Buckley embracing role of modern selector

THERE was a time when the job of an inter-county selector was simple – a few training sessions, go on the odd scouting mission to check on a specific player in a club game, sit down with the main man a few days before a match was coming up and help pick the team.

Not any more. In the modern management setup there are no soft jobs and so it is that Cork senior selector Pat Buckley now finds his life turned on its head. He had been familiar with inter-county fare, of course, a central member of the Cork team that won the All-Ireland title in 1990. But this? This is all new and demanding.

“When you were playing you appreciated that it was the big stage. But on the management side it’s a very different challenge and being relatively new to the inter-county management scene it’s been a steep learning curve. It’s all about the players, and with all the extra media attention nowadays there’s a huge spotlight on them.

“To play inter-county is a huge challenge, it’s a choice that they make, but to get the best out of them, it’s up to us to make sure everything is right. You must make sure that every process is gone through, so they can focus just on playing. You’re there to facilitate, to make sure everything is right for the players in training and on the day of the game, that nothing is left undone.

“The fundamentals of the game are still the same — hooking, blocking, striking; the ultimate aim is still the same to outscore your opponents. Tactically, however, there have been huge changes, huge pressure on management now to be tactically aware, and in fitness levels too, huge advances. We trained hard, and we were fit, but it’s gone to a new level, a lot more support behind the scenes – backroom teams, statisticians, analysis, the whole lot.”

And yet Brian Cody says that Kilkenny don’t do tactics. “Perhaps not, but definitely Kilkenny understand the modern game. When I talk about tactics I don’t necessarily mean they’re drawn up on the whiteboard. You assess where the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition lie, and try to exploit those, draw up your gameplan. A major tactical challenge is the creation of space. In the past there was no space in around the full-forward line, or even in the half-back line – all the space was between the 65s.

“In the modern game, a major tactical change has been the use of puckouts to try and gain advantage for your team. Now you’re seeing more and more traffic in the middle of the field, a lot of crowding. But, to be a great player at inter-county level you have to have the ability to adapt when the game isn’t going to script. You’ve tried your tactics, and maybe they haven’t worked, so now you need your big decision-makers to step forward and adapt. That’s still the game of hurling.

“You look at Kilkenny – they’re not afraid to hit the fifty/fifty ball out of defence and fellas are willing to compete for it, and able to compete for it.

“They relish that challenge, they attack the ball and win possession. When you’re in possession, it’s very hard to get away from them. They’re a great pure hurling team and we’re under no illusions about them. But I think we’ve done everything we can to prepare. We believe we have the hurling, and if we get the performance, we believe we’ll be thereabouts at the finish.”