GAELIC GAMES - DEMANDS ON MODERN MANAGERS:FOR GAA managers, this has been the year of living dangerously. It can no longer go unnoticed, in a week when two GAA managers were unceremoniously relieved of their posts, that a mood of change for the sake of change has gripped the association, writes Keith Duggan
Richie Bennis exited Limerick after the county board none too subtly advertised their preference for Justin McCarthy, who, of course, was removed as Waterford manager during the All-Ireland hurling championship after a player putsch. Twenty-four hours later, John Meyler of Wexford was gone and you could hear the hurt in his voice when he recounted, on early morning radio interviews, how he was told that four of his squad had reported their unhappiness with his regime to the county chairman.
And that was that.
"It was a shock to me because not one player had raised any issue with me the three days after the Waterford match," Meyler said.
"I don't know where this came from, just that someone wanted me out and that was it. I talked to most of the players and to Damien Fitzhenry, whom I have great respect for. He said after the Waterford match that he would stay if I did. He was flabbergasted and dumbfounded that I was gone.
"I didn't really accept the criticisms and I was absolutely surprised with the things that were outlined. They had problems with my background staff and my man management skills.
"Four players met the county chairman and they wanted to remain anonymous so I was rather disappointed that lads couldn't come out and say what they meant. I have worked very hard and been very committed."
THERE CAN BE no question that Meyler, whatever the views on his success as manager, was treated with terrible insensitivity. And there can be equally no doubt such indifferent treatment of managers has become commonplace in GAA circles today.
At the moment, the Meath County Board are in the process of identifying the new man for their football team, with Luke Dempsey rumoured to be the likely candidate. The Meath vacancy came up following the terrible summer that Colm Coyle endured, culminating in a sensational pasting in the qualifying series down in Limerick. Coyle, of course, had been ushered in following the blunt removal of Eamonn Barry from the post. After almost two decades of Seán Boylan leading the county through good times and bad (and there were more of the former), the Royal County is suddenly in a state of flux.
"It doesn't apply to all counties but there is no doubt there is an instant pressure on managers to perform and a lack of patience on the part of county boards when success isn't immediate," Barry says now.
"There are exceptions - if you look at Louth, for instance, and the example of Eamonn McEneaney, you can see the success of giving a manager time. Two to three seasons is probably a reasonable period of time to give a manager but very often they can find themselves coming under pressure almost immediately."
This has been an ugly season for GAA managers, with a series of high-profile men leaving their jobs under clouds of varying hues. John Maughan's departure from Roscommon was down to a combination of woeful results and what he felt was growing hostility from an element of the Roscommon GAA public.
Justin McCarthy, who did so much to revitalise Waterford hurling, stepped down after it became clear he had lost the support of his players following a demoralising Munster championship defeat to Clare.
Around the same time, Mickey Harte - acknowledged as one of the most innovative and clear-thinking GAA managers of the modern era - was reportedly under immense pressure in Tyrone after the county team exited the Ulster championship after a replay against Down.
Paul Caffrey bowed out after the same Tyrone team rose again and were rampant against Dublin by mid-August. Derry, the National League champions in May, had a terribly disappointing championship and not surprisingly, Paddy Crozier stepped down as manager.
In Donegal, Brian McIver showed up at a county board meeting in September where his reappointment was to be ratified. Instead, he found himself under fire from a series of club delegates and felt he had no option but to resign on the spot. McIver was probably the most shabbily treated of any manager and having observed the varying fortunes of colleagues since, he agrees a new hunger for results has crept into GAA culture.
"You would feel that the GAA has come to resemble the Premiership in that if things don't go particularly well for a few months, the solution is to bring in a new manager. You get the impression that county boards are feeling pressure to get their teams to produce results straight away.
"There can only be one winner of the All-Ireland hurling and football championships but that often seems to be forgotten. It has become the case that a good National League showing doesn't really seem to be taken into account. And it is overlooked as well - be it in the Premiership or in the GAA - that the teams that enjoy the greatest levels of success are those that have the most stability.
