Best of friends, best of enemies

Jimmy Barry-Murphy and John Allen will shake hands on the sideline on Sunday as opposing managers, after steering Cork and Limerick respectively into the Munster SHC final.

Changed times. The two men soldiered together with Cork in hurling and football, and at club level with St Finbarr’s. The club from Cork’s southside has produced many great players, but the Barry-Murphy/Allen era also produced many inter-county managers and selectors: Donal O’Grady, Ger Cunningham and Denis Burns.

To get an understanding of Barry-Murphy and Allen as managers, perhaps it’s as well to start with the Barr’s. Yet another inter-county manager featured alongside the men mentioned above.

John Meyler is now in charge of Carlow, but he’s also managed Kerry and his native Wexford. Arriving into the Barr’s in 1980 meant he had an outsider’s perspective.

How did that Barr’s era produce so many managers? “Simple – it was all because of the education we got,” says Meyler.

“Look at the guys who coached us – Gerald McCarthy, Charlie McCarthy, Con Roche, Tim Mullane, Jimmy O’Grady.

“Before them you had Mick Kenefick, Donie Cremin. All of those people gave years of service to Cork and the Barr’s and they tutored the next generation.

“Take Mick Kenefick. Cork captain in 1941. He would have coached Gerald and Charlie, and when those guys coached, they were coaching Donal O’Grady, Denis Burns, John, Jimmy, Ger Cunningham, myself.

“They tutored us in the basics. We were lucky to have brilliant people, brilliant players, a good crop coming together – but the coaching culture was there to exploit to the fullest.”

Meyler points to the club environment as the place where Allen and Barry-Murphy honed their skills.

“John was over the Barr’s footballers. Jimmy managed the hurlers there but he was also with the minors for years.

“There was an inter-county element, too, something you see in Kilkenny, now. Brian Cody is there but JJ Delaney would have been coached properly all the way along with Fenians, Jackie Tyrrell with James Stephens, the Fennellys and Henry Shefflin in Ballyhale.

“And that county team aspect is crucial. Those guys go in from their clubs to Brian Cody. The guys with the Barr’s you’re talking about? In the late ’70s they were going down the Páirc with Cork and listening to Christy Ring. We were blessed.”

Meyler distinguishes between his two former team-mates, beginning with their playing days.

“Jimmy was always calm in the dressing-room. He togged off in the same place, was quiet and collected.

“On the field he played with artistry but he also carried that sense of Cork cultural heritage, if you like. He was aware of who he represented, where he was brought up – that was always reflected in his playing style.

“He played with style but he also made it simple. With the club you were there to provide him with the ball and he’d get the scores: over five yards he was gone with the ball and the scores came.”

There are some players who seem born to become coaches and managers. Meyler says that Barry-Murphy wasn’t a man to talk endlessly about strategy, but he still contributed significantly in the dressing-room.

“Some guys would discuss the game and tactics incessantly, and that wasn’t him. But he would have been a motivator without speaking in the sense that he was a championship player.

“His perspective would have been that it’s not about mud and rain, it’s about hurling in Páirc Uí Chaoimh or Thurles on a sunny day, and if you can hurl, you can hurl.

“He would have spoken in the dressing-room as a player, and he would have commanded the room. He didn’t speak that often but when the need was at its greatest he’d speak. He’d lay it on the line that it was a game that needed to be won, that the stakes were high, and he’d deliver that message.”

Meyler points to John Allen’s strong points: “The obvious difference with Jimmy in terms of coaching would be that John, coming from a teaching background, would be very organised. Much like how teachers prepare lesson plans before school, John, who was a teacher, is very well organised in terms of structuring sessions and so forth.

“Having worked with Donal O’Grady as a selector, John would have huge management experience, a lot of knowledge of how teams work, what to do and what to avoid, all of that.

“And John’s a very nice guy, very approachable. There has to be trust in a management team, particularly between a manager and his physical trainer in terms of player conditioning, and man-management would be a particular strength of John’s.

“He’d be very good in that regard, and that’s vital when it comes to management because behind everything, it’s about people. John’s good with people and that brings you a long, long way.”

In the red and white corner, Meyler sees Barry-Murphy’s ability to inspire his players as a key advantage.

“His view would be that a Cork hurler would have certain qualities: those would be skill, flair and an attitude — the attitude of winning an All-Ireland is what it’s about. And he would have instilled those qualities in his players.

“Clearly his 1999 team had a core of successful underage players, which isn’t the case now. But he would still be a hugely respected figure in the dressing-room as someone who won everything as a player and manager, and that would help him to instil belief into those players.”