New Rebel captain ready to go

CORK hurling manager Denis Walsh may not remind many observers of Santa Claus, but his new captain might disagree.

Kieran ‘Fraggy’ Murphy of Sarsfields was visiting friends up the country the day before Christmas Eve when Walsh rang and asked to meet the following day.

“I didn’t know what he wanted to tell me,” says Murphy. “To train over the winter, or to play in the Waterford Crystal League or what – but when we met up he outlined where he was coming from, his plans, and he asked me to be captain.

“I was delighted; it was probably the best early Christmas present I ever got.

“Obviously it’s a big honour for the family and the club, but at the time I only told my family and close friends. When it broke in the paper I’d say nearly every fella in the club was on to me to congratulate me.”

Murphy points out that he has experienced colleagues to consult.

“We’ve All-Ireland winning captains in Seán Óg and Ben in the dressing-room so I’ll be drawing on their experience.

“Once or twice already I’ve asked them and John (Gardiner) how things have been done in the last couple of years and they’ve pointed me in the right direction.

“You’re going to be asking these guys ‘what way did you approach this’, and that’s the way I’ll be operating this year, it’s better for us as a team.”

Murphy, a quantity surveyor with Bowen Construction, says there’s no need to build bridges between players who were on strike last year and the players Gerald McCarthy brought in for early-season games.

“To be honest, that’s happened already – now we’re starting again in 2010, with fellas fighting for positions. Lads have gone, new fellas have come in on top of lads who were there last year and have a little experience.

“One of my jobs would be to help the lads coming in this year, and Denis has said that three or four new guys will be coming in so we’ll have to make sure they’re alright. But anyone who was there last year is well settled in now.”

Getting new players familiarised with the intercounty set-up is one part of the captain’s job.

“It’s a huge part of it because they need to get up to speed as soon as they can. When I came in back in 2003 Seanie McGrath took me under his wing and it’s always been in my head to help new fellas settle in.

“Coming in to the Cork senior hurling panel you’ll be nervous, and there’s a lot of things – masseurs, food and so on – that they wouldn’t have seen at club level that you need to make them aware of.”

One of those new players is Michael Cussen, Murphy’s Sars clubmate, fresh from the county footballers.

“He’s proved in the county championship he’s a good player, but it’s a huge step up, particularly the speed of hurling compared to club level. People need to realise he hasn’t played a lot of hurling in the last couple of years bar games with Sars.

“He developed physically with the footballers but he has to be given time as well. Just because he’s six foot seven he’ll need time and I’m sure Denis and the selectors will show some patience with him.”

There’ll be a lot of focus on Cussen linking up with another big man, Aisake O hAilpín up front for Cork.

“I think we’ll have to wait and see how things go,” says Murphy. “It’s up to Denis and the lads to see how they want to use the players. You probably have nine or ten guys fighting for six forward positions so it’s up to the rest of us to get a position nailed down.

“If the two lads are playing at the same time I’m sure the management will have a system in place to utilise them. Not many teams would have two players who are 6’6”, 6’7”, so if you have them you might as well use them to your advantage.”

Having played Fitzgibbon with LIT for years, Murphy says the Waterford Crystal League, which pits counties and colleges against each other, is ideal for new players.

“I played colleges hurling for years and it’s close to intercounty hurling, so for intercounty managers it’s good to have that level to put a guy into. It’s a step up from club but it’s not quite at league or championship pace, so you can see how lads do against intercounty players with the colleges who have a lot of training done and who are peaking for the Fitzgibbon.”

For reasons all too familiar, Cork have had a settled Christmas this year, unlike the previous two. Murphy hopes they’ll reap the benefits.

“This year we can come in with a plan, whereas last year you were kind of thrown in at the deep end to see if you could sink or swim.

“Now Denis can try out players in a full league campaign, he can look at certain things. Mark McManus has brought in a programme for us which Donal Buckley is overseeing. And that makes a huge difference to your confidence later in the year – you know you’ve done the work. There’s a reason rugby and soccer players do pre-season work, it’s to the players’ benefit. For the last couple of years we probably missed that.”