The Tony McEntee I know
Now, when I say home truths I mean brutal honesty, warts and all. If you like your wake-up calls sugar-coated, filtered or in some way diluted, then it is best to steer clear of my friend.
I’ve know few straighter talkers than Tony Mac. An example of his directness goes back to his first year on the Armagh panel. We had been summoned to a hotel in Tyrone for an early season clear-the-air, cards-on-the-table meeting. Willie Anderson, the Ireland rugby legend, facilitated the meeting with Brian McAlinden and Brian Canavan in attendance. We had to proclaim our strengths and our weaknesses and we were then put into groups to suggest a few things for our team-mates.
Martin Toye, a long-time Armagh player and warrior, was paired with Tony. He suggested Tony might work on his pace and be a bit more vocal at training. Then it was Tony’s turn to comment on Martin – “Martin, I think your county career is over” was his first line. Talk about an opening gambit from a 19-year-old. Let’s just say he set the tone and the meeting proved one of the best things we ever did under that set-up. The honesty flowed as Tony explained there was no point in a clear-the-air meeting without people calling things how they saw it.
Having played football with Tony Mac for 25 years (I am a couple of years older than him, believe it or not), I have a fair idea of what makes the man tick. As a player, he was physically strong, deceptively quick and had huge ability. Above all else, he was hugely versatile and played everywhere from full-back to full-forward as well as a version of sweeper. In the end, his versatility was probably the only reason why he never won an All-Star.
He was opinionated and knew what he wanted from his team-mates and he was able to articulate that really well from a very early age.
I know people say successful managers and coaches were always destined for such roles but with Tony it was really obvious that he was a lot more comfortable dishing out instructions as opposed to taking them.
That being said, having played alongside him for so long, I found it pretty strange to be playing under him, a younger man, when he and Gareth O’Neill took over Crossmaglen seniors in 2010. I think it took roughly two training sessions for me to realise that we were no longer team-mates and that he was now the boss. After short resistance, I realised there was only going to be one winner and that was not going to be me.
Early on, he would have seen that a few of his players were carrying some timber. Rather than a quiet word in the ear, he exposed these guys in front of everyone. They were told to shed the pounds or expect to be dropped. Most interestingly of all, having put in a good weekend performance, the next session would be right back to basics, kick-passing, pick-ups, tackle grids, the basic skills of the game over and over again. It was always great to reimplement the skills but just as important it meant that you never get ahead of yourself. The basic skills will always be the thing that you can fall back on when the going gets tough.
hen Tony and Gareth were around, there was no chance of getting ahead of yourself. We, as a squad, put all the wins to bed very quickly until the end goal was achieved.
I think the most important of the traits which Tony may have brought to Mayo is the ability to move on from the great and the not-so great performances.
There is real evidence that each game Mayo play is taken on its own merits and the energy that is now running through the team stems from offloading all the baggage of past displays and more importantly previous failed attempts to reach the pinnacle.
There has been a lot of rumour and counter-rumour about the egos in the Mayo squad. Every team needs a certain amount of ego to be successful. If I was asked the one thing that Tony Mac couldn’t tolerate, I would say it is egos.
Perhaps that’s why he has ruffled a few feathers in Mayo. I think during his time out west he has learned that he may not garner the same amount of respect there as he did in Armagh.
As a result, I think he has changed tack slightly and perhaps he has managed to massage some of those egos so as to get behind them in an effort to get more out of those players.
The improvement has been obvious.
Their team spirit too seems better than ever, there is an obvious new-found trust, they no longer just turn to Cillian O’Connor, they have shared the work load and in the absence of a new whiz-kid, like a Con O’Callaghan-type figure, Jason Doherty, Andy Moran and Kevin McLoughlin have stepped up again.
Ultimately, Stephen Rochford is the boss and the final decision-maker, be that good or a bad decision, a move that does or doesn’t work.
But Tony would be very forthright with his opinions. He would back those opinions up with evidence and measure them against other views (if only to see how right he was!). He is not someone who suffers fools gladly.
Tony understands the game and has a view on how it should be played, but he is not completely blinkered in that he also knows they are measured on success. He has a group of statisticans and converted their data systems so they provide relevant information. I think he would feel that above all else he has added a critical-thinking element to the Mayo set-up and a more strategic approach to their forward play, which makes them less predictable. He is also very good at analysing the opposition.
However, more often than not he feels the opposition just aren’t that good. When he was with Cross and planning for the Gooch and Dr Crokes for the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, we sat in a meeting expecting to maybe double-team him or triple-team him even. Tony simply got up and said, “James Morgan, you’re marking Cooper – I don’t expect him to get a touch.”
Unfortunately for Mayo, that sort of preparation won’t be sufficient this weekend but Tony Mac won’t be lacking in readying them.