"I think the change in format of the National League really has contributed to that sense of immediate pressure. Once you got into the situation of where you finished mattering in terms of the championship - when you could drop into Division Three or Four and maybe spend a couple of seasons trying to get back up the pecking order - it probably placed an added emphasis on results."
And "results" often means unrealistic expectations. Now that all counties have bought into the benefits of hard training - and therefore heaped added costs on to hard-pressed county board funds - there is an expectation that success must follow.
THE CHOPPING AND changing of managers and the recruitment of high-profile names would suggest many people see the manager as the talisman. A hurling man of Justin McCarthy's calibre was never going to be allowed to stand idle for too long.
Limerick have had a long and turbulent period of senior hurling managerial appointments and it was Bennis, sprung as an emergency appointment in the summer of 2006, that seemed to have restored stability to his county, guiding a much maligned team to the All-Ireland final last year. This summer, however, was disappointing and that was what mattered when it came to the selection process. Bennis was sanguine about the matter this week, preferring not to elaborate on his belief that he did not get a fair crack at the interview process.
"I don't think I did and I will leave it at that," he said after McCarthy's appointment was made official. "They had their homework done on Justin and they were entitled to that. They have got a good man so everybody should now stop the cribbing and crying here in Limerick and get behind the manager. Over the last few years, there have been little jealousies when certain people got the job and I hope people get behind Justin now."
McCarthy's immediate return proves that however bruising the life of a manager can be it also has its attractions.
"Most managers would aspire to working with the top players in the game," remarks Eamonn Barry. "There is a difference between working at club and county level. But you do need to be given time and space to develop with a team. This year, managers can't meet with teams until January 1st and the leagues begin in late February. It is unrealistic to expect new managers to have made any real impression in that time but if you lose a few games, suddenly relegation becomes a real threat and that is deemed unacceptable and the next thing, there is talk of getting rid of the manager.
"In my own case in Meath, the clubs voted me in against the wishes of the county board. And I felt we did reasonably well but the board didn't think that was the case and we were out. A lot of these managerial comings and goings have to do with power and control."
The players' voice also carries more volume than ever before - most emphatically evidenced in the long dispute between the Cork hurling and football squads and the county board at the beginning of the year. It seems clear the Wexford hurlers are this week split on whether the services of Meyler should have been retained.
Conversely, it seemed as if McIver was forced to relinquish his tenure of the Donegal job despite enjoying the full backing of his players.
"I was happy with the progress and felt that we were going the right way," McIver says. "All championship games bring a degree of pressure but looking at the bigger picture in terms of the development of the team, I felt things were good. But in general, if the trend continues, managers are going to prepare for championship games feeling as if they are going to be gone unless they win it. And that has a knock-on effect for players too - they must feel confident under the manager if they are to perform."
The Kilkenny hurling team are rightly held up as the model for all other counties to follow in terms of their application and their consistently excellent use of their resources. Given Brian Cody's extraordinary success, the county board have hardly had to agonise over renewing his contract. But even Cody has experienced disappointment - including the surprising defeat to a young Cork team in his first All-Ireland final back in 1999.
HE RECOVERED FROM that setback and has become a towering figure in modern Gaelic games, emblematic of what every county, in hurling or football, wants in a team manager. And yet despite Brian Cody's longevity, the era of the long-serving manager has almost certainly passed.
"I would be surprised to see it return," says Eamonn Barry. "I think Brian Cody is an exception. Even if you take the example of Jack O'Connor, who had great success with Kerry but stepped down after three years, shorter terms are becoming more common. But the impatience element means many managers have no choice. Even Mickey Harte was facing calls for his head early in the summer and who knows, he might have stepped aside if Tyrone had not won it."
Such are the fine lines.
Meanwhile, over the next few months, all the counties will showcase their new leading men and hope will spring eternal. For the deposed, there is the consolation of simply enjoying the games. "I will miss it come the new season," admits McIver. "But what I won't miss is having to note where every goalkeeper directs his kick-out or what foot the left back uses or who drops back. Those aren't my problems now."
