GAELIC GAMES:A messiah or a pariah, there's nomiddle ground when it comes to outside managers, writes KEITH DUGGAN
NOTHING PROMOTES the idea of the All-Ireland football championship as being made of individual impenetrable sects like the presence of the “outside” manager.
Tomorrow in Croke Park, both Kildare and Meath will be managed by men born from outside those borders. One of those, Meath’s Séamus McEnaney, has been under ferocious pressure almost since he accepted the position late last year. The difficulty in which the Monaghan man finds himself has been offered as further proof that the experiment of importing “outside” men to coach another county is doomed to failure. Whenever the subject is raised, it is pointed out the most successful counties in Gaelic football – Kerry and Dublin – would never dream of it.
The belief is that bringing in someone else, however handsome the CV, can only lead to internal division and that the manager cannot possibly “understand” the way football works in that particular place because he is not from there. Those who frown on the idea can point to the many GAA marriages made in hell.
Joe Kernan’s brief reign in Galway was the most recent example of a hand-in-glove fit which came apart at the seams.
John Maughan’s hasty departure from Roscommon, citing the behaviour of “customers” as the main reason, was another example of a proven manager meeting a storm. And Maughan’s county Mayo held an infamous managerial putsch, when the 1992 squad revolted against Dublin man Brian McDonald.
Tyrone man Brian McIver, now a member of the Down backroom, was widely admired by the Donegal players that he coached but fell foul of county board politics and was gone. Those are the examples cited and they all lead to the quick conclusion: the outside man doesn’t work. But is that true?
“To be honest, I think it is absolutely stupid the way some people go on about outside managers,” says Tom Carr, who managed his native Dublin as well as Roscommon and Cavan. “And people might say my opinion is biased as I have been one of those. My opinion is whoever is suited to a job at intercounty level, whether they are from the place of not is irrelevant. What do you say about Anthony Daly and Dublin hurlers: that he shouldn’t be there?
“Or that John O’Mahony shouldn’t have gone to Galway and win two All-Irelands?
“They didn’t have anyone in the county to do it because they had tried and failed for 30-odd years. You can take statistics and turn them around whatever way you please. The other thing to consider is this: if you look at the profile of counties that do bring in people, it is usually the counties that are not winning anyway. Cork, Kerry, Tyrone and Dublin have winning traditions. So you need to level the playing field when it comes to this issue.”
In his first year in charge of Roscommon in 2005, Carr guided the team through the qualifiers as far as the All-Ireland quarter-final, where they lost to Kerry. When he left a year later, he was replaced by Maughan. It appeared to be a perfect fit. Maughan knew Roscommon football and his disciplinarian approach should have suited them. But when he quit in his third year, Roscommon were experiencing a miserable league campaign and protests outside the dressingroom door after a defeat to Westmeath signalled the end.
But Maughan’s experience in Roscommon is hardly definitive proof things didn’t work out because he was from “outside” the county. Maughan, after all, cut his managerial teeth by guiding Clare to the 1992 Munster football championship. Because that period coincided with a period of new Ulster dominance, the enormity of that achievement is often overlooked.
It was Clare’s first provincial title since 1917 and it was made possible precisely because Maughan came in fired up with the belief the team didn’t have to accept its place in the traditional pecking order. He had no hang-ups about what Clare could or couldn’t do.
And that can be the single biggest advantage of bringing in an outside voice. However, the toll of managing a county while living elsewhere can be severe.
“Any manager who has done it will tell you it is the travel that is the big disadvantage,” says Carr. “And what people don’t see is that outside managers are expected to be at local championship games and meet the players afterwards . . . A manager probably gets less time from the public if you are from the outside.”
Anyone watching Mickey Moran (Derry) on the field after Leitrim beat Sligo in the Connacht championship last month would have been hard-pressed to see him as an outsider. Leitrim had competed well in recent years without getting a break: against Sligo, they did it against all expectations.
For Moran, it was a victory for small counties everywhere and for his belief it is possible for so-called weaker teams to buck against prevailing wisdom.
Moran is proof there is not a clear trend when it comes to outside managers. He brought Mayo to an All-Ireland final in 2006, Donegal to an All-Ireland quarter-final replay in 2002 and saw a Sligo team he had great hopes for badly beaten by Galway in 2000.
His latest win with Leitrim is another chapter of a career which has been dedicated to imparting knowledge about the more subtle aspects of the game.
“The first thing is that you have to be asked and wanted by that county,” Moran says. “I have been lucky enough to be asked. I can’t say an outside manager is better than an inside man. You are only talking generally. There are very talented home-based managers and the same from outside. I do think it is driven by the media a wee bit. If you are saying success is winning an All-Ireland, then all 33 other counties are a failure.
“My argument is that anywhere I have gone, I will take the reserve team and also help with the minors and I would hope I would leave that team in a stronger place. It is not a case of taking 24 or 25 players. To me, it is about getting talent coming through.
“That is not to be disrespectful to the last manager. And there is no doubt that some very good people from Leitrim will manage this team after me.”
It was with Leitrim that O’Mahony achieved his first success, when he guided them to the Connacht title in 1994. Four years later, he managed Galway to their first All-Ireland title since 1966.
Since then, Galway have been happy to pursue outside managers, with Peter Ford (Mayo) and Kernan bracketing Liam Sammon’s time in charge.
Tomás Ó Flatharta (Kerry) is the latest and it was notable how quickly attention was focused on that appointment after some poor early league results.
Ó Flatharta remained calm and low-key and his team responded by delivering impressive displays against Armagh and Dublin at the close of the league. They were relegated from Division One but there were sufficient signs to suggest they could be dangerous in the summer.
The opposite has happened in Meath. Poor league results, the recent resignation of his selectors and the controversial decision to bring Graham Geraghty back into the squad at 38; the unrest in Meath is keener than ever.
“Half the people in the county were against him straight away without knowing anything about him,” Carr says. “Three bad league results and you are on the back foot. I am not making heroes out of managers but it is a lonely place. You have a backroom staff and your team are with you but you carry the can.”
McEnaney’s situation has not been helped by the fact there has been a degree of anxiety hanging over Meath football since Seán Boylan retired. Eamon Barry, Colm Coyle and Eamon O’Brien have been voted in and out since the Dunboyne man stepped down after a quarter of a century in charge. It is a fickle business for all managers whether they are outsiders are not.
Meath and McEnaney are up against it with Kildare tomorrow but one good afternoon for either man and they will find themselves, like all outside managers who have worked some magic, hailed as a prophet in a strange land.
The outsiders the success stories
Mick O'Dwyer (Kildare)
The Kerry man's move to take on the Lilywhite cause in 1991 was considered radical in the extreme. The revolution was slow burning but it worked: a first Leinster since 1956 followed in 1998. Kildare also made it to the All-Ireland final that year only to be foiled by Galway and John O'Mahony, another outside manager.
Martin McHugh (Cavan)
After years of success, Cavan ground to a halt after 1968, stuck on 38 Ulster titles. Martin McHugh hadn't long finished playing with Donegal when he managed them to a famous triumph in 1997, bringing Kerry and Cavan together in an All-Ireland semi-final that evoked memories of the Polo Grounds final 50 years earlier.
Páidí Ó Sé (Westmeath)
After resigning as Kerry manager in controversial circumstances, Ó Sé caught everyone on the hop by reinventing himself as Westmeath manager in 2004. Within a year, he succeeded where others hadn't in over a century by managing a them to a Leinster title. That was the high point: Ó Sé quit after 2005 but the gamble had worked.
