Friends turn page on great sporting rivalry

Q: The two of you had some serious clashes in the Seventies; some people would be surprised to see you together here tonight.

Jimmy Deenihan: “When we played there might have been robust exchanges, but we would have had a pint afterwards, usually in the Imperial Hotel. For whatever reason people started to write about it [those clashes] — people who wouldn’t even have been born at the time, never mind being present — and certainly I’d have come out on the wrong end of that debate. I’ve been accosted several times around the world about marking Jimmy, but I’ve always clarified with people that Jimmy Barry-Murphy was one of my favourites, as a player and individual.”

Jimmy Barry-Murphy: “That’s the great thing about the GAA, all those things are left in the past. The minute the final whistle is gone that’s all forgotten. Myself and Jimmy, I think that was all blown out of proportion. Certainly in terms of the rules of football, they were a lot different at that time — you lived and died by the sword to a certain extent — but that was it.”

Jimmy Deenihan: “We were always friends — I always enjoyed meeting Jimmy over the years, and anything that ever happened was left out on the pitch. I was always one of Jimmy’s biggest supporters that time — I remember Cork were playing another county one time and I was at it, and people were amazed I was roaring for Cork — I was in Croke Park in 73 when Cork won the All-Ireland and saw him score two goals. I never minded watching him skinning other defenders! Unfortunately I had that task for a number of years. I think I marked him 10 times overall and there was always a lot of pressure on me, because there was that expectation that Jimmy could swing a game in seconds, never mind minutes. I played one time with him for Munster in the Railway Cup and he scored four goals against Ulster, and he often got crucial goals for Cork. At the time he was the most lethal striker in Gaelic football. I always say he was the Gary Lineker of Gaelic football, up there with Mikey Sheehy, John Egan, Colm Cooper, Matt Connor.”

Q:There was a keen rivalry then, same as there is now. How important has the back-door system been in keeping that rivalry at a high pitch? Would it have been the same if the back door had been around in the Seventies?

Jimmy Barry-Murphy: “Rivalry is very important. From my point of view at the time we were playing Kerry when they were the greatest football team of all time and we were unlucky in that respect. In terms of the back door, if that had been in place back then it would have been very interesting, because you’d have thought we would have reached Croke Park a lot more often, but that’s just the way things were.”

Jimmy Deenihan: “When rivalry goes then interest in the games wanes. Rivalry must be channelled and controlled properly, obviously, but the competition between Cork and Kerry puts pressure on the county boards to put resources into the county teams. While that tension remains in both counties then Gaelic football will remain strong in both counties. But it must be treated as sport, and not something personal, though on the other hand you probably have more Kerry people married to Cork people along the border than in any other couple of counties.

That’s always a highlight for me at a Munster final, the father in green and gold and the mother in red and white, and the kids divided! That’s an enjoyable tension, but the fact is that all those people shake hands afterwards and have a drink together. That’s very important.”

Q:Does the Munster SFC final still retain that sense of occasion?

Jimmy Deenihan: “Very much so — it rivals the Munster hurling final, particularly when Kerry play Cork, in Pairc Ui Chaoimh or Killarney. It’s a special occasion and people should savour it and appreciate it and enjoy it.”

Jimmy Barry-Murphy: “I’d agree. Those are great occasions, but it’s better nowadays because it’s a bit more open. In the last 10 years the improvements made by Limerick, Tipperary, Clare and Waterford would make the old system hard to argue. It was probably too much of a closed shop, the victory Clare had in 1992 and the great runs Limerick had for a couple of years have improved the Munster championship immensely.”

Q:Some of that improvement is down to the high standard of physical preparation; would you prefer to play nowadays with the scientific approach to training?

Jimmy Barry-Murphy: “I’d prefer to have been the way I was; I wasn’t a great man for the gym myself, I’d say the first time I saw the inside of a gym until I started training Cork. But obviously there’s a place for all that — the game has moved on and players demand the highest standards of preparation in terms of fitness, nutrition, tactics and so on. There are a lot of improvements in that regard and you’d have to say that both hurling and football are great spectacles nowadays as a result.”

Jimmy Deenihan: “I’ve gone into that in the book itself, but going back to our own time playing, funnily enough, I remember Mick O’Dwyer emphasising milk — we must have drunk litres and litres of milk.

And now the latest research out of Loughborough and these places has shown that milk is as good for rehydration and muscle repair as any other energy drink that’s around. So Micko was ahead of the pack when it came to that as well — his training methods may have been questioned from time to time, but when it comes to the consumption of milk he was ahead of his time!