Mike Quirke: To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice
Whatever about the honesty of their motives and genuine concerns about maximising their potential, the situation in Mayo has been handled poorly and treated with all the discretion and sensitivity of a fire alarm.
Doors have been around long enough in Ireland for people to have learned how to close them and handle their business in a private and more dignified manner. This is a story that should never have become such a public drama, and the Mayo management team should have been spared the public indignation of being dropped like some contestant with a croaky voice on X Factor who didn’t get enough votes.
It’s not a game show for those guys either and they, along with their friends and families will have been hurt and blind-sided by the players’ mutiny.
But were the players right or wrong? Personally, I don’t like how it was done, but I have no problem with them making that call if they felt strongly that it was for the good of the collective.
‘Cowardly’ was the word that jumped off the page at me when it was used by somebody to describe the actions of the Mayo squad early in the week. I wouldn’t subscribe to that sentiment.
Cowardly describes a person who is content enough to go along with the flow, afraid to choose a different path and upset the status quo. Cowardly is keeping your head down, and being afraid to speak up for yourself even when you know you probably should.
Cowardly to my mind, is sitting inside a private players meeting, and saying; ‘lads, I really don’t believe we can win an All-Ireland with these guys managing us, but we’ll say nothing, because if we do we’ll get lambasted from every corner’.
That’s not the level of honesty that wins you All-Irelands.
It would be a far more cowardly act in my opinion if Aidan O’Shea, Tom Parsons, Keith Higgins, Cillian O’Connor or any of the rest of them woke up in 10 years time and said: ‘we should have stood up for ourselves with greater conviction, and forced a change and we might have won one.’ And who knows, maybe none of these players will ever win the All-Ireland, but don’t call them cowards for wanting to give themselves the best possible chance.
Confucius put it best when he said “to know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice”.
What this Mayo football squad have done took a great deal of courage, along with brass balls. They knew the public ridicule and increased pressure and scrutiny they would be drawing on their shoulders but they did it anyway. Have no doubt, if Mayo do not win the All-Ireland next September, these events will be pulled out of the archives and used as a rod to beat them with for the weeks and months after.
The point I always make about managers is this: They seem to get a completely disproportionate amount of praise or blame depending on the result of any particular game, and I have a huge degree of sympathy for Noel Connolly and Pat Holmes — who did the classy thing by the way — and extricated themselves from an ugly situation quick-smart.
I know little about how they prepared their squad, only what we could see in front of us on game day. They were only a firmer kick of Lee Keegan’s right boot away from going five points up on Dublin in the final quarter of this year’s epic semi-final replay and within touching distance of an All-Ireland final appearance in their first year in charge. From the outside, you would have thought they were doing something right.
But crucially, I, you, and almost everybody writing or talking about their situation is on the outside. Only the players inside in that group truly know what has led them to forcing the hand of their county board and backed their now former managers into an untenable position. One can only imagine the players must have been distinctly unhappy with aspects of their set-up to take such radical action and declare a motion of no-confidence in their joint managers.
If the players didn’t perceive Connolly and Holmes as the guys to get them to All Ireland glory, then it really didn’t matter what their managers said or did next season, without the unconditional backing and belief of their players, the had no chance of success.
Ultimately, the players inside the white line dictate the result of every contest. A manager can only do so much. But players must have that faith in their gaffer, a trust he is doing things the right way, for the right reasons. This Mayo bunch were spoiled with the calibre of James Horan, Cian O’Neill, and Donie Buckley at various times in their management set-up.
They were getting the very best coaching and sports science back-up that was available within this country. Donie is still involved and I know him to be the ultimate professional, and the players campaigned last year to get him to stay on, so we know they are fans of his work.
Would this Mayo squad win the All-Ireland if Jim McGuinness was their manger in the new year, or would the players be satisfied if their county board sent representation down to south Kerry to proposition Jack O’Connor and prize him away from the Kerry U21 gig? These are the only type of guys that will satisfy their need for proven quality. Guys who have been there recently and won the whole thing. Managers they know are authentic winners with a proven track record.
The problem for Mayo is there aren’t too many of these guys on the circuit. Will bookies’ favourite Stephen Rochford be the guy to bring it all together? Time will tell.
Current coaching science literature suggests the coaching process is more of a dynamic, social interaction between coach and player, and is far more about winning hearts and minds than simply the delivery of coaching sessions.
The problem for Connolly and Holmes? Their players’ hearts belonged to another.
There’s nothing cowardly about taking ownership of your own destiny.
