, then it is Lar Corbett’s All In My Head.

The more you read the Tipperary hurler’s collaboration with Damian Lawlor, the more you realise the title is a pop back at his detractors and that his performances levels through the years have generally coincided with the mindset of his coaches as much as his own. Another thing you come to appreciate and question is this: how many Lar Corbetts have been let through the net all around the country through sheer ignorance?

Before Corbett was ever even an infuriating talent, he was merely infuriating as a purposeless teenager but under Nicky English he would become an inter-county player and under the guidance of Liam Sheedy and Eamon O’Shea he would adorn the game, playing it with a consistency and brilliance only a handful of forwards ever have for a sustained three-year period.