IN THE COURSE of the conversation, John Meyler keeps returning to the absolute critical importance of strength and conditioning in hurling nowadays.
As someone married to an international swimmer of renown, and father to a former international soccer star, it’s only natural that he would have an appreciation.
He’s a lean yoke himself who showcased the honed triceps of a man no stranger to getting under the bar in the gym when he was last prowling the county sidelines in a most un-modern combo of polo shirt, smart trousers and dress shoes.
You’d be into a bit of gym work yourself, John?
“Ack, Jaysus, what would I be doing, only sitting down watching Home and Away or something? If we are training down at The Páirc at seven, I would be down there for half five to do something,” he shoots back.
The dates at De Páirc come with his involvement with Cork minors. More of which anon.
But for now, we are trying to work our way back to a time 20 seasons ago, when Seán Óg hAilpín was lifting Liam MacCarthy for Cork in 2005 with victory over Galway.
And it hasn’t been done since.
Unless they produce a shock in De Páirc de Supervalu on Saturday night, they are gone from the All-Ireland race again at the Munster group stages for the second year in a row.
Whatever about their standing, it puts a question mark over manager Pat Ryan.
Appointed with no end of goodwill after Kieran Kingston stepped down in 2022, Cork fans were glad to have a decorated former player in charge, especially with his track record in management with two county titles with Sarsfields and two All-Ireland successes as U20 manager.
Does he have the patience to stay the course for the third year of a three-year term? Does the Cork board, mindful of how Brian Lohan fared in his first two seasons in charge of Clare?
That it is Limerick that stand to pose all those questions, brings us all back to a certain point.
Right back to the moment when Seamus Harnedy was poised to lash in a goal for Cork and take them to the 2018 All-Ireland final against Galway. Instead, Limerick goalkeeper Nickie Quaid stretched out an impossibly long limb and got the flick to the ball a millisecond before it was struck.
This unbelievable save by Nickie Quaid just made @SInow headlines!https://t.co/UmpbDt8fcP pic.twitter.com/L6D8zZ0uNM
— Play Hurling (@playhurling) July 31, 2018
Limerick survived. The game moved to extra time. Limerick won, then beat Galway in the All-Ireland final, and have been the big beast since.
Meyler was on the line for that, just as he had been for the 2017 U21 Cork team that faced Limerick in the Munster final.
The Treatymen won that by two points. Just think about the diverging paths that players from either team have taken since.
On the Limerick side, you had Sean Finn, Kyle Hayes, Aaron Gillane, Cian Lynch, Barry Nash, Peter Casey and Tom Morrissey. Off the bench came Conor Boylan and Barry Murphy.
For Cork, it was goalkeeper Patrick Collins, Sean O’Donoghue, Mark Coleman, Shane Kingston, Declan Dalton, Robbie O’Flynn and Tim O’Mahony with Jack O’Connor coming off the bench.
Where did it all go so wrong and so right, according to Meyler?
“You’re looking at Kyle Hayes, Cian Lynch, Sean Finn, Barry Nash, Peter Casey, they are seasoned performers for Limerick and they are consistently good every day they go out,” he says.
“From that 2017 All-Ireland winning team, they pushed on, really in terms of maintaining their habits.”
Finding the edge is a little bit impossible now. Meyler tells us there is no edge to find. Something else entirely.
“Every team is doing the same thing now; the strength and conditioning, the training, the psychology, everybody is doing the same,” he says.
“So, you are looking for something extra. That little bit. What you need are the performers who consistently perform. So as I said, Cian Lynch, Kyle Hayes, Gearoid Hegarty, Sean Finn, Aaron Gillane like, they perform consistently well every week.
“And if you slip up against them, they are in, and they will hurt you. What you want from Cork is an extra 2%, 3% from each player, just to step up.
“A lot of teams have this inconsistency. Look at Wexford. They go away to Antrim and they lose to Antrim. And then they come down and beat Galway in Wexford Park. We will turn around next week and play Kilkenny in Nowlan Park. And what will happen? We have no idea.
“Consistency is Cork’s issue, rather than confidence.”
Hurling is a game of tiny fragments pieced together to explain a result.
Meyler cites Donnacha O’Dalaigh coming in for Limerick against Clare. He had a chance in front of goal and failed to make a clean connection. The ball skidded on a dry sod twice, but still went to the net.
They won Munster in 2018. They lost to Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final. Limerick have been gaining ground ever since.
“I go back to 2018 like, Jesus! And Nickie Quaid saving that shot from Seamus (Harnedy) at the edge of the square. It was a small margin and big games are being decided by small margins. Cork just haven’t had that small bit of luck that they need to get over the line,” he reasons.
“And if they could get that small bit of luck they could push on. Because the numbers are there – the quality is there. It’s just a matter of getting that small bit of luck the next day you go out.”
The Munster championship is cruel, he believes. It is the best competition in the GAA however, so he advocates for a round robin, with teams playing each other home and away. He believes that the drawn game in Cork in 2018 has some relevance.
When you have won as much as Meyler, you just tend to believe.
In his wider place in Cork hurling, there are a few that will maintain he was an obstacle at times.
The sense that he was opposed to the Gaelic Players Association involvement and the ‘socks down’ protest for the 2002 league final against Kilkenny, the reported remark to Mark Landers that he should ‘take a good look around here’ as he wouldn’t be seeing Pairc Ui Chaoimh again (dismissed by Meyler as some friendly bantering) and how he was cast in 2002 after manager Bertie Óg Murphy stepped down and he, along with fellow selectors PJ Murphy and Past McDonnell, didn’t want to leave.
And yet look at him now, still plotting and scheming. Coaching and driving. Organising and cajoling with the Cork minors and, you suspect, half a dozen other teams at various stages of the year. They are out tonight against Clare.
How does he remain relevant, all these years later, to that cohort?
“I have a good team around me. The modern-day manager has a team around him. He is not the boss, the way he was the boss twenty years ago. That’s totally different.
“You will have your coaches, your goalie coaches, your backs coaches, forward coaches, strength and conditioning…
“And they are all different ages. Like my S & C guy is only 24. You are just the overseer really in a way, of managing everything and maybe the odd time coming in and motivating players.”
He lists off the things that have changed since he was minor manager in 2001 and they won an All-Ireland title beating Galway in the final; coaching, diet, nutrition, psychology.
“But now the manager is not the be-all and end-all. The manager is just one part of the equation. And you must surround yourself with really, really good people to look after all the component parts.
“Young fellas today, they want to play for Cork. Their parents want them to play for Cork and it’s a great honour.
“They all want to play senior hurling, the new stadium is a fantastic facility, the 4G pitch is a fantastic facility.
“They all want to be there. The seniors could be there when the minors train. As will the U20s, the camogie team will be there. So there’s a whole lot of them rubbing off on each other. You would hope that all of them are all training together and it feels like a collective.
“The minors then can see what the seniors are doing and learn from that. The Cork county board that way is really positive. They give us everything they can to help.”
Meyler is not the type to complain. He does all he can.
But Cork’s wait goes on. Their longest wait ever.
