Derek McGrath all for freedom within the structures

In the middle of his pre-Munster final press briefing, Derek McGrath was accused of being a hurling nerd.

Given we then discussed the 1990 hurling final at length, it’s a charge any lawyer would be comfortable prosecuting (“I loved Joe Cooney. And Gerry McInerney, with the white boots.”)

It isn’t a pose with McGrath. He points out that he’s been a Gaelsport addict since 1981. That’s just who he is. But the advantage of being steeped in the game means the Waterford boss picks up on the small print many don’t see

“Before Dublin played Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final two years ago they’d had a system, but they changed it in the first half of that game whereby they were fairly conventional, fifteen on fifteen, and they changed back to the old system for the second half.

“Whether they pre-planned that change, or whether it was done on how the game was unfolding, I don’t know.

“If we lose on Sunday and the common theme after is that there was no plan B, or plan C?

“I think the reality is there is and we try to roll those out in games and training. Maybe people don’t pick up on them, they’re subtle things, but it’s imposing those plans without hamstringing fellas into being robotic. It’s the decisions they make on the field. It’s not PlayStation.”

This is a recurring theme with the De La Salle man, the need for freedom within the structure: “You’d hope your players would adapt to the situation as they see it develop, that they can’t be relying on a live feed coming down from an iPad saying James Barry has 12 possessions.

“You have to allow your players to deal with situations as they see develop. You’re not distancing yourself from blame but it’s the players who ultimately win the game.”

He’s on record admiring some of the Tipp players as among the best who’ve ever played the game.

“There’s a realisation that everybody has to be 100% on their A game for us to have a chance to win. I saw a vox pop recently when ten people were asked who’d win the All-Ireland and nine went for Tipperary. We feel we have a chance.

“We’re going there to play and we’re at ease as a management because we see first hand what the lads are putting into it in their preparation. They’re very honest - as are Tipperary - and we can live with what comes on the day, we can sleep easy because their effort is total.”

What about discontent in the camp, if someone isn’t getting a game?

“There’s no quibbles out of them because we’re winning games probably. There may be quibbles down the road but knowing those guys I don’t think so. They’re happy to contribute to the team.

“Plus I think there’s a general buy-in from everyone at every level of intercounty that it’s a twenty-man game - you don’t see fellas coming off the field throwing away the helmet.

“There’s thought put into every decision - a fella might be going reasonably well but you take him off to change things up.

“That comes from management, and if you’re comfortable explaining decisions before or afterwards, then you’re comfortable. You have to think whether a lad can do better, have more of an impact, coming off the bench.

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aterford were slow out of the blocks last time, but McGrath doesn’t want his players fixated on that.

“I don’t think we can over-concentrate on something because when you do there can be so much thought put into it that it becomes self-fulfilling, or players can’t deal with it when it doesn’t come off. We want to have a balance between enjoying what the day brings and being very hungry in our play. That’s all we want.

“If you analyse the 2008 final which Dan (Shanahan) played in, the post-match analysis was ‘the Waterford warm-up was terrible, they were dropping balls, blah blah’.

“They had two open nights and lost the run of themselves. They shouldn’t have gone up on the Saturday.

“All those things are retrospective.

“If we hit the ground running on Sunday it’ll be, ‘ah, the warm-up was great, I knew by the warm-up’. It’s mad. It’s more that the boys turned up ready for the game. If Tipp win it’ll be because they’re better, the same if we win.

“The ability to change things slightly, to get a grip on the game - which is difficult against top opponents like Cork and Tipp - is pleasing but we’re also aware we don’t need too many periods like that.

“You only have to look at the seven-goal Munster final to see what Tipp can do on any given day.”

So, 1990. Would he have taken Jim Cashman off at half-time?

“He had a great second half,” says McGrath. “Tomas Mulcahy changed that game, he came to centre-forward, it was like he said to Tony Keady, ‘I’ll take you down’.

“In the first half Eanna Ryan was whistled back and Galway had a goal disallowed .