Micko’s Midas touch
IT’S the championship, but not as we know it. Wicklow have already made history this summer by featuring in six games for the first time in their history but defeat Kildare in Portlaoise this evening and they will be occupying the giddy heights of an All-Ireland quarter-final.
‘Dwyer’ took Kerry to the brink of a five-in-a-row and tacked on three more All-Ireland titles in the mid-80s but there were always a small minority all too eager to dilute those achievements by pointing to the calibre of players he managed. Kildare and Laois had ample quality in their ranks, though not anything like that of the Dream Team, but O’Dwyer gave them what they lacked most of all: belief, character, momentum. Now, here he is, nearly 40 years after his debut season as Kerry coach and still up to his old tricks.
Why does he have the Midas touch? How is he doing it with methods that have hardly changed since the end of the Vietnam War and how does his current show in the Garden County compare to revivals he orchestrated in the midlands?
JOHN Crofton was a veteran when Mick O’Dwyer first linked up with Kildare in the early 1990s and served as a selector as well as a player in his first stint there before resuming his selectorial role for a season under the Kerryman when his second stint produced two Leinster titles and a place in the 1998 All-Ireland final.
Crofton took Round Towers to a Leinster club final in 2003 and succeeded Pádraig Nolan as Kildare manager in 2005. He held the helm for two seasons during which time the county showed promising league form but fell short in the championship.
Q: How do Micko’s achievements with Wicklow compare with what he did in Kildare?
A: “IT’S a question of resources. Micko had two terms in Kildare and got us to a couple of Leinster finals in his first one. I don’t know if I can compare the two. It’s difficult to see Wicklow winning a Leinster title but he has done a great job to bring them up from where they started, especially given how they were harshly put into the Tommy Murphy Cup last year. I don’t think you can compare the two, but there’s no doubt that he has done a great job.
Q: How can he continue to be so successful with the same methods as 35 years ago?
A: I’D nearly be as old-fashioned myself in that way. A lot of modern techniques give you very small, incremental benefits. Micko has always used the laps of the field. I know from personal experience how effective that can be. I was nearing the end as a player when he came to Kildare but I would say the first time I was really, truly fit was in his first year.
That’s not to say that I wasn’t fit before it, this was just a different level. You do so much running in the winter, so much cross country running, that you have built up an endurance by the time you switch to the wire-to-wires as Spillane and the Kerry boys call them.
That sort of non-explosive training helped prevent injuries as well and it still stands the test of time. There is a natural order to it. I know he had John Doran with him in Laois, I used John in Kildare myself and I would regard him as one of the best trainers from any era. I don’t know who he has with him in Wicklow but his results are the same.
Q: What is the single most important thing he brings to a team?
A: “IT’S a general thing. He is a living legend in the real sense of the world. He is beyond any other mortal that way. He has a way about him with children, with people in general, schools and communities. I remember the first time he came to Kildare he walked out onto the pitch before the county final or at half-time and there was a standing ovation for him. That was before he even did anything and his effect is such that a bandwagon can get going if his teams get a few results together.”
Q: Will Wicklow win this evening?
A: “WICKLOW have done remarkably well to do what they have done so far. I don’t mean this to be derogatory but their resources might be limited. Provided Kildare bring the same enthusiasm to the table I would expect them to win with some comfort. I hear talk about some injuries but they are set up well in the forwards this year and if they have everyone on board they should be okay. They have the benefit of a two-week break since the Leinster final as well.”
DECLAN O’Loughlin is a long-time friend of O’Dwyer. The Portlaoise hotelier was central to Laois’ hopes of luring the Waterville legend to the county after the 1986 NFL-winning captain Colm Browne called time on his spell as manager.
O’Dwyer’s influence was immediate. Laois reached the 2003 league final, though they lost heavily to Tyrone, and then bridged a 47-year gap by capturing the Leinster title later that year.
Q: How do Micko’s achievements with Wicklow compare with what he did in Laois?
A: “IT’S a phenomenal achievement what he has done, taking Wicklow this far, getting them six games in one championship for the first time. Would ask would anyone else have been able to do it? Not many people have even taken on the Wicklows of this world or any of the other so-called minnows. We’ve seen lots of managers take on the Galways or Mayos but very few have gone to places like Wicklow and done what he has done.
Wicklow had never won in Croke Park before Micko arrived and now they’ve done that. They won the Tommy Murphy Cup and now they are playing a sixth championship game at the weekend. This is pioneer territory.
Q: How can he continue to be so successful with the same methods as 35 years ago?
A: MICKO’S policy is that most football is played off the cuff. You can tell players what you want them to do but only up to a point. You can’t do it for them on the pitch. They have to do it for themselves.
