The legendary showjumper is unlikely to be reinstated as Olympic trainer, writes Grania Willis, Equestrian Correspondent
Eddie Macken, a man whose name is revered on the international showjumping circuit, was unceremoniously sacked this week from his post as trainer for the Olympic showjumping team by the same international selection panel that gave him the job in February. The news was broken in a phone call to Macken's Vancouver home from chairman of the Irish selectors Peter Leonard on Wednesday.
Macken expressed himself "absolutely flabbergasted" at this week's turn of events, although the selectors stated in midweek that the unanimous decision had been made because of the poor Nations Cup performances that have left the Irish team languishing at the bottom of the Samsung Super League table.
"I'm really disappointed," the 54-year-old Longford-born rider told The Irish Times this week. "But I don't think there's any road open to me. They've sacked me and there's very little I can do."
The golden boy of Irish showjumping in the 1970s and 1980s, best remembered for his magical partnership with the legendary horse, Boomerang, Macken took on the unsalaried post as team trainer in mid-February, but only after the original appointee, Lt Col Gerry Mullins, had stepped down.
Macken's application for the post had been overlooked and Mullins was announced as team trainer following a meeting of the international affairs committee of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) on January 30th. A number of elite riders voiced their dissent and the controversy resulted in the selectors reversing their decision on February 12th and announcing that they would be offering the job to Macken.
Macken, who is still the only rider to have recorded four consecutive victories in the famous Hickstead Derby, flew home to Ireland the following weekend and met the selectors in Dublin on February 17th. The post was officially offered to him and, even though the selectors had set different parameters from those requested by Macken, he agreed to take on the job, which would cover all nine of the Samsung Super League rounds plus the Olympic Games in Athens.
A request from Macken for some input into the selection procedure for teams was denied and the job description given to him at the February 17th meeting basically left his hands tied. He was there solely in an advisory capacity, with full control resting with the chef d'equipe, Tommy Wade, who had guided the Irish to team gold at the European Championships in 2001. Wade had also overseen Dermott Lennon's march to world championship honours in Jerez, Spain, the following year.
Macken's first outing wearing his team trainer's hat came at La Baule in early May, when the Samsung Super League kicked off at the French venue. Despite a second place in the league rankings last year, the Irish slumped to a depressing joint sixth of eight teams at the seasonal opener, although Kevin Babington restored morale somewhat by claiming the Grand Prix two days later.
Results at the next two Nations Cup meetings were even worse: seventh of eight nations in Rome at the end of May and then equal seventh of nine teams in Lucerne last weekend. With equestrianism named by the Irish Sports Council as one of five sports expected to produce medals at this summer's Olympic Games, questions were being asked about how the formula had suddenly gone so wrong.
The selectors took immediate action, meeting last Tuesday night and reaching a unanimous decision that Macken had to go. "It was a hard call but a decision had to be reached and, regrettably, it was that we should dispense with Eddie Macken's services," said Peter Leonard, chairman of the selectors.
The poor form shown by the team at the first three Nations Cup outings was cited as the main reason for Macken's abrupt removal from the post. But a midweek statement issued by the selectors also referred to a "clash of personalities". Macken denies that there was a falling-out between himself and Wade, but Leonard said on Thursday: "It was either the old dog or the new dog, and one of them had to go."
The response from the international riders was swift, with a letter dispatched to the SJAI on Thursday calling for the resignations of the entire selection panel, including Leonard and Wade, and asking for Macken's reinstatement "as a matter of urgency".
The selectors have made it clear, however, that they will not be swayed this time. Having backed down on their original choice of team trainer back in February, they have no intention of putting Macken back in harness.
"We're standing by our decision," Leonard said after seeing the letter. "The chef d'equipe has total autonomy and if Eddie Macken doesn't agree with those terms, we might as well rewrite the constitution of the SJAI."