BLAME WHAT CON Houlihan used to call the current appetite for ‘Wintertalk’, but the frenzy of reporting on management changes has now peaked with the announcements of figures coming into coaching backrooms.
On Tuesday evening, Down GAA announced that Ciaran Meenagh was coming on board to beef up an already considerable war chest of coaches for Conor Laverty.
Derry GAA then made an announcement that former player Paul McFlynn would be joining Mickey Harte’s backroom team. Murtagh O’Brien is joining up too, but his lack of celebrity means his name won’t be the one in the headline, although O’Brien is very astute and an excellent acquisition.
On and on it goes. Niall Morgan is joining up with Tyrone minors to help in the backroom. Conleith Gilligan is joining Armagh to be a coach and selector.
And if that dries up, a new source of stories has emerged; the story when a selector isn’t actually going anywhere!
Hence, there are announcements that Kieran Donaghy will be staying with Armagh for another season. It’s now noteworthy that Paddy Tally will continue to help out with Kerry.
It’s a game of backroom roulette but sometimes you wonder where it is all going. The cost of running a county squad is bleeding most county boards and yet, the number of support staff is outnumbering the playing panel everywhere.
Take a step back and think about the madness in the game right now.
Kieran Donaghy, from Tralee, is helping to coach and manage Armagh. Paddy Tally from Galbally, less than 20 miles from the Athletic Grounds, travels to Kerry to coach their team. Do you ever wonder if they might happen upon each other at a pitstop, say the Obama Plaza, and shuffle awkwardly around each other as they punch in their orders for a flat white?
The fashion now is to lay out your entire management team for all the world to see.
Hence, we have Catherina McKiernan announced with fanfare as a ‘Life Coach’ with the Cavan footballers. We have the former Kildare player David White named as a ‘Transitional coach’ under Ger Brennan, the new Louth manager.
Whether you think all of this is plainly ridiculous or cutting-edge depends on your tolerance for this kind of jargon and your knowledge of what actually happens in a training session.
A coach can achieve something on a training night. Two coaches works better. A third would be a help. Beyond that, you have people tripping over themselves.
Take the Meenagh appointment as an example.
It looks to be a seriously clever move by Conor Laverty. Laverty was coaching Derry in 2019 when Meenagh was also brought in. Their relationship goes back that far.
Meenagh has been there for Derry’s evolution from a Division four team, to back-to-back Ulster champions. He is privy to the knowledge bank within the Derry set-up and exactly how they fulfilled their abilities; precisely what Down need after failing to get out of Division three and a fairly abject showing in the Tailteann Cup final.
Presumably, Laverty might decide that after managing the senior team and U20 side last year, he needs to take a step back and oversee matters.
That still leaves a lot of coaching brains on the pitch. We can assume Meenagh is going to be the lead coach, implementing sessions agreed and approved by Laverty.
Then you have Martin Clarke. A man brimming with ideas both original, and those borrowed from the world of Australian Rules.
Mickey Donnelly is endlessly creative on a training field and capable of forming strong relationships within a couple of meetings.
And Declan Morgan, who is well-regarded from his time coaching in a number of roles, including Kilcoo.
No doubt at some point, the coaching bug will gnaw at Laverty too. Derry and Monaghan players have previously told myself that he is direct in style, has an intolerance of bullshit and young players tend to thrive under him.
But it’s a lot of opinions and ideas. Reaching consensus in such circumstances is impossible.
A month ago, Liam McHale left the Mayo coaching set-up. He was there alongside manager Kevin McStay and coaches Donie Buckley, Damian Mulligan and Stephen Rochford.
It didn’t work. Does that surprise you?
“There was five of us there, and the four lads had a totally different philosophy on how this team should play than what I had,” McHale told Ballina Community Radio of the reasons for his departure.
“I’m surprised at Kevin because normally we’d be in sync. I just felt there is no point in me being there when I am so far removed from their thinking.
“I didn’t want to drag anybody down, and I didn’t want to upset the flow of the whole thing. I thought it was the right thing to do.”
In any training session, the pressures of time mean that you can work on two, maybe three facets of gameplay. Maximum.
Jim McGuinness – a man incidentally who was regularly coaching Down last year – previously said that he would coach an element across eight sessions before his team might introduce it in a match.
Here’s the open secret about coaching and training; progression needs regularity. You have to do the same thing over and over again.
Go to a gym and do an entirely different workout each time, hitting different muscle groups, and your progress will stall. It’s the same in team sports.
So in any county training session, how many coaches can truly be fully engaged? And that’s before you touch on the time spent with a strength and conditioning coach, with more and more of that work being done on-field now.
A look through successful teams will establish the pattern that the backroom was kept tight.
From 2005 to 2013, the entire Kilkenny management was manager Brian Cody, physical trainer Mick Dempsey, and the inspirational high-energy coach Martin Fogarty.
Noel Richardson, a former Irish middle-distance runner, did the physical work. In 2014, Derek Lyng replaced Fogarty and Dempsey stayed on until 2019.
With Dublin footballers, they may have had a huge support network, but the inner sanctum was Jim Gavin manager and Declan Darcy the coach. Jason Sherlock had a huge influence on team tactics. Everyone else around the place was expendable.
Of course, you have every right to throw the Limerick hurlers back at us and the weight of numbers they have, how the celebrate and champion the presence of Caroline Currid in their set-up and what she brings.
But outside of John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk, who is doing the nuts and bolts stuff on the grass?
In 2022, the cost of preparing intercounty teams reached €32.5 million.
Value for money?
Or utter madness?