Backroom team pivotal for new Cork boss

IT’S been an interesting couple of weeks for Jimmy Barry-Murphy, and we’re not just referring to the fact that he celebrated his 57th birthday last Monday.

Since this newspaper identified him as the outstanding candidate to replace Denis Walsh as Cork hurling manager early last week, a good deal of momentum has built in favour of Barry-Murphy’s appointment, and with good reason, given that he ticks all the boxes as manager.

The St Finbarr’s man told his charges during his last stint as senior manager that they would never see him on the line coaching another county against Cork, which underlines his passion for Cork; in an interview with this writer he added, however, that he had never been invited in as manager by another county, which speaks to his essential modesty.

No wonder Cork supporters — particularly those who recall his staggering career on the field of play — regard his potential return in messianic terms. What’s likely to provoke plenty of discussion on Leeside, however, is the accompanying managerial set up.

It’s significant that the Cork County Board terms of reference for the committee to select a hurling manager included the proviso that the new man would be able to pick his own selectors; that provision is taken as a given in other counties contending for serious intercounty honours, but given that it was the denial of that right which led to a strike in Cork a couple of years ago, it was necessary to put it in writing so that potential candidates would have that entitlement in black and white.

We can skate over the eye-rolling and head-shaking about that particular inclusion in the committee’s terms of reference, however, and move on.

What makes the selection of selectors, if you like, particularly interesting is the acknowledged growth in workload for modern managers — whether in dealing with the press, dealing with 30 players or dealing with the 101 curveballs that can, and do, pop up in a manager’s inbox.

At the Tipperary press night earlier this week, for instance, this writer asked Tipp manager Declan Ryan about his reaction when he was told by phone that Brendan Maher, last season’s Player of the Year, had fractured an ankle pucking around in his own back garden.

“You couldn’t print it,” said Ryan.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see a demarcation among modern managerial teams, with the manager setting the tone as front-of-house man, a dedicated coach focused on the skills work, a physical trainer dedicated to strength and conditioning, a selector focused on the nuts and bolts of logistics and so on. (If you doubt the importance of a logistics fixer among the selectors, consider this: could you find a venue for intercounty training at 20 minutes’ notice on a wet night in February? Anyone who can honestly answer ‘no problem whatsoever’ should make themselves known to about 22 county boards).

In a county like Cork, many foreheads will be wrinkled in advance of the announcement of the coach, as apart from the manager, for the senior hurling team. Looking north, for instance, while Declan Ryan is the boss, it’s Tommy Dunne who handles the coaching. That’s a continuation of a successful division of the work under the previous regime, where Liam Sheedy was the manager and Eamonn O’Shea — acknowledged as one of the country’s top hurling coaches — was the man who worked on the skills.

Whoever comes in to take the bainisteoir bib in Cork — and right now it looks like Barry-Murphy’s to refuse — they will have to get that call right before a whistle is even blown. Maybe they’ll do it themselves.

If they choose not to, well, the board itself had a proposition along those lines in the last strike, when they suggested one of the current players might work with then-manager Gerald McCarthy as coach.

The appointment of Donal Óg Cusack as Cork coach might be a step too far though.