There are still a few people who believe referees, or coaches, don't win matches. Bless them, in their innocence.

Anybody who's been following sport for any length of time will have seen well-coached teams winning against the odds, and badly-coached sides that quite literally, beat themselves. This Sunday, one thing is certain - Newtownshandrum will not beat themselves. Because quite simply, the North Cork parish side are one of the best coached hurling sides in the business

Bernie O'Connor's whole life is hurling. It's not just that he was a sub on the Duhallow senior divisional side at 13, a player at 14, the longest-serving member of the panel at 23; not because he was one of the first men ever from his native Meeling to wear the red-and-white of Cork, at all levels; not that his two eldest sons, twins Ben and Jerry, are on the Cork Senior hurling panel, nor that daughter Paula also plays camogie at the highest level for the county; not just that he coaches this Newtownshandrum side that has every chance of winning its first ever Senior County title on Sunday; not even that he makes his living from the game, one way and another, visiting various day-time schools as a qualified GAA coach, and more especially, manufacturing high-quality hurleys at his home, just down the road from the field in the middle of the village.

More than all that

It's because Bernie O'Connor never stops talking, working, thinking about the game. Never

His thinking these days is about Sunday's County Final. And his thinking doesn't reflect what most people in Cork, and in places outside the county that appreciate their hurling, are thinking. Newtownshandrum, goes the refrain, tiny parish, great achievement, to reach a county senior final - and such young lads too. Bernie blows that one out of the water. "I was in Cork at the other semi-final replay last Sunday", he bristles, "and the number of people who said to me, 'ah sure, if ye never win, ye've achieved an awful lot in getting there'. We've achieved nothing if we don't win this game," he says, with huge emphasis. "You don't start in February, and train right through to October, to settle for second best. As far as I'm concerned, it's not about getting to a county final, it's all about winning. This talk about Newtown never having won a Senior County before - none of these fellas give a damn about that. They don't remember who was playing for Newtownshandrum ten years ago, it's nothing to them whether it was ever won or not. This is their team, their time, and they're determined to win it.

"People talk about the size of the parish, and it is small, no getting away from that. If you stand above in the middle of our field, and look around you, a mile in one direction, and you're in Milford, a mile the other direction, you're in Ballyagran, a mile to Charleville, and a mile to Dromina parish. On every side of you, you can see into the next parish. But there are parishes even smaller than us, who have won more than us. It's not the size of your parish at all, it's the size of your players, the size of their heart," he finishes, thumping his chest.

That gives you one side of the man, the side that can motivate with the best, cut through the drivel and straight to the chase, in terms both eloquent and simple. But there's so much more. He is also a very deliberate strategist, a deep thinker on the game

Bernie O'Connor has had the bulk of this team since they were U-12, and his mark is now very clearly on them. Foremost, they're a skilful side, consummate stick-men. Then, they're fit, hurlig fit, with speed and stamina. And finally, putting it all together, they play to a very definite pattern, intelligent hurling, where everyone is on the same page, most of the time. "We have a style of our own," he says. "I am very much into holidng posession. Now when it goes wrong, it can look very bad, and I know that. That's when you hear the shout from outside the fence - hit the ball, get rid of it. But if we're going to do that, we're goig to change the way these lads have played hurling, from U-12 up. We're doing reasonably well, I think, with our own game, and we'll stick with it. You need good hurlers for it, and you need pace, and we have both. I don't think it takes any great talent for a full-back, for instance, to win a ball then belt it as high and as far as he can, maybe to a back at the other end, who then does the same thing back. I don't consider that hurling. Everyone should be brought into the game, and if there's a man free 30 or 40 yards away, give him the ball, rather than belting it aimlessly 60 or 70 yards. That's our game, and it works for us

What it amounts to, almost, is a revoluntion, in hurling. An attempt to control the ball, control the game, where hurling was always seen as the most spontaneous of sports. It takes a lot of work, a lot of practice, a lot of time together, a lot of coaching, and a lot of guts to persevere with it, especially in the face of criticism, when the inevitable happens, and a move breaks down. Above al, it takes a single-minded coach to start and maintain such a revolution. Yet Bernie deflects any credit that might go with it. "I'd be one of those who say it's the players that do it," he says. "You can show them the direction, get them ready to the best of your ability, but I'm not the one who comes into the dressing room covered in sweat, or blood. I'm not the one putting in that massive effort in training and in games. There are times when they'd complain that it's too hard, take it easy tonight, that kind of thing. But, if you trian easy, you play easy; but if you suffer in training, you'll suffer playing, and if it comes to it, you'll make the other fella suffer too. You have to. But this is a terrific bunch of lads, believe me, everyone of them, and they've put in the work