McIntyre: Tackling team’s mental health too much for McGuinness

Jim McGuinness has created a welcome precedent, but specific sports psychologists are required by county teams, according to the University of Limerick’s Dr Tadhg McIntyre.

The lecturer in sport, exercise and performance psychology describes the Donegal manager as being more than a sports psychologist and being in an ideal position to create the necessary environment for his players to perform. However, he believes experts are required to address the mental health of teams and asking McGuinness to add that to his brief is too much.

“The benefit of having somebody at the top of the sport who has this background and credibility is that it probably says ‘okay, that has to be part of your repertoire and if it isn’t you make sure that somebody in your backroom team does that’. That’s the key. You need to cover this base. Doing a couple of coaching courses isn’t going to be enough. Right now we’re interested in training the next generation of sports psychologists to have an awareness around mental health.