Harte: Questions and Answers

LIAM HORAN: What are the key issues when trying to motivate a talented, but temperamental, player?

MICKEY HARTE: The key issue is to try to understand every player we encounter. What somebody might think of as unusual could be perfectly normal for someone else. Whose normality are we talking about here?

Ultimately you are talking about what is viable for the parameters of the team. We have to do what is required for the betterment of the team. This is part of the process of learning, and that involves understanding every player. This is something I would have found more difficult a number of years ago.

Awareness is the first element of change. When you are working with the same players over a long period of time, you might be looking at the same people physically, but they are changing as individuals all the time. Everybody does change. People change at different rates and at different times in their lives. We have to recognise they are all unique. Ultimately you have to do what is right for the greater good. Anything that takes away from that is going to be a drain on your resources.

We have to help people to see things in the context of the team. If things are happening that don’t fit into that picture, well (laughs) as the saying goes, maybe it’s time for the player to find a new team!”

LH: In what ways does managing a GAA team mirror the job of managing a school or a business?

MH: Ultimately you are working with people to help them deliver the best that their skills and talents can deliver – whether it’s a football or producing an end-product. It’s about engaging with people and delivering quality service to those people.

It comes back to adding value. If they have initiative, if they have discipline, and they want to add value – or if they are always leaning on people rather than getting things done themselves. You need people who think about their work environment – or the football environment – rather than people who are programmed to be led all the time.”

LH: In the world of manufacturing, for example, the process is king. The process must run smoothly from the first minute to the last. It often strikes me that great teams do the same (most recent example, Barcelona against Chelsea.) Your teams seem to have that capacity. How do you manage to keep your players doing the right thing, when they are tired/emotionally threatened by the occasion/angry at referee’s decision etc?

MH: I think it comes through experience – how you react or respond to anything that happens. We can’t control the things that happen; we can only control our responses. So we learn to control our responses in a positive way. If you lose control of your emotions, it will not serve you well. The more you stay in control of what you are about, the better the outcomes that will occur.

I have had to learn this over the years. In years gone by, I would have been more animated on the sideline, and I had to learn to acquire the style I have now, which I find works for me.

I am not saying it is the only style; just that it’s the style that works for me.

LH: Rate the following attributes in a player in order of importance: skill, intelligence, strength, mobility, and enthusiasm.

MH: “A fair level of skill is required to play at the highest level. Outside of that, enthusiasm is the best attribute that anybody can have. If you are enthusiastic you are very capable of bettering yourself. Enthusiasm is synonymous with enjoyment. It is good to be around people who are enthusiastic and enjoyable. They can make things happen.”

LH: What one triumph of sporting management do you wish you had to your name (from any sport)?

MH: “It hasn’t happened yet, but Errigal Ciaran winning an All-Ireland club title would certainly be one. It might happen yet, we have a good manager in there at the minute {Peter Canavan.}”

LH: How do you offer constructive criticism to a player without reinforcing a negative feeling in his mind (e.g. a free-taker has had a bad day, how do you ‘work’ on him for the next game so that he doesn’t end up up-tight and worried)?

MH: “I don’t believe there is much value in reminding players of performances that didn’t deliver the results they would have hoped for – it’s important to remind them of a performance that did. Remind them of what they did well in that performance. It is proof enough that they can do it again.”

LH: How do you maintain the edge. How do you keep yourself sharp so that you continue to bring valuable difference to your teams? Do you have to motivate yourself to avoid becoming staid?

MH: “Continuously thinking about what you are doing, how you are working with people to help them become the best that they can be. By respecting the contributions of everyone involved, and working together to overcome a variety of challenges. The desire for improvement, and the search for improvement, keeps me going. If it didn’t, I would be doing something else, I suppose.”

LH: Before a match, can you ever know they’re flying? (eg. did you know before the Dublin game last year?)

MH: “It’s not a perfect science. You do get a feeling that the approach, preparation, and mindset are good. You learn to detect things in training sessions that tell you things are sharp, particularly when you are with the same group of players for a long period. It can be misleading too.”

LH: If a hurler and a footballer went to fight in three foot of water, who would win?

MH: If the footballer could knock the hurley away from him…

LH: What one programme would you Sky Plus each week?

MH: “I’m not much into fiction. I prefer factual programmes, documentaries and the like. I saw the Dragon’s Den and found it interesting, though I didn’t like the way some of the contestants were treated. I don’t think people should be demeaned in that way.”

LH: Sunshine holiday or the Inca Trail?

MH: “My wife and I love Ireland and there are a lot of hidden treasures we look forward to discovering. I think Ireland is the greatest land on earth. In the summer, when we do get a few days away from the football, we like to go to Donegal, which is a beautiful county. People moan about the weather, but I think there’s nowhere like Ireland.”

LH: When was the first time you signed an autograph?

MH: I might have signed one as a Tyrone minor in 1972; we played in the All-Ireland final. But I can’t be certain. I remember getting Sean O’Neill’s autograph when I was a young teacher. I was a great admirer. He was a thinking player.”

LH: How do you feel about Pat Spillane swapping sofas this year?

MH: “Maybe he will feel more at home there because he likes to get more involved in giving his opinions.”