Fogarty Forum: The only succession plan that counts in GAA is now

File pic of new Tipperary manager Colm Bonnar. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile

THE brilliant Succession returns to TV screens next month but it is already being played out in counties as they consider who may be taking over next season.

It’s not too difficult to imagine Brian Cody as hurling’s version of Brian Cox’s Logan Roy, the billionaire media mogul who on one hand seems to want to pass on control of his company but on the other doesn’t wish to let go of it just yet.

The board of Waystar Royco is in Roy’s control and it’s not as if having provided the county with such riches that the Kilkenny executive were going to stand in the way of Cody seeking a 24th year. Indeed, it is believed chairman Jimmy Walsh proposed the 11-time All-Ireland winning manager for a record-breaking season in charge.

As Christy Heffernan intimated in this newspaper last week, there isn’t a stampede of challengers to the throne. If Ger Loughnane was right in claiming Cody brought a “functional” team to an All-Ireland title in 2015, he is attempting to be an alchemist now. Besides, many who might have been regarded as competition were either brought into the management team or have fallen by the wayside.

Earlier this year, Henry Shefflin denied he was approached by Cody to become part of the set-up but it would have made complete sense for the great manager to have at least made a call to a back-to-back All-Ireland senior club-winning boss.

Lonely eyes in Kilkenny turned north to Tyrone last Saturday week where a seemingly Teflon manager stepped aside and All-Ireland glory followed 10 months later.

Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan were a team. Neither would have split to join Mickey Harte where their opportunity to manage would have been lost.

If Shefflin does have designs on managing Kilkenny in the future, perhaps he too considers his chances are better remaining outside the tent for now.

Brendan Cummins would certainly agree. Recently appointed Tipperary U20 manager after approaching the board to consider him for the position, he was never going to be part of anybody else’s ticket. Revealing his desire to lead his county three years ago, he said: “If I ever go in to do it, I’d like to do it as taking over. All of the decisions falling on my head, to be honest with you. There is a certain edge to that.”

Prospective Tipperary managers are lone wolves these days whereas before they were collegiate. Declaring in 2014 that the following year would be his final year in charge of the county’s senior hurlers, Eamon O’Shea’s goodbye didn’t work out as he might have liked but 13 months later and his selector and choice as heir, Michael Ryan, was guiding the team
to the ultimate triumph.

“I would say that Eamon’s influence was seen out there today as well and he would have been thrilled with that work-rate, the skill that was on show out there, all that was out of the Eamon O’Shea book of hurling,” said Ryan after the game.

ONCE so preoccupied with the future, Tipperary’s new management team is set to be a complete break from 13 of the previous 15 years.

At least Liam Cahill would have had a working relationship with the group but Colm Bonnar’s appointment seems such a divorce and prompted by an over-reliance on three men to lead the way.

As Cork also contemplate succession planning with their football teams as they have done with their hurlers, Kerry appear to be putting a plan in place not just for their next manager but the one after that — this is as ambitious as the supergroup they put together in 2018.

Peter Keane, Tommy Griffin, Maurice Fitzgerald, and Donie Buckley were Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young — too big and too good to be true.

Keane and Jack O’Connor don’t come across as men who care about anything but the now, which is perfectly understandable and appropriate in a county that desperately yearns for All-Ireland SFC No38, eight years after No37. Asking them to train up an apprentice seems almost distracting.

Just as Páidí Ó Sé wasn’t to O’Connor, O’Connor was no master figure to Éamonn Fitzmaurice as much as he succeeded him immediately after being a selector. Mickey Ned O’Sullivan and Keane weren’t all that close when they were minor manager and selector either.

Success for the underlings followed, for Keane after O’Connor replaced O’Sullivan, but it wasn’t wholly complementary.

For one, what O’Connor left Fitzmaurice in 2012 wasn’t exactly an abundant inheritance.

Legacies will take care of themselves. The only successor that matters is the immediate one.

Honour Micko, allow the direct pick-up 

It’s coming close to the time of year when the playing rules committee finalise their proposals for the following season (if any). We don’t expect them to do a u-turn on the blasted advanced mark but we continue to live in hope.

There is extra pressure on them to do something about illegal hand passes in hurling, although you hope that they have consulted widely with the hurling fraternity before making any recommendations.

Mayo’s penalty in last Saturday week’s All-Ireland SFC final raised the issue of direct pick-ups and whether allowing players to gather the ball from the ground without putting a toe under it would make the game less skilful.

Mick O’Dwyer never thought so. For some time he has argued that a direct pick-up would speed up the game and cut down on the number of fouls. "We tried it out a couple of nights and it speeded up play significantly,” said the then Laois manager in 2004. “I think it's going to be great for the game. I have watched a number of the Ladies games and it works very well.

"People might say it's a skill you are taking out of the game but there's nothing to stop a player running at top speed from "chipping" the ball up, if he's capable of that. What you want to eliminate is fellows pulling and dragging at you and kicking at you when you go down to pick up a ball."

O’Dwyer was part of a consultation group that recommended the rule change on an experimental basis but it was ultimately defeated. Doing away with a defunct skill by cutting down on the chances of being fouled and looking to be fouled should never be feared.

Leading counties don’t need sleeve sponsors

“A proposal to permit sponsorship on the sleeves of players and replica jerseys was approved; updated guidelines will be circulated to units.” Almost nine years after Roscommon club Castlerea’s motion for additional sponsorship logos on jerseys, was withdrawn and referred to the GAA’s commercial department (a sponsors area on the back was given the go-ahead in 2013), Central Council endorsed the proposal at the weekend.

“If it was passed it would make it a lot easier for clubs and counties to secure sponsorship in the current economic climate,” then Castlerea treasurer Barry Egan told this newspaper at the time. “Counties would benefit from it too especially with corporate sponsorship hard to come by at the moment.

“It means more sponsors but it makes it more attractive for them to come on board if they’re not paying as much as they would as a single sponsor. Say the average club jersey sponsorship is €3,000 per annum. They could offer the front of the jersey for €2,000, €500 for the back and €250 for each of the sleeves.” 

Prompted by the financial constraints caused by the pandemic, the move will be welcomed by clubs but is there a need for it at intercounty level - or at least at the higher end of the scene? What good will come from the same multinational sponsor, whose logo features on the front and back of some jerseys, being repeated on the sleeves too?

Save for Limerick, the county jersey is a billboard as it is.

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