All Armagh ever wanted was a little respect
The national media simply cannot see the wood for the trees. Stand back and listen carefully to the rhetoric, to the clues. Armagh’s media representative, Peter McDonnell, has been saying it all along but no one is listening.
The source of the media ban can be traced back to the launch of the Ulster Championship where McDonnell attended in his appointed role only to be ignored and snubbed. The room was full of high-profile personalities from the respective counties, surely McDonnell, ‘an underling’ was out of his depth and not worth the time to interview, ‘disrespected’ and ‘dismissed’?
Everybody knows Paul Grimley is the manager and everyone assumes Kieran McGeeney is the assistant manager. This is an untruth. Peter McDonnell is the assistant and has been since he joined Grimley. McGeeney joined when this current season was already underway and although his role is vast and hugely influential in what you’ll see on the field he is not the assistant manager.
Therein lays the crux of the problem. Communication. The media have elevated McGeeney to assistant manager and demoted McDonnell to selector, initially subconsciously I guess, then later due to McGeeney’s greater profile. Had this miscommunication or misunderstanding been rectified by the Armagh County Board then Peter McDonnell would have been given his rightful position at the Ulster championship launch, gained appropriate respect and attention, and this scenario would never have occurred. Indeed if you are to believe the papers, and various media formats, McGeeney is all but managing the team. Not true and disrespectful to Grimley.
Simple? Too simple? The merits of a media ban have been well discussed in all media formats and some say this strategy is the hallmark of McGeeney. Not so. McGeeney is a sports man and a business man. He may not openly court the press but understands the value that media has on his and the players’ lives and livelihood. Jamie Clarke, for example, has a degree in marketing and wishes to open a business himself in the future. He has 14.3K followers on twitter. Brian Mallon is now finance director for the Ulster GAA Council, and Aaron Kernan is MD of his own property rental business and has 18.9K twitter followers. It therefore makes no sense that for a short period of time even social media was forbidden.
Players know there is a media ban, what they may not fully understand is why. With regards to their ability to play, does this help or hinder them? It has no impact whatsoever. But it has two potential upsides for the management. Following last Sunday’s quarter-final match with Mayo, James Horan was asked why he replaced Cillian O’Connor with Alan Freeman. There were five minutes left and Mayo barely hung on by a point. He provided an entirely rational explanation. Armagh management do not have to answer these questions, in a way they are answerable to no one and do not have to justify why they play a certain way, what teams they pick or what substitutes they make. The second is the inevitable mistakes that interviewees make. Exhibit A: Horan’s comments on Brian Cuthbert and the Cork management. My father always says: “Less said, easy mended. Nothing said needs no mending”.
Everyone has the right to manage the team and all that the job entails, including any decision on who to communicate with. Grimley says he is “under no contractual obligations (to the media)”, which is true but this may be viewed as a narrow-minded approach without taking into consideration the bigger picture. Other journalists have written about the financial impact on sponsors and the reduced exposure the next generation of young supporters have to their heroes. I had experience myself recently when in Spain I met a man who’s only wish was to relive 2002. It is our responsibility to inspire people and our ability to do this is lessened if we are not exposed in every way to them.
Common sense will prevail, it always does. People are generally rational and if individuals aren’t then organisations are. I do not see the status quo extending beyond this weekend for no one has anything to gain from it, least of all the players.
Talking is good, or so Bob Hoskins said. I firmly believe this saga has nothing to offer the Armagh team, management or county board. The simplest of basic skills, communication, is where I believe this has evolved from and festered into a monster presently out of control. It may be too late but all Armagh ever wanted was a little respect.
