Better by design: The second coming of James Horan as Mayo manager

Mayo manager Horan has made subtle but significant changes to his approach, and his backroom, since returning to the helm

Mayo manager James Horan during the Allianz League Division 2 North Round 1 match against Down in Castlebar in May. Horan has made subtle but significant changes in his second stint in charge of the county. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Back when James Horan and Mayo started out on their All-Ireland odyssey a decade ago, they took a leaf out of Tyrone’s book — or at least Mickey Harte’s — on how they had gone about kicking down heaven’s door.

In Harte’s diary of the ground-breaking 2003 season, he mentioned how he took some inspiration and guidance from the words of George Zalucki, a former dean of psychology who had branched into the field of motivational speaking. Some of Horan’s backroom delved further into his work and a few of Zalucki’s nuggets were circulated in audio form to the players to become central tenets of the team’s culture and philosophy.