We believe that little things add up to big things, says Harte

NO manager of a successful GAA team has ever bared his soul as much as Mickey Harte has done through the diary he kept in between his appointment in Tyrone and their magical All-Ireland triumph last September.

The book he has co-written with Sunday Tribune's Kieran Shannon provides a remarkable insight into what can best be described as an ultra-professional approach. It also a fitting tribute to what he and his players achieved.

In many ways, Kicking Down Heaven's Door could be regarded as a handbook for any manager with aspirations for success, at club or inter-county level. To say that his approach was methodical would be an understatement. It was absolutely meticulous in its planning and implementation.

Of course, it involved a lot of key people, foremost being co-selector Fr Gerard McAleer, trainer Paddy Tally and team captain Peter Canavan, but he was the one who pulled all the various strands together and bonded them in their united purpose. It's what he describes as "the circle". Last January, a pharmacist addressed players on IOC-banned substances, on what medications they could and could not take and provided them with a kit containing basic remedies. All the way through to the All-Ireland final, Harte consulted with players, getting them to analyse their own game and advising them how to improve all the time offering encouragement. From the outset, he made it clear that players would be judged on their work ethic, insisting: "work rate must be as good as talent".

Harte explains his basic approach, in the course of commenting that the day of the dictatorial manager is gone. "There can be no superiority or elitism about this. You cannot own people. I want players to think, not be spoon-fed. They know I'm still the monitor, the arbiter, but I want to be transparent to the players.

"I want them to know that I make mistakes and am prepared to make mistakes and I'm prepared to learn from mistakes. There's no finished product. We're all people in the making. I really believe that. I think it would be a sad day that if in a year's time, I'm the same person that I am now. That would mean I've switched off, that I haven't explored my own abilities. I have to do that. That's the thrill of life." That was written after what he regarded as a particularly thrilling session, when they divided the group of 28 players into seven groups, gave them a topic to discuss lifestyle, training and match-day preparation and then asked them to respond. "It didn't matter if they seemed like little things they were talking about. On this team, we believe that little things add up to big things. We wanted to know what they were thinking, how did they think they were doing . . ."

Many will find the team's ritual of being presented with their jerseys fascinating. "If you're our first-choice goalkeeper, your name and number is called out, everybody else observes and you walk back to your place. It's the same drill if you're number 30. Then when everyone has a jersey they put their two arms into it. They don't pull the jersey over their head, yet. They only do that together, simultaneously. Those are just jerseys and they're just individuals until that point. But when they pull those jerseys over their head, they do so as a team. It is an act of unity, an act of a team.

"After the game the same principles apply. I don't care if we've won or lost, you treat the jersey with respect. We say: 'right boys, we're going to lift the jerseys'. That means you fold it and when your number is called you leave it back as close as possible to how you found it, folded with the number out. Any Tyrone team I've coached has done the same since 1991.

Two other tales illustrate the thought and imagination that went into unifying the players. Firstly, after every member of the panel and management chose their own favourite music track, they were put on a CD and played each time they travelled by coach. Secondly, on the Tuesday prior to the All-Ireland final, each player was given a sheet of paper and asked to return it on Thursday, with a positive statement about every other member of the panel. Then, on the night before the game, as the panel attended a meeting, each player had a personal letter waiting for him when he got back to his room. "On it were 30 compliments from every member of the panel. At the end of each was a statement we have used all year. 'Talent does what it can. Genius does what it must.'"

Kicking Down Heaven's Door, Diary of a Football Manager, Mickey Harte, with Kieran Shannon, is published by All-Star Print Ltd. and sells at £11.95 sterling and Euro 17.50.