Philly McMahon a priceless asset in GAA ‘moneyball’

Anyone who has played Gaelic football for any length of time will be able to testify from bitter experience there are a colossal amount of managers whose knowledge of the game is sketchy.

Like all other forms of management, be it business, politics or sport, ignorance isn’t always a drawback. With a sufficient quota of raw ‘thickness,’ significant progress can be made with only limited knowledge.

For a long period during the 80s and 90s, football management was dominated by the ‘110% brigade’. These were the managers who loved the clichés but tended to shy away from the finer details.