The old master for a new era
GERALD McCARTHY pours his tea and sits back for interrogation. The new manager of the Cork senior hurling team, McCarthy brings an impressive CV to the table: five All-Ireland medals — one as a 21-year-old captain. Cork coach. Waterford manager.
Yet coming up to Christmas, there was some uncertainty in Cork: was Gerald interested in managing the hurlers or wasn’t he? Rumours fizzed both ways on Leeside. When he’d finished coaching Waterford in 2001, McCarthy had thought about Cork, but when it became a possibility he had to take some time to consider what that involved. The loose talk was fuelled by his holiday plans.
“It’s a huge commitment. There was a two-week period when I went to Spain and I said I’d think about it out there: that accounted for two-and-a-half weeks, that’s how it stretched out. I spoke to my family about it and got some advice from other people as well before going for it.
“I was genuine when I said I wasn’t ready for it, but I changed my mind after that.”
Even when his appointment was finalised, he was aware of the murmurs.
“I am a bit disappointed with the media treatment of how I was appointed.
“You’d think I was a plant from the county board, which was offensive to me.
“Donal O’Grady was appointed by a seven-man committee for two years, then he stepped down. It was the same for John Allen, and the same committee selected me to carry on. I don’t think it does Cork hurling any good at all to have that smouldering in the background. If there are people who were genuinely aggrieved they weren’t interviewed, they should take that up with the county board. My selection committee and I shouldn’t have to justify ourselves — and we won’t. It was just slightlydisappointing that was smouldering away.”
McCarthy’s work had only begun. With Waterford he’d been manager, coach and trainer, and he knew with the increased professionalism, even since 2001, that was too much for one man. Backroom staff had to be appointed, and in that context he was delighted to retain Jerry Wallis, one of last year’s physical trainers — (“I met Jerry for a couple of hours one night and I was praying he’d carry on, he was so positive and enthusiastic”). There were selectors to find as well.
“I wouldn’t apologise to anyone for the fact that it took time. It’s such a big job that you’d need the people you really wanted with you for it. I had a think about the people I wanted and approached them one by one.
“Martin (Bowen) was an automatic selector and I was delighted to get Donie Collins, Ger Fitzgerald and Cathal Casey involved as well. Donie was involved a few years ago and was a very good selector, very popular and a good man-manager. Ger was already involved as the Cork minor trainer, and it was awkward to change horses in midstream but he felt this was a good place to cut his teeth. Cathal has coached extensively around the county as well, which was what I was after.
“The one thing I’ve learned from coaching is that it’s difficult, after a while, to impart your message to people — players become used to your voice, to the training sessions — so I was interested in getting a bit of variety.
“With Cathal and Ger it’s perfect: we’ll have a common plan but the three of us will be involved in coaching the players, and there’ll be a lot of variety in it for the players. It’s a top-class selection committee and I’m delighted with them.”
The players can anticipate a change in emphasis at those coaching sessions. McCarthy has always been agnostic at best about the new Cork style of play, but his doubts weren’t fuelled by blind conservatism: he felt the approach was being counteracted successfully.
“Last year that was one area I’d have been critical of, that Cork weren’t playing directly enough. With a target man like Brian Corcoran in full-forward and someone like Joe Deane to feed off the half-chances around the square, there wasn’t enough ball going into that area — the build-up was very slow. Cork seemed to score a lot of points in games but not many goals, and I think that was down to the style of play.
“I wouldn’t knock it — the first year it wasn’t bred into the players maybe as much, but since then it’s developed as a possession game. They played it well but teams have become used to it and last year and the year before it was starting to creak a little. Kilkenny had it sussed in the final, and during the year Tipperary played against it well, they made sure their half-backs wouldn’t be drawn out of position. Teams were coming to grips with it and it was becoming harder for it to be effective.
“I’ll be looking for the lads to be more direct. That’s not to say there’ll be no hand-passing, but I feel an overemphasis on it is not working any more.
