Tom McGlinchey: Where’s the carrot for players at the lower reaches?
When the conversation turned to talent and supply, Tom McGlinchey had his props ready.
“Look at this,” he said, fishing out a programme from a 2010 U16 inter-county tournament.
“The Tipp team from eight years ago, only four of them are still playing. Adam Barry is the only one I recognise from the Kerry side; from the Cork city and county sides I see Ian Maguire and Kevin Crowley… so it’s not all about development squads. It’s about getting the one or two from each year.
“I was in Dr Hyde Park last weekend and you’d say it should be even — Donegal were relegated and Roscommon promoted, but it was men versus boys, and what was noticeable about Donegal is that they are bringing in one or two all the time with players like Eoghan Ban Gallagher or Michael Lanigan.”
For a coaching lifer like McGlinchey, who recently stepped down as Waterford football manager, there are lessons everywhere in the GAA.
Take Monaghan, who put his Waterford side out of the championship this year.
You’d worry about what’ll happen to them when this current crop moves on.
“Compare that to Galway, who have a good group moving through with a good age profile.
“Flip that around, though, and you have to be careful with the new blood. Take the Kilkenny hurlers — they brought in seven new players this year, and though they still might have beaten Limerick in Thurles, you’d think it caught up with them, the lack of experience.
“That’s the top level. It’s all the harder, then, when you go down the rankings, because for counties like Waterford you know you’re not going to win a championship, so what’s the carrot?”
So what is the carrot?
The glory and honour of playing with your county, that is still there. We saw that the day we beat Wexford.
“But if you had a good mix in league opponents you’d improve things, I think.
“If Waterford were to play Roscommon and Tyrone and Leitrim and Laois, they’d learn so much from that which would prepare them better for the championship.
“We’re lucky that a GAA player still wants to represent his county. That dream still exists with a 14- or a 16-year-old. When I finished last week one of the lads sent me a lovely message saying he didn’t think he’d get the chance to play inter-county at 27.
That burning desire still exists. How long more will it last? I don’t know, but while it’s there we should nourish it.
“People can dress it up however they want, but it’s about the big counties. I don’t want to rake over the coals again, but with the Leitrim game we were very disappointed.”
The spell of bad weather this spring led to Waterford’s NFL clash with Leitrim being declared null and void, though both counties were agreeable to playing in Abbottstown.
McGlinchey felt they were seen as expendable: “The GAA said at the time they didn’t want to set a precedent, but to me it proved they were just concerned with the top teams. It was supposed to be to protect club fixtures but I don’t accept that.
“Because of stuff like that I think every county could understand where Kildare were coming from with the ‘Newbridge or nowhere’ stance. I think that gave the GAA community a huge lift. It showed what it means to GAA people to have a game in their own place.
“We saw that when we played Monaghan down in Fraher Field. The lift that gave the town, the county… we knew we weren’t going to win but people came along to see Monaghan, there was a curiosity factor, and people are still talking about it.
And about Thomas O’Gorman marking Conor McManus. I know Conor only played 55 minutes but I think Thomas will be the only man to keep him scoreless in his championship career.
The lessons mentioned by McGlinchey came thick and fast that day in Dungarvan.
“It’s not just one thing. It’s everything. You can look at strength and conditioning, but we had Gerry Fitzpatrick and Peter Kirwan in with our lads and had them primed. That worked against Wexford, we were flying it.
“Against Monaghan, I pointed out to the lads that that team, under Malachy O’Rourke, is a six-year project, or longer. They’ve come a long way.
“I was telling the Waterford lads, for instance, that when I was with Tipperary we hammered Monaghan one year.
“Now, that was 2002, a long time ago, but then they weren’t that highly-regarded.
“Their reputation came from the great team they’d had in the 80s.
“But they built. It took time. The likes of Ciaran McManus is 30 or so, the Wylies are very experienced, they have a few more around the late 20s mark. They’re 10 years on that track, a lot of them.”
The other lesson was ruthlessness.
“It happened with Cork City playing Legia Warsaw a few weeks ago — one mistake and City were punished.
“Same for us with Monaghan. Any mistake is punished to the absolute maximum. We told the lads not to take the ball into the tackle. But if they beat one man sometimes they chanced another — then they were tackled and the ball turned over, and Monaghan really punished us every time.
It happens in other games. It happened Cork against Kerry, against Tyrone. Roscommon-Tyrone the same, which reminded me of a Division Four versus Division One game. Roscommon just weren’t savvy enough against Tyrone, and they were punished for every error.
Exposing teams to quality in the league is one way to improve standards, says the Cork native.
“How do you fix it? There are so many proposals gone out over the last few years it’s hard to keep track of all of them.
“I don’t want to harp back to my own time with Tipperary, but the years we did well, around 2002-3, the leagues were very important to us.
“One year we played Meath in Ardfinnan and what the Tipperary lads learned from that game was huge.
“We drew with Laois the same year up in Laois and took a load of lessons out of that too.
“Going back to that system with different teams playing each other in different divisions would be a way to improve teams.
“It’s accepted that the league’s the best competition — maybe that’s where the progress can occur.”
He’ll take stock now but with a CV listing Waterford and Tipperary as well as Limerick underage sides, he’s likely to get another call at some stage. What would the answer be?
I’d love it. It was an honour to be involved with Waterford, and Tipperary and Limerick before that.
“If you were asked it’s an honour, always, and you’d love it because of the buzz. But that buzz is available in other places too.
“Coaching a schools team, organising blitzes, that’s all enjoyable. You’re making friends, working towards a common goal.
“It’s a hobby, after all, which people often forget. You want to win, of course, and you’re disappointed if you lose, but it’s a pastime, too.
“Going onto any pitch there’s a buzz, isn’t there?
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