Mike McGurn says Cork stars Alan O'Connor and Brian Murphy have proven that strength and conditioning is over-rated.

O'Connor produced a commanding display for the Rebels at midfield in Sunday's drawn Munster final, having sat out the entire league, while Murphy has also slotted seamlessly back into the Leesiders' hurling squad since his return in May.

McGurn - the former Irish rugby strength and conditioning coach, who also had spells with Armagh, Louth and Antrim as well as Ireland's International Rules team - says their displays prove that quality is what counts first and foremost:

"At the end of the day, they are quality players and quality will always come to the fore," he says in The Irish Independent. "I don't know how long they have been on the panel previously but if they are on it for five or six years they would have a certain amount of muscle memory training where it kicks in pretty quickly after a couple of weeks. The muscle memory must have kicked in - but it also pinpoints the fact that all this six nights a week is a load of baloney, there is no need for it.

"You can do three years strength and conditioning but if you haven't got the skilful player or the player with ability, well then it makes no odds. And that is the bottom line.

"That's why you will always have Kerry, Dublin, Kilkenny, Tipperary because the best players always come to the fore. That is the reality. We can throw out all the clichés and do all the fancy training. It's not a one size fits all, it never was and certainly the older lads need to do less. Maybe it begs the question: what were these boys doing away from their Cork panels? They weren't getting flogged anyway because they were fresh for those games."

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