Keeping the Cats purring

DESPITE claims to the contrary, the Kilkenny senior hurling management team is a fairly democratic institution these days.

Yes, Brian Cody is very much at the helm but everyone else on the team is expected to pull their weight.

So it is that former Laois football manager but long-time Kilkenny resident Michael Dempsey finds himself with dual responsibility. Dempsey is team selector along with Cody and Martin Fogarty but also works as trainer along with specialist Noel Richardson.

It was on the latter topic, however, that he came under closest scrutiny at the recent Kilkenny media evening, and specifically was quizzed on how this team maintains its superb physical condition?

Dempsey downplays their role on the sidelines. He explained: “A lot of what we do is hurling-specific. Pre-season is about getting their fitness levels up and then during the summer, it’s matches and hurling. It is then about keeping them sharp, keeping them fresh, and trying to keep them healthy.

“Obviously the months of January/February/March is pre-season and we get a lot of hard work done, but most of the players have accumulated a lot of fitness over the last five to 10 years, and that’s the key to it – along with their lifestyle. There’s a reasonable amount of work involved but not a huge amount.

“You have to look at the lads we’re dealing with, their attitude, and obviously they’re an exceptional bunch of committed players – whatever they have to do, they’ll do it.”

Not a lot has changed over the years either, according to Dempsey, with no ground-breaking trend-setting training techniques being employed.

“We’re still following the same formula, just tweaking it a bit and adding some variety. You try to push it a bit and to improve standards all the time. When you’re dealing with the same players over a period of years, you try to individualise it a bit more. You’re looking at the individual player more than the team.

“We have players of different ages, different histories with regard to injuries, different length of playing careers, and you cater for that. I would say most counties now have adopted the same approach, everything is geared towards speed, endurance, strength, power. For hurling it’s more about the skills.”

Given the age profile of this team, and of the panel especially (only Eddie Brennan, Martin Comerford, Michael Kavanagh, Derek Lyng, PJ Ryan and Henry Shefflin are over 30, ready-made replacements already in place for several of those), isn’t it conceivable that these guys could go on for another four or five years?

Such an analysis is too simplistic, according to Dempsey.

He argued: “I feel that hurling is more physical than football at the moment; there’s more running involved in football but it has become a possession game, the ball is usually gone before contact – there’s a lot of twisting and turning in football but if you were to examine it very closely, I would say there’s a lot more physical contact in hurling with regard to fighting for possession. The advantage we have in Kilkenny is that we tend to get good breaks between games and fellas can go back to their clubs.”

Then, however, the real secret of Kilkenny’s success, as seen through the knowledgeable eyes of an ‘immigrant’.

“I think a lot of it is that the lads just love playing hurling, there’s a love affair with the game. Our sessions are so enjoyable – they just love what they’re doing, and obviously the fact they’ve been successful makes it easier to keep the motivation levels high.

“Most teams have moved away from doing the real slogging and all the laps that were there years ago; the emphasis now is more on speed and power. The question of longevity, that comes down to injuries, to winning, and we’ve been particularly lucky to have those players at the top of the game for a number of years. Are they enjoying it? In Kilkenny we’ve been lucky in that respect, up until this year anyway, the players love what they’re doing.”

And what of those training sessions? According to wing-back JJ Delaney, the myths building up around what happens midweek in Nowlan Park is just that – mythology.

And Michael Dempsey concurs. “It probably has taken on a bit of mythical status but if you look at any manager in any code, what he’s looking for is that his players train as they play, so what’s the big secret? That’s what we do, but because it’s Kilkenny, and because we’ve won what we’ve won...”

And Brian Cody, as the referee in those games, does he have a whistle?

“Yes, Brian has a whistle,” he laughs. “It has taken on mythical status, but look, the most specific form of training is playing the game, and you need to train with the same intensity as you would when you go out and play championship. I’m sure other teams do the same, but our sessions are open to everyone, everyone can walk in and see what happens. This may not be the case in other counties but I’m sure Tipperary’s training sessions are just as intense as ours – I’d be surprised if they’re not.”

As for his own role in the training regime, “It’s divided between Noel (Richardson) and myself. We design the training programmes, implement them, but obviously it’s all done in conjunction with Brian and Martin, everyone has an input into it. We work very closely with our physios, a lot of players involved in prehab and rehab, and we work with our medical team, our nutritionist – everyone’s advice is taken on board.”

With less than a week to go to the final, there’s not a lot left to do on the training field. “All the fitness work is done but we’ll be keeping up the intensity levels in our training sessions, working on sharpness and a small amount of speedwork. From here on in there’s a focus on keeping fellas healthy; we’ll taper down gradually, the sessions will be getting shorter.”

That focus will have been sharpened lately, given the loss of centre-back Brian Hogan to a freak finger-break last Wednesday after he became caught up in an opponent’s jersey. But, says Dempsey, such injuries are par for the course which can happen at any time either leading up to a game, or in the game itself. The secret is to be ready, to expect the unexpected and have your plans in place, even if part of that plan means thinking on the hoof.

“We do pre-plan, every management team does – such-and-such a fella goes down on the morning of a game, what do you do? But we also have the proviso that a lot will depend on how the match is going, our decision will be influenced by that. It’s often a judgment call on the moment, we’d have two or three options and we’d make a decision based on how the game is going.”

What do you do, however, when big players have big injuries coming up to a game – is it better, psychologically, to play up the injuries, or play them down?

“I don’t know,” he admits. “A lot of it is played out in public and you have everyone wondering if fellas are going to make it or not. From our point of view the reality is that we just have to get on with it. Someone can get injured, someone can get sick but the show carries on, someone will have to step up.

“It can have a huge adverse effect if you’re over dependent on one or two players and they’re out – our mindset is that it is a panel game. Someone is injured, it’s tragic for that player but the team goes on, someone slots in and plays their part.

“I’m not sure which is the better way to play it, but I’d like to think our players would be as motivated regardless, in any situation – that’s what you’d hope, anyway.

“In terms of the media and the public it will play out differently.”

Is all the speculation surrounding Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh, John Tennyson and now, Brian Hogan, merely smokescreen, however, designed to distract attention from the pressure of the five in a row?

“No, I don’t think so, I think it’s probably added to it because everywhere you go people are talking about the five in a row but now this is thrown into the mix as well. But this is what happens around big matches – people talk and speculate.

“The press have a job to do, the public love to come and see us preparing, but it’s all part of the excitement and anticipation. It won’t distract us and doesn’t distract from the five in a row. People talk about five in a row but in its own right this is an All-Ireland final, and what more important match could you play in than that?

“Strip away everything – Kilkenny will be well prepared, Tipperary will be well prepared, the best team on the day will win. Tipp will be at full tilt, hopefully we’ll be at full tilt, it will come down to the day.

“Maybe five in a row will make it something bigger for history, but can there be anything more important for a player than just winning an All-Ireland title?

“Five in a row, four in a row, to me that doesn’t make any difference.”