Mature reflections on the Kildare house that Jack O'Connor built 

With a year left on the agreement in Kildare, Kerry came calling, in no small part because Jack O’Connor let everyone know of the allure of coaching 'the Man Utd' of Gaelic football. It seriously irked Kildare supporters, though not all those on the inside

Then Kildare manager Jack O'Connor during the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship Final match between Dublin and Kildare at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

SOME outside managerial adventures will be remembered forever. Think Johnno in Leitrim and Galway. Micko in Kildare and Laois. Eugene McGee in Offaly, Maughan in Clare, Páidí and now Mark McHugh in Westmeath. The stuff of dreams, Disney movies, or in Páidí’s and Johnno’s case, documentaries.

Then there are those which you can barely remember and the parties involved would maybe want everyone to forget: more Jordan with the Wizards than with the Bulls. Like Maughan in Fermanagh. McGee in Cavan. Harte in Derry. Kernan in Galway. Páidí and then Micko in Clare. Marriages that seemed a good idea at the time but proved to be closer to the Vegas variety than Rome.