Management plus player talent equals September success
Hurling folk talk incessantly about underage structures and underage success, tradition and culture, but as vital as those factors are, they all just add up to the talent a managerial setup has to work with. The edge, the X Factor, is the leadership management provides. It is what makes some teams fight above their weight and others well below it.
Clare were the team of the late ‘90s because they had the manager of the late ‘90s. Management is why Cork went from being hammered by Galway in a 2002 qualifier to reaching the next four All-Ireland finals, why Waterford’s summers have lasted longer than Cork’s every year since 2007 and why Clare remained a top-four team in Anthony Daly’s three years in charge, consistently finishing ahead of equally or more talented sides like Limerick and Tipperary.
