Cuthbert stays cool, calm, and calculated
On Tuesday evening he was confirmed as the new Cork senior football manager and, as he puts it, his phone has been “melting” ever since.
“If you’re involved in coaching in your county, if you’re ambitious and you put a lot of time into it, then there’s a part of you that thinks, maybe some day,” he said.
“I’m 38, so the fact that it’s come so soon is just something I’ll have to get used to. Over the last couple of weeks you’ve had papers and various people saying I had a chance, that gives you a chance to get your head around it.
“Now that it’s here I’ve to get going. But I’m hugely excited about it, hugely positive about it. I have plenty of ideas about how I want to do it, so it’s a matter of moving from the exciting part to the working part of it.”
The Bishopstown clubman cut his teeth with the county minors before becoming one of Conor Counihan’s senior selectors last year. That experience showed him what’s involved and impressed the need for a good backroom team.
“Picking selectors has been left to myself. There are people I’d like to get involved, but I was only appointed on Tuesday. Picking selectors will be a job for the next few days.
“You can’t be presumptuous enough to approach people for a job you may not get. In my head I’d have various areas of expertise that need to be taken care of, so I’ll be profiling people for those areas. I’ll explain my plan and where I’d see them fitting into it, and hopefully they’ll see value in what I’m trying to do and come on board.
“My job is a management one here in the school so a lot of the principles are the same — fitting the spec of a job to a person’s qualities.”
And the much-discussed dual player issue? What are his views on that?
“To be fair, there was a lot of speculation about fellas being down training with the [Cork] hurlers the week of the All-Ireland final replay, something that grew legs. I haven’t really spoken to any player since the Dublin game.”
The new man has an open mind regarding players also: “Many of the players we’re alluding to when we mention the age profile of the team, these are people who’ve given their lives to the GAA in Cork. I haven’t spoken to any of them but if some of them say, ‘I want to finish’, I’ll say ‘thanks for everything you’ve done’.
“If some of them say, ‘I don’t want to finish’, then it’s a case of looking at the way we’re going, and whether that fits. And that goes for whether you’re 35, or 25, or 20. If it fits, great, and if it doesn’t, then it isn’t for you. That’s the way it is in my head, but it’s completely free of agenda.
“I need to be able to sell what I have in my head to the people I want to work with me. We then need to sell that to the players, and we need to decide who fits and who doesn’t.”
Cuthbert is happy with the quality of player on offer within the county: “Looking at the Cork panel in the last few years player for player, you’d say talent-wise we have players as good as anybody else. Looking at the roll of honour for the last few years, bar Dublin’s two titles, it’s been pretty spread out among a few counties, Cork included.
“Have we underachieved given the talent? You have to put it in the context of Cork football historically – five All-Irelands since 1945, and this team delivered one of those, plus three leagues and a Division 2 title, so that’s success, but there’s always a demand for more. And that demand is in me, too, I want Cork to be successful as well.”
He points out the tactical demands are particularly keen at the top level.
“It’s fair to say [they are]. You’re dealing with the very best players, guys who take on information better and who see things quicker than club players. The very best inter-county teams win most of the time because they have the best players, but the second reason is because they all know what each other is doing.
“If you’re behind the goal in Croke Park, say, you’ll see the integrated use of movement, the use of space, the understanding between players. They all come together and it’s almost a perfect fit for the top teams.
“I believe Cork have players with the capability to play very well. I think there are nine or ten forwards there who are very, very good and it may be a case of getting the ball to them a bit quicker, and improving the interplay between them. But it’s easy to talk here and now about it, in an office in October. We’ll see in six months when we’re out on the field for a game. Cork have had their own way of playing in the last few years, but whether that’s the way I’ll want them to play, we’ll have to wait and see.”
