Why things have gone sour in Galway
We got talking about what was required to manage an inter-county team successfully. His views are worth repeating.
“Your fitness coach must be extremely qualified. He should have degrees in fitness and sports science if possible. You need to peak a few times in a season to win an All-Ireland.
“Nothing can be left to chance. To compete at the top level, you must have the best people at your disposal. You cannot do it all yourself and without those supports you are not going to be able to compete at the top.”
From that perspective it came as no real surprise to many in Galway football circles that Liam Sammon did not continue his management term with the Tribesmen for a third year.
For the last two years Liam has been both coaching and managing the team. That is not possible. And the mood of the panel had been very grave over the past few months and stories of discontent were common currency. The defeats at the tail end of the league to Mayo and Kerry scratched the surface, but the Championship defeat to Mayo and the subsequent poor performance and one point loss to Donegal heightened the mood for change.
The final straw was seeing Cork dismantle Donegal. It was only then that the penny really dropped with team members that they were going backwards. The three problems that were constantly harked upon were:
1. The panel felt they were not fit enough and that issue had been reported back to the management team on more than one occasion. Despite that fact, little changed.
2. Many players felt that if you were not on the first 15, you were a “forgotten soldier” and communication with the management team stopped.
3. There was a real absence of any tactical approach to their system of play. It was a go out and “Give it a lash” mentality. Traditional football as Sammon had played was the order of the day. But things have moved on.
Even after conceding 1-21 to Kerry last year in the All-Ireland quarter final, there was nothing done to become more miserly in defence or any real analysis of why any opposition could bore so many holes in their rearguard.
Considering how the likes of Tyrone play and the systematic approach that they take to their game left the majority of the panel intent on instigating change. The Galway players did not feel they had the best backroom team at their disposal and as John Allen pointed out, you won’t compete at the top level unless you have.
Their feelings were made known at board level by a small delegation and that was the genesis for the change of management this week.
Nobody at board level or Liam Sammon himself had the stomach for a Cork/Teddy Holland/Gerald McCarthy stand-off scenario. To his credit, Sammon knew the writing was on the wall and he had no desire to stay in-situ if the majority of players did not want him there.
He fitted his parachute and left.
However, it would be extremely simplistic and naive to lay the blame for Galway’s lack of competitiveness and drift from the top table at a national level at Liam Sammon’s door.
The reality is that the structures in Galway and many other counties are not good enough to compete with the top teams like Tyrone and Kerry. (If Cork can advance their credentials and win an All-Ireland this year they too will merit a place in the top echelons. Until then they must wait).
Feeder second level schools like St Jarlath’s College, Tuam who were key to providing raw material to county sides in the past are not functioning as well as they used too. That school has not won a Hogan Cup title since 2002 when Michael Meehan was in the front line and unless the supply lines are right, a county is in trouble.
The underage structures also need to be ramped up and supports must be put in place at national school and second level. Like many other counties, teachers are not putting in the same hours in a voluntary capacity that they used to and the skill deficit that can be observed at U14 and U16 level, even in high-achiever groups, is ominous.
Unless the emphasis is on skill development at a younger age, it is practically impossible to make up that shortfall later on in the senior ranks.
With Sammon gone, all the talk now is about who will replace him. That though is not the biggest thing that the Galway county board must focus on. They must look at the structures that are in place for creating the right environment for young players to come through to play at the highest level in the maroon and white.
Have they the expertise in the right areas for the promotion of Gaelic football? The template is there for all counties from Tyrone including underage development squads, schools of excellence and an outstanding funding vehicle in Club Tyrone.
The question is whether the Galway football board have the commitment and manpower to implement what is required for the future.
Otherwise a team like Galway will just go from year to year on an ad-hoc basis without any strategic plan to make them a force. You can pray that talent like Donnellan, Joyce, Fallon, De Paor and Walsh will fall from the sky once every few decades, but unless the structures and devotion are there to support that happening, those prayers will go unanswered.
Changing a manager is easy. Changing the way a county does its business is more difficult.
