Michael Moynihan: Managers and coaches not always the same thing

Keith Ricken and Jack O’Connor are both able dealers who can draw on considerable experience. What caught the eye, however, was the focus on the announcement of their coaches

In Kerry, there was a lot of interest in Paddy Tally’s appointment to the management ticket. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

White smoke in Cork. White smoke in Kerry.

Two senior football managers appointed in time to watch county championship games for the next couple of weeks. Hurrah!

The two men concerned, Keith Ricken and Jack O’Connor, are both able dealers who can draw on considerable experience. What caught my eye in the aftermath of their appointments, however, was the focus on the announcement of their coaches.

In Kerry, for instance, there was a lot of interest in Paddy Tally’s appointment to the management ticket. In these pages, Oisín McConville pointed to Tally’s extensive CV, which includes Crossmaglen, St Mary’s, Down, and Galway. “Tally is a coach that has been used by teams who want to be better defensively,” McConville said.

“Basically, if you look deeper into it, Tally is a man who teaches a team how to set up well and therefore gives them a better chance to win games.”

In Cork, John Cleary has been announced as the coach for the senior footballers, and he too has an impressive resume.

His All-Irelands won on the field of play are augmented by twice leading the Cork U21s to All-Ireland success as well as steering his club, Castlehaven, to two Cork senior titles. While Cork minor ladies football manager, he won four All-Ireland titles: 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019

Two good men to have on a field at 7pm on a Tuesday and a Thursday, clearly. As coaches they’re simpatico with the men in the bainisteoir bibs, otherwise they wouldn’t be involved in the first place.

But their presence does insert a degree of separation between manager and players — or more accurately, between what the manager proposes when being appointed and what’s served up on the field of play.

The secretive world of managerial appointment interviews isn’t far removed from the papal conclaves hinted at above, but it’s a given at such interviews that the manager presents a vision for success which must meet the approval of those making the appointment.

I’ve always been interested in how potential managers phrase this part of their winning pitch, because it often involves the work of a different person entirely. In the modern inter-county game it seems to be taken as a given that the manager himself doesn’t have the time to take the on-field drills.

As stated, the coach who does end up taking these drills is clearly on the same wavelength when it comes to playing style as the manager himself, but the difference between the two roles was summed up neatly a couple of years ago — when Ronan McCarthy was appointed by the Cork County Board in 2017, coincidentally enough.

At that time Ger Lane of the Cork County Board told Red FM: “In the last 12 months we’ve made the decision to move away from the term ‘manager’ to coach, because the coach is the important role. In this case I would imagine Ronan will take up the dual role.

“Our policy from here on is that we’ll be appointing coaches as opposed to managers. We did that with the U21 hurlers last year, with John Meyler coming in as manager. That’s going to be our policy going forward.

“I suppose the coach is the manager, but we’ll be moving away from the term ‘manager’.”

As an initiative, it spoke to officials’ keenness to determine who was specifically responsible for the playing style, though it didn’t survive as a concept for too long, even on Leeside. When McCarthy stepped down some weeks ago, his departure was announced as that of a departing manager.

I doubt anyone would claim the manager’s workload has lessened in the intervening period, so it’s hardly a surprise this division of powers has continued. Or that that sense of theatre — the ‘unveiling’ of the new coach — has such an appeal.

Stakeholders and Proposals A and B

Just in from the Department of Unintended Consequences: What happens to the revenue generated by the GAA’s Proposal B and how is that dispersed, exactly? Or that generated by Proposal A? Or the old regime, come to that?

I haven’t seen a huge amount of discussion of this matter, which is of some interest to clubs everywhere in the country.

Last week Munster Council chief executive Kieran Leddy articulated his doubts about the extent of the windfall that proposal B would generate, but harassed treasurers from Doonbeg to Dungarvan would have noted some of his comments in these pages. “Walsh Park is being reconstructed. We want to start giving development grants again. We’re trying to increase the number of coaching staff. We’re going to have to invest significantly in referees recruitment and development. Take that into account and finance is important.”

Unglamorous activities, I grant you. But necessary.

The provincial councils are well able to fight their own corner, as are all the other stakeholders*, from the GPA to Croke Park. But is this part getting lost in the discussion? That clubs rely heavily on those development grants, that referee recruitment — which we touched on here last week — is a growing challenge? And that these are issues which require funding?

I’m sure the small print in all of the proposals covers this to the satisfaction of those club treasurers shaking the biscuit tins at home to get a few more euro out, or ringing people about the club lotto. Bound to be part of the plan. Bound to be.

It would be nice to hear a bit more about how it’s going to operate, that’s all.

*Am I the only one who thinks of an angry mob descending on Castle Dracula when he reads this?

Advertising in both NHLs

Well, I mentioned revenue elsewhere... professional hockey teams in the US will carry sponsorship on their jerseys next year and they’re already puzzling out where to put those advertising logos.

“Teams can sell a patch on either the chest or the shoulder, and some teams are considering packaging those with helmet sponsorship to get a better deal,” reported Sean Shapiro of The Athletic last week. “Others are more likely to split the helmet and the jersey patch, similar to how some teams will split home and road sponsorship for the helmet and the jersey.

“There’s a debate over which jersey patch is more valuable. The one on the front will be more prominent in close-up photos and social media posts, but the shoulder patch will translate better to television.

“Think about each face-off and how the shoulder will be center screen.”

Home and road sponsorships. Helmet sponsorship. Different patch values. All coming this way soon, no doubt.

Law-breaking animals — seriously

Mary Roach has a new book out, which is as usual good news.

Roach has written some of the best non-fiction books of the last 20 years, with one reviewer praising her “knack for posing the embarrassing, nonlinear, and too obvious questions that others are always afraid to ask”.

This was certainly true of , (about human cadavers), Gulp (an account of the human gut) and Bonk (subtitle “The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science”).

Her latest is Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.

Look, just do yourself a favour and get it.

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