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.