Cuthbert learning to juggle

Brian Cuthbert is a busy man.

The former Cork minor football manager took up a posting at the end of last year as one of three new selectors with senior boss Conor Counihan, but opted to remain in charge of his club Bishopstown too.

The city side begin their Cork SFC campaign against Ilen Rovers in Bandon this evening (5.30pm), and Cuthbert is pleased the support structures in place are strong enough to allow him to combine his two roles.

“Being a selector with Cork is a huge honour but it’s very time-consuming too,” he said. “It involves travelling all over the county looking at players and games, and it’d be disrespectful to think that you could do that and then manage Bishopstown on your own too.

“I’m lucky that I have four or five good people involved with me and they are able to shoulder the responsibilities when I’m not there, I try to be around as much as I can but it’s not possible to be there all of the time.

“I’m also fortunate that the people at home understand the demands, it’s a huge part of my life, I guess we’ll see if it’s working on Saturday!”

There is a large degree of overlap between Bishopstown’s football and hurling panels, so much so that there was centralised physical training in the early part of 2012. After a relatively successful year, with the hurlers reaching the county final, a similar approach is being taken this time around.

“You have to do it that way,” Cuthbert said.

“Look at country clubs who are at a high level in both, like Aghada or Newcestown, their two sides train together, Ronan Dwane is the manager of both of Aghada’s teams.

“People think that city clubs are different because they have more players but that’s not the case, we’re working off very similar panels.

“The approach we took in 2012 suited the club and we haven’t moved too far away from that, we’ve tweaked it slightly, we’ll try to make sure that we get over the two first-round matches and then plan accordingly.”

This time last year, Bishopstown got over the first round, beating city rivals Nemo Rangers after two epic clashes. The trouble with an early win, however, is a long wait between games. Cuthbert points out it is a situation that is well flagged.

“Every team knows that if they win the first-round game, they mightn’t be playing until August, definitely not before July anyway,” he said.

“As a result, you make sure that you plan accordingly. I suppose what caught us last year was that we were going week-to-week between hurling and football matches.

“The hurlers lost the county final and then six days later we had to play Carbery Rangers in a football quarter-final. It was a massive opportunity but we didn’t take it and we have to make sure that we learn the lessons of that loss.”

Last year’s performances mean the Town do not have the element of surprise anymore. Cuthbert accepts the maturing of the team makes such developments natural.

“We were coming from a situation where we hadn’t been going all that well and then we beat Nemo in the first round.

“We’re a year further down the line now so the approach is a bit different, you try to make the most of the experience of last year.

“In saying that, in the senior championship there are a number of teams that can beat each other and I’ve no doubt that the results this weekend will bear that out.

Last year against Nemo maybe we were coming in a bit under the radar, a lot of it was about getting respect back.

“We haven’t won anything yet though, and until we do then we won’t have gained universal respect.”