Cork's physical trainer David Matthews says Jimmy Barry-Murphy calls the tune.

The former Olympian has been an integral part of the Rebel County's march to Sunday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final but is happy to understate his contribution:

"Jimmy is the man with the vision of how the game is to be played and all I am trying to do is marry that from a physical point of view as best I can," the Kildare man told gaa.ie

"I have to be honest, I don't have any secret potions or notions or anything like that. The methodology of training is all out there in the public domain. I don't have anything different to the next guy, but what I do have is 30 years of experience of reaching a peak at the right time from my athletics background.

"That's something that people in the GAA are used to too, but I might have a few extra years on most people on that. I would be fairly confident about getting things right for a specific date.

"We trained quite hard through the league and that was probably evident in some of the showings. We were still doing a lot of gym work and heavy work. Also, the ground conditions weren't conducive to fast hurling in the winter and early spring months.

"The break between the league and the start of the championship was perfect for us. It was just what the doctor ordered. I was happier with the long break than going to the league final, honest to God.

"Purists would say you'd rather the silverware but from a coaching and training point of view it allowed us to get back down to basics. We had nine to ten weeks to prepare for the Clare game and we got back to some of the stuff we had been doing nearly in November - endurance work and speed work to sharpen up." Tweet

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