Tipperary must appoint the right person, not the popular choice, to replace Liam Sheedy

NEXT MAN IN? Waterford manager Liam Cahill with his Tipperary counterpart Liam Sheedy after the All-Ireland quarter-final between the counties at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. 

In the search for a successor the Tipperary County Board must heed the lessons that Liam Sheedy has taught hurling - it is critically important that the County Board appoint the right man to the role . . . and not a 'great man'; in such situations, it is about identifying the candidate who is actually qualified to do the job, someone who will get the physics of performance just right.

In the popular imagination, the candidates to succeed Sheedy have been lined up with Liam Cahill (Ballingarry), Darragh Egan (Kiladangan), Tommy Dunne (Toomevara), Brian Horgan (Knockavilla Kickhams) and presumably William Maher (Ballingarry) featuring amongst others.

For the incoming candidate, the to-do list is reasonably long and somewhat awkward: the Tipperary style of play needs to be significantly adjusted (it is still hurling when you do not have the ball) and the panel of players requires surgery. That much is clear, but it is also true that there is talent in the county and matters may not be as desperate as they may seem.

And Sheedy has already taught us what is required in order to succeed.

The absolute key to understanding the rejuvenation of Tipperary and the associated 2019 All-Ireland final success is that none of it happened by accident - Liam Sheedy nailed the physics of performance.

The genius of Sheedy is that he is a brilliant system designer - the most accomplished coaches work to create a perfect world that will make success inevitable; there is more to it than good players. Such work may not titillate the imagination of the common or garden variety supporter or earn many headlines, but Tipp’s success had as much to do with Sheedy's meticulous planning and organisational smarts as it did with the ability of the players.

When Liam got involved with Tipperary he had a clear vision for the environment he wanted to create - he knew the players would prosper in an environment where each individual was challenged to improve and shown exactly how to do so; that environment was demanding, but also respectful and fun. Liam Sheedy is famed for his ability to build relationships with players. His big idea is that happy players make for better players.

Sheedy installed a management team that had the ability to develop each individual member of the squad and cater for their needs - he is exceptional at piecing together a framework of support around his players. He also understood the requirements of the game and what it would take to ensure his team could compete with the best; he developed a system of play that his players could lean on and which actually suited the individual players at his disposal.

Meanwhile, Sheedy established a sense of mission about the thing: that the Tipperary players represented something more significant than themselves. He helped the players to realise that how they performed and behaved mattered to the people who mattered to them; that there was more at stake than just winning.

And Sheedy developed his leadership group - he knew that whatever success Tipperary would enjoy would be driven from within the group. The physics by which all successful organisations operate reads as follows: the team leaders build the culture, in turn, that culture drives behaviour and behaviour produces results. Management can do, say and think what they like, but the environment of all successful teams is driven by the players. There is no technique nor strategy that is going to overcome an absence of leadership.

The 2019 All-Ireland final win over Kilkenny represented the perfect culmination of that particular body of work; a signature performance and a perfect illustration of the entire organisation that Liam Sheedy had worked to create. Blue and gold supporters could point to outstanding individual performers, but the Tipperary display also featured a solid structure and selfless players committed to performing a role with respect to a tactical plan. Tipp were ambitious, organised, meticulously coached, blazing with self-belief and could draw on a well of moral courage. They set the terms and conditions of the contest when blending traditional virtues with modern guile.

Critically, Sheedy had all of the bases covered: the team was propelled forward by a positive group culture, the leading players were driving the entire project, the panel was guided by a sharp and open-minded management team, the individual development needs of each player was catered for, the group could lean on a system of play which delivered those players to the ball, the players were conditioned to meet the demands of the game, were coached to retain their composure when it mattered most, had developed the technical skill to realise Sheedy’s vision for a top-class display and, finally, the players were motivated to do the actual work required to win.

The challenge for the County Board in Tipperary, led by Joe Kennedy, is to identify, appoint and then support a candidate who is capable of getting the physics of performance just right.

Right now, Liam Cahill is the leading candidate to succeed Sheedy. The Ballingarry man has answered every question asked of him in order to reach this point of his managerial career, but whether he is the right man at this particular time to take over is a question that only he and the County Board can answer.

*The author is a former journalist and hurling analyst with GAA Insights. You can follow Brian's work on @sixtwofourtwo.