Finding right man for the job toughest of county tasks

By Sean Kelly

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

AS was mentioned here a few weeks ago, the annual race by county boards to fill vacant managerial posts at senior inter-county level is in full swing.

Officials too often seek a speedy appointment. Their attitude is that the sooner the position is filled, the sooner fans forget about past failures and start dreaming of future glories. But does it lead to progress? Unfortunately, in many cases, the answer is no.

Firstly, there is no clear pathway to becoming an inter-county manager. To qualify you don’t sit an exam and you don’t need any coaching qualification. Some come up through the ranks, starting with club or school teams, and if they win something of consequence they will be spoken of as top-flight managerial material.

Others can be sprung straight from playing inter-county to managing inter-county teams. The two most obvious success stories of this are Kevin Walsh and Kieran McGeeney.

By any standards, their transformation from player to manager has been amazing. But the majority who have made the leap from inside to outside the white lines have ended in failure.

Obviously, there are very wise people in Sligo and Kildare that spotted the inter-county managerial potential of both Walsh and McGeeney while they were still playing and moved to appoint them as soon as they had hung up their boots.

This brings us to the next phase of this scenario – how and by whom are managers appointed. Again there is no uniform system in the GAA on how to conduct the process and there are no guidelines. So, in the best traditions of the GAA, every county has its own systems and has its own way of doing it.

In many counties the clubs can nominate potential managers and the county board follows through by ascertaining the nominees’ suitability and availability before drawing up an interview list. Again, the process varies from county to county.

Kieran Mulvey came up with a recommendation that the Cork manager should be appointed by a committee comprising of players and board officials. That was changed to allow three legends to come up with a recommendation.

There is a lot of merit in this but some feel that the county board shouldn’t be handing over power to non-elected individuals for such an important appointment.

But recently when Limerick chiefs decided to undertake a similar outsourcing process, some accused them of abdicating their duty. It is hard to win in this situation. If the board decide to do it themselves, they’d probably be accused of appointing a their ‘own’ man.

Another issue is the length of term that the manager gets. It is normally one, two or three years but I believe counties building a team may be wiser to appoint a manager for a five-year spell. But such terms are too long for most boards who fear a backlash from supporters if silverware and success is in short supply.

Still, most solid plans in business, politics or economics are of a five-year duration. In the world of inter-county team development, that idea has yet to catch on.

People aren’t queuing up to become top flight managers given the exaggerated and often unrealistic expectations of success in many counties.

Throw in the absence of a pathway to progress, the insecurity of the position, the variation of tenure and, oh yes, the voluntary nature of the job.

An inexact science if ever there was one.

ONCE again, we had high quality games on Sunday in Croke Park with thrilling finishes. The Cork minors advanced in a thrilling victory over Galway while Down edged out Kildare to qualify for their first senior final since 1994. Great games of football at this level is good for the GAA and two great deciders await. Down’s rise to fame has been incredible under James McCartan. Their record in All-Ireland finals – playing in five and winning five – is second to none. That statistic and the calibre of this team ensures Cork will have to be in right frame of mind when they meet on September 19.

But it could so easily have been Kildare facing Cork in the final. They were denied two goals by a combination of post and crossbar while two crucial umpiring decisions went against them in the first half. Now that’s bad luck.

While to err is human, at this level and with so much at stake it’s just not good enough.

All that is water under the bridge now as we look forward to the All-Ireland final.

Hopefully, it will turn out to be a cracker and all the indications are that it will be.

Regardless of controversy, football was the winner on Sunday.

WHILE the intentions of those who decided to fence the fans at Hill 16 level are sincere and genuine, it all looked a little sad on Sunday.

After 126 years, it is disconcerting that GAA supporters, recognised as the most loyal and sporting in the world, have to be corralled at one end of Croke Park for health and safety reasons.

This should have been the last option not the first. My suggestion of an orderly entry of the crowd onto the field after games rather than enforced prevention as a first option was reiterated by Mickey Harte during the week. It all seems a bit hasty and unnecessary. The next question is – will it work out as intended? The All-Ireland finals will tell a tale.

IS it an omen or one of those things which happens to every team? Brian Hogan’s injury is seen by many as a bad sign ahead of Kilkenny’s bid to create history on Sunday in Croke Park. Many people in Kerry feel that if Jimmy Deenihan wasn’t injured in 1982 that the Kingdom would have won the five-in-row. Could the loss of Hogan unlock the Kilkenny defence similarly? Well, its all part of the speculation that goes with a game of Sunday’s magnitude.

But regardless of the result this Kilkenny team’s reputation is assured. They have set the benchmark for all.

Tipperary showed last year that they were on a par with Kilkenny for 65 minutes. Which one has raised the bar the most in the meantime? We will know the answer around 5pm.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, August 31, 2010