And now for the Bannermen

YOU won’t hear him shouting it from the rooftops, but Justin McCarthy is pleased that Waterford are not facing Galway in tomorrow’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final in Croker.

Thinking back to how they performed against Kilkenny at this stage last year, he is reminded of what happened to Cork in 1985 when he last managed a team at this level. Galway won that year, just as they had 10 years earlier at the beginning of his managerial career. McCarthy essentially regards himself as a coach. He has dedicated his career to perfecting the skills of clubs and inter-county teams. The display of the team in the Munster final reflected the thoroughness of that approach. And he is quick to acknowledge the huge input of his fellow selectors Colm Bonnar, Seamie Hannon, as well as the efforts of the backroom team.

Without a structure that operates efficiently, he would be unable to focus on coaching, he says. Talk to any of the players and they will tell you how much they value the importance of his approach. But the manner in which his hurling drills were also designed to build up a fitness base was not fully appreciated by the panel for a long time.