Apology and plea to GAA managers

AN apology this week, and a plea, but they are not unconnected.

A thought that struck me on Sunday evening, while speaking to Brian Cody after the hugely-entertaining Leinster senior hurling final - what a stressful, demanding, draining job, that of the modern inter-county GAA manager. It was out on the pitch, long after the last of the fans had left the massive stadium, Brian had just finished his interview with RTÉ television, and I intercepted him as he rushed for the dressing-room. He’s a genial kind of guy, so he paused, and we got into the game.

“Was it really a good game,” he asked, anxiously, beamed when assured it was. But he hadn’t noticed, he explained, hadn’t been able to enjoy what 40,000 of us had enjoyed, what a TV audience of millions had savoured - hurling at its best.

Like so many of the managerial confraternity, Brian Cody was absorbed in the game, in the battle, too focused on the minutiae to appreciate the view. A tight game, one that continually threatened to slip from Kilkenny’s grasp right to the final whistle, one of his primary duties was to ensure that pitch-side, all the right moves were made, the right substitutions, and in time.

In this game, Cody and his fellow-selectors took their courage in their hands, took off Charlie Carter, one of the most shot-efficient and dangerous forwards in the game, took off Philly Larkin, a defender from Cody’s own home club, and a guy who, in the eyes of many observers (including this one) had been having a fine game, and took off their captain, Andy Comerford. Brave decisions, and if Kilkenny had lost, be sure that Cody and his sideline team would have been castigated this week.

What kind of stress must that bring? All managers are in the game to win, most have a direct connection with the county, with the players, with the fans, all decisions are made with, as they see it, the best interests of the team at heart. And yet every year, every manager but one, hurling and football, sets himself up for the fall. At the end of each season, only one All-Ireland champion in each code, but bet your life, at the end of each season, dozens of team managers being flayed, and flayed by their own.

Given such a portfolio then, the last thing an inter-county manager needs is an additional dig from outside, and herewith, the apology. A few months ago, Clare were well beaten by Limerick in the league quarter-final. Afterwards, I went to the Clare dressing-room to get a few quotes from manager Cyril Lyons, and from a few players.

Having been held outside the door for quite some time, deadlines rapidly approaching and not a word yet on paper, eventually allowed entry. No sign of the Clare manager, informed that he was gone, but a few of the players were still there, Seanie McMahon among them, and we got his reaction. On the Tuesday, I wrote: ”Seanie was doing the talking because the Clare management team, understandably I suppose in the circumstances, had taken the option of leaving by the back door before the cursed media entered the dressing-room.” Turns out that Cyril and his selectors were actually in conclave in another room off the dressing-room, hadn’t left at all. I was wrong, and apologise unreservedly.

However, the plea. Gaining access to players, getting interviews, getting post-match reaction, is becoming more and more of an ordeal and really, it shouldn’t.

As for post-match interviews, what’s to prevent a manager and team slotting 10 minutes immediately afterwards for quick reaction-type conversations? Still, I suppose, rather my job than theirs. At least I’m getting paid for this.