Behind the scenes, Kieran McGeeney has played an important role in Tipperary's march to the All-Ireland SHC final.

The former All-Ireland winning football captain accepted an invitation from Eamonn O'Shea late last year to work on the mental aspects of the Premier County's preparations.

"I just do things that Eamon asks me, whatever sort of level that is," he explained to The Irish Independent.

"I've done bits and pieces with business and I have players that I work with as well in different sports.

"I enjoy it. It's just something that fascinates me, to find out what makes people tick. I could read about it or talk about it all day.

"What is it in a particular situation? Because it is never the fastest, the strongest or the brightest that make it. There's something different there.

"You talk about natural talent but when you read about it there is no such thing, no matter how much science has tried to draw our physical attributes as hereditary.

"In terms of developing particular skills for a sport there doesn't seem to be any gene that leads to that.

"How someone is brought up and their surroundings and environment seems to have a bigger impact on that.

"How to do that in a way that generates better players and sports people is interesting too, especially within the GAA. It interests me.

"Will better people make better players or will better players make better people? What the GAA and GPA are doing together shows that there are a lot of other issues alongside playing at that level and that level of exposure in an amateur situation that not everybody is equipped to deal with."

Having recently been appointed for a five-year term as manager of his native county, McGeeney is looking forward to building on the progress the Orchard County made on the football front this year.

"It was a big decision, it's always hard to move home and harder because there are still players there that I played for and have tremendous respect for.

"If I stay for the five years, it's more than likely that those careers will end in the particular time.

"It's a double-edged sword because I've always loved Armagh. All I wanted to do was play and win with them as a player. That hasn't changed now.

"But I loved my time with Kildare and I'll always have that regret that I couldn't get them across the line."

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