WHAT DOES THE modern-day hurler want from their manager?
A week ago, in the Irish Independent, Jackie Tyrrell spoke positively about Brian Cody’s legacy as Kilkenny manager as well as being upbeat about his successor Derek Lyng’s chances of continuing that tradition with the Cats.
It was Tyrrell’s next point which caught the eye, however. “He (Lyng) might be a bit more open to modern ways of hurling, seeing the way the game has gone.”
The issue was discussed by Anthony Nash, The 42’s hurling analyst on the GAA weekly podcast which is available to our members. Nash, a two-time All-Star with Cork, has also dipped into the world of coaching and says the modern-player is more demanding of managers than ever.
“Players like TJ Reid who have been there for a long time will be very grateful for what Brian has done for them but they will also be excited by a new man coming in,” said Nash.
“Derek is not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater in terms of tactics. Kilkenny got to an All-Ireland final last year and their players will certainly give it a go under Derek.
“They’ll be excited by a new manager coming in.”
But how will Lyng win them over?
“For the modern player, man management is what they want,” says Nash.
“Nowadays players love to have their opinion heard with regards to the game-plan. Years ago, it was a case of, ‘right this is it; this is what you have to do’.
“That was the way it was.
“But players are after getting more intelligent. They want professionalism down to things like sliotars, training facilities and then a good, honest gameplan where their voice gets heard and where it is not a dictatorship.
“A dictatorship won’t ever work in modern hurling because when something goes wrong, cracks will widen. You need buy in from everyone.
“The big thing is to have players and managers working along the same lines.
“We certainly had that in 2017 with Cork. Pat Ryan – our coach then – made us believe in his game-plan, through force of personality, through his self-confidence in terms of how he addressed us a group and also how he was prepared to hold his hands up and say, ‘I’ll take that one on the chin’.
“He asked me to change my puck-out strategy and he convinced the rest of the players to work with it. He brought in a modern style without doing anything silly. He had complete buy-in from us in no time.”
It is a practice Nash has brought into his own coaching philosophy with South Liberties in Limerick
“One example. The week before we played Patrickswell in the Championship this year, I did a couple of drills. They didn’t go to plan.
“I had a choice. I could give out to the players and say the effort was poor or alternatively, I could hold my hands up and say, ‘that was down to me’. It is no harm to be honest. If you blame the players, you lose respect.
“Players know what it takes to win games. They know what is required to win an All-Ireland, to be successful. You can’t spoof them.”
Cody certainly didn’t. The words ‘old school’ is as likely to be attached to his name as ‘legend’ but his ideas never aged.
For the record, Cody has won 11 All-Irelands, 18 Leinster titles and 10 National Leagues. For context, hurling’s second most successful manager, John Kiely, has four All-Irelands.
“The one team everyone is going to be looking out for next year is Kilkenny because Brian was there for so long,” says Nash. “No one can criticise that man given all he achieved.
“When I was playing, we used to regularly hear that in their training, it was 15 on 15 that the whistle was blown, and away they went. You were told they didn’t do tactics but that was bullshit. They were as tactically astute as any team.
“Before teams got into the habit of withdrawing their half-forward line, Kilkenny did that. They were always tactical. He also built teams. Last year’s Kilkenny side are filled with players who are still making their name.”
Nash also discusses what it was like as a Cork man and a hurling man to see rugby in Pairc ui Chaoimh and gives his view on a fascinating weekend of hurling that this is coming up this Saturday and Sunday.
There is also a fascinating discussion with RTÉ’s Damian Lawlor about the emotional connection he feels to his hometown parish, Kilruane MacDonaghs, who ended their 37-year wait for a Tipperary championship in recent weeks.
To listen to the full episode and enjoy the many benefits of membership of The42, including exclusive analysis and unmissable podcasts across a range of sports for just €5 a month, click here.