As captains go, there were few more revered than Kavanagh, a man who has always been idolised in Trabeg.

Now, as was the case then, he is a shrewd reader of the game. Of course, his match-day viewing points are a little different these days.

Nevertheless, he still finds himself yearning to develop a play out of defence as he may see it and beat every attacker to the next 50/50 ball.

And Kavanagh is protective of the legacy the current side are developing for themselves too.

The general consensus is Nemo 2015 is a shadow of, say, Nemo 2003 or even the provincial-winning sides of 2006, 2008 and 2011.

Kavanagh, though, scoffs at the notion.

“When we were going through it ourselves as players, we were not seen as a great team either,” Kavanagh explained. “We were winning Countys but not All-Irelands and then, therefore, we were not as good as this team or that team of the past.

“And now this team isn’t getting the recognition it deserves either.

“That’s what made winning the County for us as sweet as it was.

“You have the idea that these players wouldn’t be a touch on Steven O’Brien, Colin Corkery, Joe Kavanagh and the rest of the lads.

“You see, you’ll have the same in 10 years’ time, ‘Jeez, these fellas aren’t a touch on Paul Kerrigan, Barry O’Driscoll, David Niblock and those guys.

“That’s just the way it’s always been with our club.

“We tell them though that they are making their own history.

“Say we win on Sunday and don’t win another Munster for 10 years, sure they’ll be the ‘greatest team of all-time’ then in 10 years.

“It’s just the way it is but they’re a great bunch of lads.”

Still, as selector presently with Nemo chasing a 16th provincial title and first since 2010 against Clonmel Commercials, Kavanagh finds himself marvelling at the little details of the code at club level nowadays.

“The players we have now are stronger, faster and more powerful than we were too.

“You’d have idle chat, ‘Would Larry Kavanagh, Colin Corkery or those lads survive in the game now?’.

“Of course we would, though. Players just adapt.

“We were cutting edge at the time.

“Now you have all of these recovery methods, more detailed warm-ups even and it’s fascinating to witness first-hand.

“Players now at club level are in rolling for 10 or 15 minutes in the dressing room before they even go out on to the field for the warm-up itself.

“Commitment-wise too, none of us have ever had to say to them, ‘Don’t go for a pint lads’.

“It’s all self-monitoring and self-moderation now.

“We were self-monitoring to a point when we were togging out but nowhere near as much as the players are at the moment.

“And it’s the apps they use which make it that way. They have their own WhatsApp group which we, as management, do not go in to.

“But I’d say a fella wouldn’t long told by the rest of them to shape up if Joe Bloggs had been out and had a beer.

“The attitude among the players is ‘That’s grand Joe but you’ve Munster championship on Sunday’.

“Before, management teams would have to sit on top of players but now it’s totally different.

“They essentially manage themselves,” he explained.

Kavanagh believes players of all grades presently are more conscious of what is required to achieve success rather than being hungrier for reaching their goals than players of the past were.

“Club players, at this very minute, are at the level inter-county players were 10 years ago,” Kavanagh opined. “That gap in time-relativity might even be narrower than that.

“The point is club operators are motoring at seriously intense levels, much more intense in 2015 than we had been a decade previously.

“Inter-county players years ago would have gotten access to dieticians and the like.

“We never ever looked at what we ate. Now you see fellas checking their diets on their phones. Incredible really when you think about it.

“The lads now are aware of how much effort and detail their direct markers will have put in to try and ensure they perform so match that preparation.

“The hope then is that you beat them on skill, speed of thought.

“They know though that won’t be the case if they haven’t eaten, slept and recovered from sessions right.

“And if a fella has fallen off the wagon with the diet you’d hear him getting a slagging in training. We wouldn’t even mention it but again, it comes back to the self- and group-monitoring.

“Some fellas go way over the top not eating anything but boiled chicken for the week of a championship game.

“They were things we never did but when you hear it in the dressing room you’d be thinking, ‘Jeez, what did the Cronins do, the O’Briens, in our day?’.

“It’s genuinely interesting to see such heightened commitment.”

Another vital facet of Nemo’s evolution under O’Brien’s management is the attention to detail available to them via video analysis.

At first, it could be argued O’Brien, Colin Corkery, Kavanagh and co were somewhat naive in the manner they set the team up defensively.

Castlehaven’s Brian Hurley has been a particular thorn in their side previously.

Yet, Nemo have adapted and become more defensively sound which they will need to be against Commercials’ dynamic attack.

“Steven is a cool manager, probably cooler than I was even with the U21s.

“We got to a county final and lost it but Nemo being Nemo we got absolutely castigated for it.

“So you learn and we’ve brought new dimensions this year including video analysis.

“It’s funny though, we almost feel naked not having seen a video of Clonmel.

“Still, the video analysis clips we give the lads have been hugely beneficial, especially defensively,” he added.