ALL-IRELAND FOOTBALL FINAL COUNTDOWN:Conor Counihan takes his talented side into the crucible where their status as the form team will be put to its final test, writes Seán Moran

CONOR COUNIHAN is well able for the pressure of the Cork footballers’ media night. As his playing career might have suggested, he answers all questions asked of him firmly and without fuss, cuts off any penetrating runs, makes no mistakes and gives nothing away.

His calmness has held together and developed the team he took over in controversial circumstances after the county board had been forced to revoke their appointment of Teddy Holland. That was a little over 18 months ago and since then the progress has in many ways been hard to credit.

The team was in recovery then after the 10-point hammering by Kerry in the 2007 All-Ireland final. Now Counihan prepares to take Cork to Croke Park next Sunday to face Kerry again but this time as favourites.

“In terms of addressing it, I haven’t dwelt on it too much,” he says of two years ago. “Obviously it was a big disappointment for the lads themselves but it’s history now. They have moved on. The reality is they are back in an All-Ireland final; that proves in itself they have moved on. We have to move on again in terms of a positive outlook.”

Although he denies it – “We’re just glad to be in a final now, whoever it is we’re glad to be there. The fact that it’s Kerry adds a bit more rivalry and it’s great” – the sight of the neighbours waiting once more in the All-Ireland final must be an uncomfortable one.

At the best of times, teams don’t like to be facing opponents they’ve already beaten earlier in the championship but Kerry have almost made a vocation out of throwing Cork’s season back in their faces once the championship reaches Croke Park.

But Counihan plausibly points out that a year ago in the All-Ireland semi-final, little over a month after a strange rain-lashed victory in the Munster final, his team came to Croke Park and even if they didn’t play particularly well, battled hard until the end and forced a draw on the first day, the county’s best result against their old tormentors at All-Ireland level.

“I don’t know,” he says when asked about the difference between playing Kerry in Munster and in Croke Park. “I suppose the (’08) Munster championship was a game when we were in big trouble and we came back in very bad conditions. We went to Croke Park the second day, gave them a big start, came back at them, and let it slip. That was a disappointing feature, but it certainly showed we were closing the gap and we learned a bit more.”

Counihan has had a long career with Cork in which to learn. His inter-county involvement goes back nearly 30 years and he played on the Cork under-21 side that lost the 1980 All-Ireland final to Down before going on to make his senior debut a year later.

He was a pivotal figure in the county championship success of his divisional side Imokilly in 1984 and ’86, playing at centre back in two unexpected victories over a St Finbarr’s side with two All-Irelands under its belt.

As centre back on the Cork team, which contested five All-Ireland finals, including the 1988 replay and won back-to-back titles under Billy Morgan in 1989-90, he was a physical barrier on which many an opposition attack broke. Over those finals he conceded just two points to his direct opponents.

Reflecting on the differences in inter-county football between now and 20 years ago, he says that the demands have risen steeply. “Speed. Fitness levels are up significantly. In our time we’d have trained particularly hard, maybe not as much collectively but individually. The whole preparation now in terms of diet and lifestyle is very, very different. I think in our time there was a big celebration after matches.

“That doesn’t come any more. You’re living for the next game, looking for every advantage, and it’s very demanding on players. It’s a serious business.”

Invited to become selector and defence coach in the management team of his inter-county team-mate Larry Tompkins, Counihan produced a unit, which sounds familiar to anyone who’s been watching Cork this season.

“The prediction was when the new rules came in that they would result in a big clampdown on defenders,” said Meath selector Frank Foley back in 1999 when referencing Counihan’s influence, “and yet it hasn’t happened. You’ve got this Cork team which gives away very few frees. They’re quick and strong and get to the ball first so that fouling doesn’t arise. Their midfield cover back well and they’re a very effective unit.”

Another county selector of the time, Dublin’s Dom Twomey, also paid tribute to Counihan’s handiwork. “It’s the best in the country, better even than Meath’s. They have great pace and are very good man-markers and collectively a good unit. What Cork do best is working back and breaking with ferocious pace.”

Work-rate and composure in the manager’s image were the hallmarks of the semi-final win over Tyrone. That victory is of seismic importance in the development of the team. Although Cork don’t fully accept the contrast between their Munster and Croke Park performances, the fact is the only All-Ireland contenders they had faced until last month were Kerry, whom they have yet to beat on the national stage.

“It was important to some extent,” he says almost reluctantly of the big Croke Park performance, “but it was more important that it was Tyrone, who have been All-Ireland champions three times in the last number of years. That was the more important thing.

“I certainly would have felt confident about it, I’d have to say that. They just seemed to be rightly tuned in. You feel you’re tuned in every day you go out, but I’d say I would have had particular confidence about that game.”

The result was achieved despite the controversial sending-off of centrefielder Alan O’Connor, an act of survival into which the manger is reluctant to read too much.

“Yeah, but at the same time we did have the cushion all the time of having that bit of a lead. Maybe if it was tighter, would we have held out? I don’t know.”

But they did hold out and in six days’ time Counihan takes his impressive amalgam of experience and talented emerging players into the crucible where their status as the form team in this year’s championship will be put to its final test.

Looking back to the turmoil he inherited in February 2008 he says he always believed. “The reality was, while I wasn’t directly involved, you always keep your ear to the ground in terms of how things are going and how the lads are doing. I would have been under no illusions but that there were a very dedicated and committed bunch of fellas.

“Once you have that, it opens an awful lot up for you.”