The coach's couch
“When Mickey Harte took off Peter Canavan in the 2003 All-Ireland final and then sent him back on. That was a huge call in every way, to take a player like that off and then to throw him back on to try and close the game out — and to do it when you’re trying to win your very first senior All-Ireland title? An incredible call.”
“Eoin Kelly of Tipperary. I managed him at college level, and I’ve seen him operate under huge pressure, and it’s no bother to him. In our first Fitzgibbon campaign, first round against Cork IT, we were a point down with a minute to go when we got a free 60 yards out, right on the sideline. He put it straight over the middle: Kelly eats pressure. He’s my man every day of the week.”
“Stephen Cluxton in last year’s All-Ireland final. I don’t buy into the ‘he had a cushion because the game was level’ — in those circumstances it’s win or lose. For a goalkeeper to come up the field and hit that free, 80,000 people watching... that’s phenomenal. They hadn’t won it in so long, and if he’d missed, and the game went to a replay, who’s to say they would have won the replay? You have to be so focused, a goalkeeper in that situation — you’ve such a long way to travel, coming up the field, that a lot of things can come into your head. You have to be very single-minded — and he handled himself very well after the game, too.”
“I know he’s retired now but Pierluigi Collina had to be the best when he was still going. The way the players respected him and didn’t question his decisions... it didn’t hurt to look like he did, of course. He had a lot of natural authority just the way he went about his business.”
“There are two sides to this, that’s the key thing. The way I see it, Keane had a point — things weren’t professional enough. On the other hand, McCarthy was the boss. If he lets Keane dictate to him, then he might as well not be there at all. It’s hard to call a right and a wrong here. Both had valid points. From a player’s perspective, Keane had a good point about the preparations but from a manager’s perspective, McCarthy couldn’t have a player dictating to him. If I thought one was wrong I’d say it, but I can see both sides.”
“Does Katie Taylor get enough recognition? She probably does, but she’s winning world titles at her ease, which is unbelievable. I think we take her for granted, a little — there’s so much about the golfers, if one of them wins a Major it’s all over the place, but when she wins a World Championship — again — she gets very little recognition in comparison.”
“All that sticks out there is Hillsborough, because I can remember watching it happen live on TV, and thinking ‘my God, this isn’t right’ as it was going on.”
“An extra ticket falls into your lap for your favourite sports event — what sportsperson would you bring along?
“Hector Ó hEochagain. I listen to him every morning, there’s so much doom and gloom around but he doesn’t buy into it — he’s always bright as a button, and those are the people you’d need to be around. He’s big into the GAA too, and there’s always a bit of craic with him.”
“Losing the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final to Cork. For me and most of the other older Clare players it was our last chance at an All-Ireland, and we came so close to making it. To lose it so late was heartbreaking because you could tell it was the end for that team as it was. That was clear in the dressing room, fellas knew it was all over after a great 10 years. Heartbreaking.”
“I’d go along with Milan in Istanbul in 2005. They definitely choked that night. And I’m an Arsenal fan.”
“Jonny Wilkinson. His attitude to training is so good, he’s a perfectionist when it comes to getting things right, that would be bound to rub off on the other players as well and get them to raise their standards. He’s a huge team man, too — after England won the Rugby World Cup it wasn’t all about him, even though he’d kicked the winning drop-goal.”
“Joey Barton. He’s obviously a hard man to handle, and that would outweigh any challenge in trying to get the best out of him. He’s off the wall and in particular, he doesn’t think of the team enough. There isn’t an issue coaching any player who’s committed to the team, but he certainly doesn’t seem to be one.”
“Cyril Farrell — he’s done it all, won All-Irelands with Galway. He might get some stick in Galway but there’s nobody there who’s been able to do that in almost 25 years since. And he’s a positive guy, the glass is almost half-full rather than half-empty. He’s been there and done it, and there’s a lot of fellas in the GAA can’t say that.”
“The 1995 Munster final. It wasn’t so much about winning, it was the emotion people showed afterwards. I never saw anything like the reaction of people after that game, it was bigger and better than the All-Ireland that year. We’d waited so long for a Munster title, and there was probably nobody left alive who’d been there the previous time we’d won it (in 1914).”
“Jack Nicklaus’s first Major win, against Arnold Palmer in 1962 in the US Open. He’s one of my favourite golfers, and I’d love to go back and be a witness to that game, the start of his run of Majors.”
“Cricket. It goes on so long, and you never get any sense that there’s a bit of bite to a game, there’s never any notion that something is at stake. The Ashes is different – you can tell that means a lot, but it just shows up the rest of the games because it’s so competitive.”
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