Rebel County in healthy state
Much had been made of Cork’s barren underage spell and the quality of hurler graduating to the adult ranks, too much in fact, believed Jimmy Barry-Murphy.
“There’s always hurlers in Cork,” he said.
The comment was reiterated to the Cork manager this week. His view, as you’d expect, has not changed one iota.
The county haven’t won a Munster minor title since 2008, their last U21 success arriving a year earlier. Moreover, the Rebels were crushed to the tune of 15 points in last month’s U21 decider. Barry-Murphy, though, isn’t concerned, content sufficient hurlers capable of standing on their own two feet at senior level are filtering through.
Cork hurling, he enthuses, is in the healthiest of conditions, confident the current crop can progress to the top rung of hurling’s ladder in years ahead.
“The lack of underage success has been bandied about. We’ve got some very good hurlers out of the underage, like Christopher Joyce, Alan Cadogan. All these lads played at underage level for Cork even though they hadn’t been successful. I firmly believe this; you needn’t be winning minor All-Irelands or U21s to be a really good county hurler,” he insists.
“Clare, in my opinion, right now have one of the best U21 teams I’ve ever seen in my life. But again I don’t think for a second we wouldn’t be able to compete with them at senior next year. So from that point of view, all those players don’t come through to play at senior level for Clare either. I think that’s a very relevant point.
“I think we’re in a very healthy position. I couldn’t be happier, progress has been made. I’m very excited about the future of the team. I’d be very pleased that despite the lack of success at underage level, we’ve got the very best players coming out of that system and they’re coming into a panel with players that are strong. I’d be very happy that we’re in a good position, and we will be for years going forward.
“I would say the depth in the panel wasn’t there previously. It looked like the back-up resources weren’t as strong as you’d like. The nucleus of the team were giving great service but were probably coming to the end of the best of their days. You’d be afraid the gap would be too big to bridge to keep us competitive, but it’s our third semi-final in a row and that’s a great achievement in itself. I hate preempting things but I really feel we can give anybody a game now and that we won’t be out of our depth. That’s what you try to aspire to: be at that level and kick on from there.”
Barry-Murphy admits some doubts festered after last year’s All-Ireland final defeat as to whether the opportunity to challenge for September honours would again materialise, doubts heightened following a “terrible” league campaign.
“It was very difficult to put our finger on our poor form. I wasn’t accepting this hangover factor from the All-Ireland final. Having lost it, I thought that we would be even hungrier to go on and lash teams in Division 1B and sail out of it. That wasn’t the case. We were up in Ballycastle and were two points down against Antrim and that type of situation was going from game to game. Kieran Kingston was concerned, wondering what he was doing wrong. From the players’ point of view, they were finding it hard to motivate themselves after the All-Ireland.”
A corner was eventually turned, the Munster title annexed last month — the first piece of silverware secured since Barry-Murphy’s second coming.
“The win over Limerick was huge psychologically and we got the breaks, the goals went our way. Personally, it was an absolute thrill. For the players, we all know how little success that group has had.
“Being honest, it’s nice to win something. I can play it down all I like now, but winning the Munster title was fantastic for us and I’m not going to try and play it down. It was a huge occasion and I got a fantastic kick out of it for the players and for the county. I had never seen anything like those celebrations.”
He added: “Tipperary are like ourselves last year: momentum carries you a long way in this game because the teams are pretty much of an even standard all around.”
Jimmy Barry-Murphy believes the mind games adopted by several football managers this summer have no place in the GAA.
Paul Grimley’s Armagh refused to engage with the media while Mayo boss James Horan blasted comments from Cork football management ahead of their quarter-final meeting as “disgraceful”.
“You’ve got to respect your opponents, I think, at all times and I’d be very slow to get into any kind of mind games stuff. I don’t believe in it and I don’t agree with it,” said Barry-Murphy.
“We [managers] take things seriously. I couldn’t be more serious about trying to beat Tipperary, I can tell you.
“Every team and every management team have to look after their own corner. I try and prepare the team in a very, very positive way. Someone asked me before the Clare game was there a revenge factor for last year. I don’t see that as any relevance whatsoever. I have the height of respect for all counties we were playing. I have had no hassle with people on the line, despite what people might think.
“I’d like to build up my own team, encourage them to be positive, to enjoy the experience.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
