Michael Dempsey proves an important cog in Cody’s winning machine

Sport is not an exact science. Nor is hurling, and nor is peaking for an All-Ireland hurling final. It’s more of an art, says Michael Dempsey, which may help explain why a man of his background has been to the fore of Kilkenny hurling for the past decade.

Dempsey is not a hurling man: nor indeed is he a Kilkenny man. He’s a football man, from Laois, who ended up as Kilkenny selector purely by accident and not by design. Now, 10 years later, he’s the longest serving selector in the game, his longevity, and success, surpassed only by Brian Cody himself.

“I suppose without a bit of success along the way I’d have been sacked by now,” says Dempsey, a man who has always been modest about his role within Kilkenny hurling. It shouldn’t disguise his weighty reputation and level of respect, most of all from Cody himself.

“The day you assume what you did two or three years ago is the bible, or gospel, you’ve lost it, to some extent,” he adds, with words that may as well be coming from Cody’s mouth. Sunday marks his eighth All-Ireland hurling final under Cody, and as the latter would say, is all about the next one, not the last one.

“You’re not going to get players any fitter in the two or three weeks before an All-Ireland. It’s a matter of keeping players healthy, keeping them sharp. And all that depends on what you see in front of your eyes. You will always be trying to readjust.

“ It’s not an exact science. It’s the coaching eye, and a lot of that is an art. The science is there to help you. But I think there is an art involved in getting teams right for the big occasion. And I think that’s something you develop from experience.”

Hurling orbit

There is no denying Dempsey’s considerable experience. It was Cody who first called on him to introduce some of that reputation to Kilkenny hurling.

A native of Ballyadams, and winner of eight Laois football titles with St Joseph’s, Dempsey managed both the Laois seniors and under-21s, before moving to Kilkenny in 2002. Inevitably, he was drawn into the hurling orbit, and after managing St Martin’s to an intermediate county title, ended up as Kilkenny under-21 selector, alongside Martin Fogarty, and together they won All-Ireland tiles in 2003 and 2004.

A year later Cody brought them both in, looking to revive things after the 2004 All-Ireland final defeat to Cork. Dempsey recalls thinking Cody was “off his rocker” when asking him to come on board, and although it would be another year before they won back the All-Ireland, Dempsey has been there ever since.

“Every year, I would think maybe there is somebody better for the job, maybe a fresh face? But the players are so really professional, in every aspect. They just get on with it. That makes it easier to go back. To me it’s not really about the winning or losing. It’s about the process, and watching players develop and just getting all of the preparation right. If you get all of that right you always have a better chance of winning.”

His business

It’s not that Dempsey doesn’t know the science: that’s actually his business, as he now heads up the Sports Academy and Sport and Exercise programme at Carlow IT. He cites several examples of where the science does matter – such as using GPS tracking on players as a way of establishing what level of training they may require – and also believes the strength and conditioning of hurlers is now at the same level of any professional counterpart.

“I certainly think the training is more specific now to the demands of the game. And tactically the game has changed, so players have to be better conditioned than they were years ago. I also think there’s been a move away from more aerobic training towards more high intensity efforts, which is more anaerobic in nature.

“Like in that semi-final against Limerick. Both teams were exceptionally fit. . . So it’s really more a test of your mental toughness and ambition and temperament.”

And that’s definitely not an exact science.