Stephen Quinn has learned two key lessons early on in an absorbing career coaching women.

Not only are they predominantly better listeners than men, it is also important to make sure you listen to them, too.

The Tipp man may have been primed to step into the breach at Wexford Youths following Tom Elmes’ mid-season departure for the FAI but a first meeting with stalwart Kylie Murphy set his stall out.

Nothing had betrayed Elmes’ impact at the club than his departure from it last June, his side’s comeback from 2-0 down to draw with champions Peamount his last act as head coach before joining the FAI’s underage international set-up.

Nobody had wanted the post when he initially stepped in – Murphy one of those who had begged him to do so – and his impact was instant, leading the club to a treble in his first campaign in 2018.

Then they retained the Cup in a glittering spell also featuring two Champions League campaigns.

However, Elmes’ departure, along with the absence of former supreme goalscorer Rianna Jarrett, could have served to further weaken the club.

Murphy’s insistent demands impressed upon Quinn that there could be no more backward steps.

“If you have a conversation with Kylie for 10 seconds you’d know that straight away,” he smiles, after guiding the club to Sunday’s showpiece Cup final, where they seek to bridge a yawning two-season trophy gap.

“I knew what was coming. I’d a meeting with Nicola (Sinnott) and Edel (Kennedy), and with Tom leaving they were happy with the progression for me, just trying to keep everything similar but add little things to it.

“But the main thing was maintaining standards. You could easily use Tom’s departure as an excuse for a couple of results that didn’t go our way.

“But that wasn’t the case, we kicked on from there, I think we’d only one loss before we played Shels at the weekend.

“And to get to a cup final now to prolong the season is down to their hard work. Staff and managers can only put so much in place.

“It’s down to the players to go out and do the hard work. I’m delighted for them.”

Being an avid listener is the key to good coaching and for the Dundrum man, enjoying a promising coaching career in the South Tipp development office after honing his craft in IT Carlow, having players who are good listeners also helps.

“Definitely. At a young age or an older age, women don’t profess that they know everything. I don’t want to be biased but sometimes you go into the men’s game and they think they know it all whereas these girls are open to anything you want to try.

“They’ll go and do it and if it doesn’t work they’ll hold you accountable and ask questions. I’ve worked on both sides.

“I won’t say one listens more than the other but they want the information and if they’re not too sure they’ll ask loads of questions. It’s definitely something that helps and I think anyone who works in the female game would say the same.”

Although he came from a GAA background, focusing on strength and conditioning, he soon realised he was a better teacher than pupil, whatever the code.

“I was asked to help out with a local women’s team that was doing pre-season. I ended up taking them over after a while and then got that bug of coaching.

“The passion is the women’s game because you look at the landscape. There are loads of coaches lined up to do boys’ and men’s jobs.

“You need top coaches who are really passionate to get involved in the women’s game because once you get involved at all you can see how much it means to everyone.

“It’s just a bug, you don’t want to go anywhere else. It’s really a learning curve for me as a coach. If you asked me three years ago if I’d be going into a cup final and leading out that group of players I’d have laughed at it.”

The 33-year-old will lead them out against a decorated coach, Noel King, who is almost twice his age.

“It’s a challenge for me, I was only thinking about it in the car. Noel King, what he’s done speaks for itself, his experiences and what he’s gone through.

“Having that is a massive thing for me. I’m learning on the job. He’s got a lot of experience so it’s great for me to pit my wits against him.

“On the day it will be tactical battle but it will be up to how much the players want it as well. 

“If the performance is there the result will look after itself.”