You can’t kick the ball for them. Micko’s belief is that it is up to him to get the players as fit as possible and that by doing that they will be able to express themselves to the best of their ability, especially in the last ten minutes. After three years he has Wicklow flying fit. We’ve seen that in the last three rounds in Aughrim.”
Q: What is the single most important thing he brings to a team?
A: “HIS enthusiasm is still infectious. I saw some of the Wicklow players interviewed there and one of them, Tony Hannon I think it was, said that Micko makes them feel like they are better players and that’s exactly the way it was with Laois. He has taken them from a very low base, again like he did with Laois and Kildare. He brought us a Leinster title for the first time in nearly 50 years. I was talking to him recently and he is as enthusiastic now as he was in 1975. I just wish he was still doing it with Laois. I remember talking him to him not long after he took over Wicklow and I said to him ‘the players seem to be enjoying it anyway’ and he said ‘feck the players. I’m enjoying it’.
Q: Will Wicklow win this evening?
A: “I WOULDN’T write them off but it’s a huge task. They beat Kildare last year so they won’t be taking this game for granted. I wish him the very best of luck. If anybody can do it Micko can.”
JACK Napier has been Wicklow PRO for most of the noughties. His involvement in the GAA goes much further back however, more than 50 years. At 67, he has seen them all and speaks with a boyish excitement about O’Dwyer, whom he recalls walking with Mick O’Connell from the International Hotel in Bray where the Kerry team was staying many years ago, to attend mass. “I never dreamed that he would come to Wicklow”, he admits.
He reckons the last time supporters of the senior side had something to get really excited about was back in 1991, when Wicklow lost a replay to Meath, who had prevailed in the famous four-game clash with Dublin.
Entering their sixth championship tie of the season against Kildare tonight, having won three in a row, this is on a completely different level and they are now on cloud nine.
Q: How do Micko’s achievements with Wicklow compare with what he did in other counties?
A: “THEY rank right up there with any of the Leinster titles won with Kildare and Laois. He won a lot of All-Irelands with Kerry obviously but what has happened here is unbelievable. We couldn’t have dreamed it. We have never won a Leinster title. We had never even won in Croke Park before him. Now we’re playing our sixth game and we’re not finished yet. It is a remarkable achievement.
Q: How can he continue to be so successful with the same methods as 35 years ago?
A: “I MET a Kildare supporter outside Croke Park before last year’s Leinster championship game and he said that Micko’s methods were finished. I didn’t know him but I’d love to have met him after the match tonight!
“There is one former high profile footballer who, when Micko came here first, trained the first two nights, missed the third and arrived again the fourth. “Where were you the last night?” Micko asked. “My girlfriend’s granny was sick” came the reply. “I’ll tell you what you’ll do now” says Micko. “Go back in and put your clothes on and look after your girlfriend’s granny.” And that was him gone.
It’s down to getting the head right.”
Q: What is the single most important thing he brings to a team?
A: “THE man seems to lift you just by talking to you. Even if you weren’t a footballer or hurler, he’d just brighten up your day. I call him ‘The Football Apostle from South Kerry’. I don’t know what it is. It’s just Micko.”
Q: Will Wicklow win this evening?
A: “KILDARE have to be favourites. I was really hoping they’d win the Leinster final and they should have. They’ve improved a great deal from last year but if Wicklow play the way they have been playing, I see no reason whey they can’t do it again.”
EOIN ‘The Bomber’ Liston was one of O’Dwyer’s star pupils. While playing at U21 level, he caught the eye of the man from Waterville. Bomber was added to the Kerry panel and formed the final part of a jigsaw, the team that won seven All-Irelands between 1978 and 1985. Bomber added to his six Celtic Crosses with four All-Stars and two Railway Cup medals.
Q: How do Micko’s achievements with Wicklow compare with what he did in other counties?
A: “CONSIDERING where they were coming from, to get to this stage of the championship from the base he was coming from is incredible. It is right up with there with what he achieved with Kerry.”
Q: How can he continue to be so successful with the same methods as 35 years ago?
A: “I DON’T think it is true or fair to say that he is using the same methods that he used 35 years ago. Micko is learning with every year, and introducing new things and methods. The most important thing that Mick brings to the table is his man management skills. He has it in spades. Once you get fellas motivated, everything else on the field falls into place on the training field and on the pitch.
Q: What is the single most important thing he brings to a team?
A: “HIS man management. He doesn’t treat all people the same. He knows the different personalities and how to deal with them. When you’re not playing up to form, you will know straight away by Micko’s relationship with you.”
Q: Will Wicklow win this evening?
A: “I THINK this is a bridge too far. I saw Kildare against Dublin and Offaly and was very impressed. But it might be a bit too much to ask to turn over Kildare for the second time in two years considering how much they have improved. But you never say never with Micko.”
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