The year of the status quo: All the GAA managers heading into the 2021 season

Brian Cody is the longest serving manager in the Liam MacCarthy Cup after he was confirmed for a 23rd season in charge of Kilkenny for 2021. Picture: Sam Barnes

Tyrone hurler Damian Casey didn't mince his words when tweeting recently about the county's failure to find a manager for the new season.

"Not for the first time we've been let down by a county board who don't give a f***," blasted Casey who, a couple of hours later, added, "For the record, it's not everyone in the county board. Some decent and genuine people involved who do care. Those at the top of the pile, not so much."

For the most part around the country, counties and managers have avoided that sort of acrimony by simply sticking with the status quo for 2021.

Of the 32 counties that will compete in this year's Allianz Football League, just five will have new management teams in place.

Louth (Mickey Harte), Sligo (Tony McEntee), Tyrone (Feargal Logan/Brian Dooher), Antrim (Enda McGinley) and Waterford (Shane Ronayne) are the only counties with new setups.

London's participation in the League remains in doubt though Michael Maher will remain as manager for a second season while Wexford (Shane Roche) and Carlow (Niall Carew) installed their new managers during the 2020 campaign, albeit late on.

In hurling, Laois (Seamas Plunkett) is the only one of the MacCarthy Cup counties to have replaced their manager and, ideally, they'd have held onto Eddie Brennan.

To give some context, 11 football counties started last year's League with new managers, over a third of the entire field, or 34% compared to this season's 16%. In 2019, there were a dozen year-one managers starting out with new counties and it was the same figure in 2018, while there were seven new appointments for the 2017 season.

The drop off in hurling is just as stark. Liam Cahill (Waterford), Brian Lohan (Clare), Kieran Kingston (Cork) and Shane O'Neill (Galway) were all year-one managers at the beginning of 2020 — that's 40% of MacCarthy Cup counties — compared to just Plunkett with Laois now. Go back to 2017 and five of the MacCarthy Cup counties started off the year with new setups.

'More like a mid-season break'

Like most things, the fact that the managerial merry-go-round has ground to a sudden halt is largely down to the pandemic and, more specifically, to last year's Championship being shoved back to the end of the year.

"Everybody finished up 2020 feeling, 'Well, this is more like a mid-season break, sure we'll be back in two months'," said Leitrim football manager Terry Hyland. "To be fair to county boards and to most managers, I think the prevailing feeling was that it would be the wrong time to be changing things. I think the feeling in most counties is we'll see out 2021 and see where it all ends up then.

"I didn't really have any time to think about it myself, it was just carry on and get planning for 2021. Mine is a three-year gig with a review after two, so my two years finished up after 2020 and I chatted to the Leitrim board and they were quite happy for me to stay on. I personally felt it wouldn't have been fair to go at that stage anyway so it made sense from all perspectives really."

Waterford finally replaced Benji Whelan this week when they threw the reins to Mitchelstown man and Mourneabbey ladies boss Shane Ronayne, filling the last inter-county senior vacancy in the Sam Maguire and MacCarthy Cup competitions.

Technically, we are still awaiting confirmation that Colm Collins will remain with Clare for an eighth season though having reached mid-January it would be a huge surprise if he was to depart. Presuming the Kilmihil man does go again, he will be the longest-serving manager in the senior game following Harte's departure after 18 seasons with Tyrone.

For the record, in his seven seasons with Clare, Collins has presided over 28 Championship games, securing 14 wins, a draw and 13 losses. Six of those defeats were to Kerry.

In the previous seven seasons, Clare played 14 Championship games and lost 12 of them, winning just twice, a stunning 50% win rate under Collins compared to 14% previously.

Collins also secured promotion from Division 4 at his first attempt in 2014, won promotion from Division 3 in 2016 — the season they reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals — and has kept the Banner in Division 2 since.

If he were to belatedly step down, then Kieran McGeeney, in year seven with Armagh, would assume the status of longest-serving football boss.

There are no football managers in their sixth season at the moment though Andy McEntee (Meath) and Billy Lee (Limerick) are in their fifth consecutive seasons.

The freshly reappointed Brian Cody remains a clear outlier at the start of a 23rd season with the Kilkenny hurlers. Next up in longevity terms in the MacCarthy Cup are Davy Fitzgerald (Wexford) and John Kiely (Limerick) in their fifth seasons.

Clearly, those managers starting out with new counties, in such an uncertain period and with no definite return to training date in place, are particularly up against it. Even Harte, with all his experience, has his work cut out to assess the talent at his disposal in Louth.

Ronayne, ex-Mayo coach McEntee, the Logan/Dooher combination in Tyrone and McGinley are all first-time senior inter-county managers (in the men's game) and in their rookie seasons.

"In terms of trying to just gather a panel, a very basic thing, it's been really difficult," said McGinley, a three-time All-Ireland winner in the 2000s with Tyrone. "We've a large number of players that we're looking at but because we haven't been able to get together as a group, real meaningful work has been very limited. It's a case of looking at videos of last year's panel, looking at club videos and the like but you can only go so far with that. You can't be writing boys in or out based on video work.

"We're just really limited in what we can do at the moment which is frustrating because you're itching to get started and to get going."

2021 MacCarthy Cup hurling managers

1st season (1): Seamas Plunkett (Laois)

2nd season (5): Shane O’Neill (Galway), Liam Cahill (Waterford), Brian Lohan (Clare), Kieran Kingston (Cork), Darren Gleeson (Antrim)

3rd season (2): Mattie Kenny (Dublin), Liam Sheedy (Tipperary)

4th season (0)

5th season (2): Davy Fitzgerald (Wexford), John Kiely (Limerick)

23rd season (1): Brian Cody (Kilkenny)

2021 senior inter-county football managers (excluding New York)

1st season (5): Mickey Harte (Louth), Tony McEntee (Sligo), Feargal Logan/Brian Dooher (Tyrone), Enda McGinley (Antrim), Shane Ronayne (Waterford)

2nd season (12): Dessie Farrell (Dublin), Niall Carew (Carlow), Jack O’Connor (Kildare), Micheal Quirke (Laois), Shane Roche (Wexford), Davy Burke (Wicklow), David Power (Tipperary), Padraic Joyce (Galway), Michael Maher (London), Seamus McEnaney (Monaghan), Rory Gallagher (Derry), Ryan McMenamin (Fermanagh)

3rd season (9): Padraic Davis (Longford), Jack Cooney (Westmeath), John Maughan (Offaly), Peter Keane (Kerry), James Horan (Mayo), Terry Hyland (Leitrim), Anthony Cunningham (Roscommon), Paddy Tally (Down), Mickey Graham (Cavan).

4th season (2): Ronan McCarthy (Cork), Declan Bonner (Donegal)

5th season (2): Andy McEntee (Meath), Billy Lee (Limerick)

6th season (0)

7th season (1): Kieran McGeeney (Armagh)

8th season (1): Colm Collins (Clare, subject to confirmation)