Walsh braced for the summer road

DENIS WALSH, the new Cork hurling coach, is confident he has both the management skills to handle the group of players who successfully campaigned to have Gerald McCarthy replaced and the coaching expertise which they complained had been lacking.

Walsh said yesterday that he didn’t regard it as a daunting task to be taking over at this particular time.

“What they see is what they get with me — honesty. That’s it, I can’t give them anything more than that,” he commented.

“I’ll try to make sure that I give them the expertise that I hope I would. I presume they are reasonable guys. The guys I know are reasonable guys. That’s the bottom line for me.”

An All-Ireland senior dual medallist and a former Waterford football manager, Walsh revealed that he had made up his mind in two seconds after he had been offered the job last Thursday — following which he fulfilled a commitment to train his club (St. Catherine’s) minor hurling team that night.

Specifically, he expressed confidence he would be able to satisfy the demands of the ‘08 panel in terms of coaching. “That’s the one factor I am looking forward to — getting into the training ground,” he said, adding that there won’t be any big changes.

“At the same time we hope to get the trust of everyone by displaying what we are capable of, but time will tell exactly how people see me and the guys I have brought on board. If you start losing a few games it will be a different kettle of fish, but we will be trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

St Catherine’s man Walsh gave no indication of the style of hurling he hopes to develop, saying that this is ‘a tactical issue’ and he would wish to discuss it with the players first before making any comment. “I’ll really have to size up the situation. You have to work with what you have, what is the best system.”

Denis Coughlan, chairman of the group of former players who made the appointment, expressed the view that Walsh’s experience of both games ‘exposed him’ to different styles of management and that this will be a huge advantage to him. Jimmy Barry-Murphy and John Fenton, the other two former players involved in the process, each concurred.

“Having been involved with Waterford he would have learned a lot. What he brings is a huge level of expertise as regards coaching and having played with him and against him I know the calibre of person he is,” said Barry-Murphy.

Fenton sees him as a man ‘of strong character’, convinced that playing the two codes at the highest level gave him ‘a number of different insights’ of the game. “I have great hopes he will bring Cork back up to the top again,’ he said.

Walsh said his being the first ‘coach-manager’ to be appointed independently in the county gave him the re-assurance of believing that he would have ‘the confidence of all the stakeholders’ involved with the team. “Management has moved on from my time, but at club level I have been known to be innovative in bringing in things that would tally with the way the system is being worked.

“What I see is (the game) coming back to basics. I have been at a good few seminars and coaching courses and listened to Brian Cody and Nicky English and those guys. I have a fair idea of the way they operate but at the end of the day I have a fair idea of the way Cork would like to operate and what’s required. I am confident and the three selectors I have picked are confident I have what it takes.”

He believes there is a good balance in the selection committee, seeing Messrs Buckley, Ryan and Finn as guys of the same ilk as himself — “people that can be trusted, people that are reliable, people that have the greater good of everyone in Cork county in relation to hurling at their best interest.”

In the meantime, he is optimistic about the players’ state of preparedness for the Munster championship meeting with Tipperary at the end of May. “You could see against Limerick how sharp they were hurling-wise. I’m happy enough. A lot of the players were able to play club games early in the year, which they normally wouldn’t.”

Denis Coughlan made it known that Walsh had been the favoured candidate almost from the beginning, saying that apart from his playing career, what qualified him were his club and inter-county management experience, his inter-personal skills and an in-depth awareness of the available talent in the county.

“It’s fair to say now we had a list the first day we met and within 15 minutes that list was shortened and on that short-list Denis was the preferred choice, the unanimous choice really.

“John Considine was contacted by us out of courtesy. We had seen and heard he wasn’t interested but we had to clarify that. John ruled himself out. He was the only other person we contacted and considered.”

Significantly, Coughlan also revealed that an important consideration for the appointments committee was that the new manager would be free of what could best be described as any ‘baggage’ from the previous disputes.

“I had absolutely no idea in detail what the history of all the animosity in Cork for the last two years was, other than what I read in the papers,’ Coughlan explained. “So, before we could appoint our man, all these issues had to be cleared. To be fair to the new man coming in, all the issues had to be cleared and certainly if they haven’t, they will be in a short time.”