“It’s not about changing players. That’s not what I’m about. It’s about getting as much as we can out of the players we have available at the moment, to use the most effective style of play that we can. That’s what I’m about.”
The new boss acknowledges that the relatively lengthy appointment process may have led to uncertainty among the panel.
“I can understand a certain amount of apprehension among players — there always is when a new manager comes in, they’ll always prefer the rogue they know to the one they don’t. But I outlined at the meeting that I thought they were a magnificent bunch of players, not just for playing in four All-Irelands in-a-row, winning two, but for what they’d achieved for other inter-county players, not just themselves.
“What they fought hard to win is now the norm for many counties, and I congratulated them for that. I gave them a commitment that none of that would ever change, there’s no fear that we’d go back to the 60s or anything like that.”
IN Cork, success is measured by the presence of the new coach’s namesake. McCarthy — Gerald, not Liam — knows what a team needs to take the biggest prize.
“To win an All-Ireland a team needs three things: skill, obviously. We have that. Probably the next most important thing is the know-how to win, the killer instinct, call it what you will. Cork certainly have that.
“Hunger’s the third thing. If we fail, if the players’ form isn’t up to the previous level, it’ll probably be down to hunger. It all depends on these players’ hunger. If they have all three ingredients we’re in a very strong position; if we fail on hunger, then we may be in a transitional period for a while, we’ll have to bring in younger players.
“Ideally what we’d need is three or four younger players — whether from the subs’ bench or outside — to really come forward and mould themselves into inter-county players. That’s going to be key for Cork, if we can get those players we’ll be motoring.”
There’s a familiar look to the runners and riders for the All-Ireland, but McCarthy is energised by the season ahead.
“Cork and Kilkenny are up there, but so are Waterford and Galway and Tipperary. Limerick are improving. I think the Munster championship will be great this year.
“But not every team has the killer instinct I spoke about earlier. Against Cork, Waterford had a great chance; some Cork fans would probably concede they were the better team over the hour and at the start of the second half they had a great chance to win it. But that’s where killing a team off comes into it. Kilkenny didn’t just beat Galway last year, for instance — they were trying to dent their confidence for the future. That’s in-built in some teams, like Cork and Kilkenny, but other teams wouldn’t have that yet.”
Of course, McCarthy has encountered some of those opposing managers before.
He coached Cork when they beat Babs Keating’s Tipperary in 1990; more recently he and new Galway manager Ger Loughnane met on the sidelines when Clare and Waterford clashed in 1998; his standing in the sunny south-east was borne out by the congratulatory letters he received from Waterford when he was appointed Cork coach.
“I’m looking forward to this season. Ger’s a bit of a late recruit to outside coaching — when I was with Waterford he was very vocal about the fact I was an outside coach — but hurling won’t improve without the likes of Ger, Justin (McCarthy) or Babs (Keating) going to other counties. It’s not going to be improved by a blueprint from Croke Park anyway. When Justin and Babs started coaching outside their counties, it was difficult enough, it’s probably easier now but unless it’s done, hurling won’t improve. It’s great to see Ger with Galway.”
In more general terms, McCarthy sees hurling as much better now than it was. “The physical element that was there when I played is gone — the third man tackle and so on — so the emphasis is on skill. But some players, while very fit, are confined to a narrow enough range of skills when it come to ground hurling and overhead pulling, for instance.
That’s one thing I’ve brought to the Cork players’ notice — they’re very skilful, hugely skilful, but there are some skills that will have to be worked on, such as aerial play.”
Looking forward to the Munster championship already? So are we.
“I was genuine when I said I wasn’t ready for it, but I changed my mind after that.”
“Teams were coming to grips with it and it was becoming harder for it to be effective. I’ll be looking for the lads to be more direct.”
“I thought they were a magnificent bunch of players, not just for playing in four All-Irelands in a row, winning two, but for what they’d achieved for other intercounty players, not just themselves.”
“Ger’s a bit of a late recruit to outside coaching — when I was with Waterford he was very vocal about the fact I was an outside coach.”
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