JBM’s trust in youth paying off

Learning by doing.

It’s an economics expression someone like former Tipperary coach, Professor Eamon O’Shea. would be familiar with.

However, it’s exactly the theory Jimmy Barry-Murphy has applied to his Cork team this summer.

Mistakes have been made and they almost cost the county an All-Ireland semi-final spot yesterday but lessons would have been taken from the game, irrespective of the result.

The fact the majority of what is a seriously green Cork team are winning while gaining an education are two significant pluses.

This is a reformation as exemplified by the presence of nine players under or equal to the age of 25 in yesterday’s team. That youthful complexion has hardly changed despite considerable personnel changes from one game to the next this summer.

Only eight players have started all four of Cork’s championship games — Anthony Nash, Shane O’Neill, Brian Murphy, Tom Kenny, Pa Cronin, Jamie Coughlan, Paudie O’Sullivan and Patrick Horgan.

But for sickness, Conor Lehane would have been a ninth and certainly Eoin Cadogan would be marked an ever-present but for his Munster football final commitments.

Then again, had Lehane started yesterday, Coughlan wouldn’t have been handed his opportunity.

The fact stands that with nothing close to a settled team, Barry-Murphy has still managed to generate a run of three victories following a tight Munster semi-final.

The bogey against Waterford was also broke — no mean feat considering the Déise’s considerable All-Ireland quarter-final record and the fact they hadn’t lost to Cork in a five-game run spanning back to 2007.

Their refusal to panic even when John Mullane put Waterford three up with 14 minutes left and momentum swinging against them was an indicator of growing maturity.

Pa Cronin’s shift from midfield to the half-forward line was a much-needed one considering how dominant that Waterford trio had been for that period. With Stephen Moylan and Lorcán McLoughlin introduced in the next four minutes, the bench was emptied as Murphy played his last cards.

Making three changes from the team that beat Wexford (four if you include Lehane’s late cry-off) was a significant number for a group of players familiarising themselves with one another, never mind the championship.

In the run-up to the game, the manager admitted there had been several panel members “very unhappy” not to be chosen to start games.

It wouldn’t be hard to figure Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and John Gardiner would have been among that aggrieved party.

Ó hAilpín got his opportunity yesterday and, despite difficulties with Mullane when he moved to midfield in the first half, was brilliant thereafter.

Gardiner also made his first appearance of the championship in the 51st minute and helped steady the ship.

But this season has never been about banking on the old reliables. It has never been about short-term goals either. Ó hAilpín himself admitted as much earlier this year when he said he didn’t expect to win another All-Ireland title.

No, before finding a team Barry-Murphy first had to establish a panel and yesterday was a further step towards achieving that aim. He’ll be buoyed that when the iron was in the fire, his youngsters turned up trumps. Darren Sweetnam, who was a veritable catalyst for all things good upon being introduced, soloed furiously into Waterford’s defence to set up Luke O’Farrell’s equaliser.

The scores from Pat Horgan and Cathal Naughton that followed were teed up by beaver-like work further out the field while another substitute Lorcán McLoughlin was fouled for Horgan’s injury-time free.

In the absence of the established men like Eoin Cadogan and Niall McCarthy who had been substituted, it was a resounding restoration of the faith Murphy has shown in his boy soldiers.

With August 12 in mind, we know another thing from yesterday — the Cork team that take the field against Galway won’t be the same outfit that started in Thurles. When change has worked so far and so good, why change it?