IT’S BEEN A striking trend across ladies football in recent years.
And now Liam McHale is the latest high-profile manager/coach to have made the move from the men’s game.
He was ratified as the Mayo senior ladies football manager last night following a protracted process.
Part of Kevin McStay’s management team for the county men’s side last year, former Mayo footballer McHale succeeds another, Michael Moyles, on a three-year term. On top of Mayo, the 58-year-old has also previously coached the Clare and Roscommon senior inter-county men’s teams and helped St Brigid’s to All-Ireland club glory in 2013.
Mick Bohan, Ephie Fitzgerald, Maxi Curran and Shane McCormack are among the other top-level examples to make the move from the GAA to the LGFA in recent years.
“Anyone coming in from the men’s game to women’s football brings that extra little bit of savvy and nuance and whatever else,” said five-time All-Ireland winning Dublin manager Bohan in 2018, speaking about the addition of Paul Casey to his backroom team at the time.
Casey’s arrival was particularly significant for Bohan, who was previously involved with the Dublin senior ladies football team in the early 2000s. Several others who have soldiered with the successful Sky Blues men’s side through the years now join him.
“I would have felt Paul Casey getting involved with us was a massive step,” he told The 42 in a fascinating interview in late 2019. “It’s now okay for a fella who has played senior inter-county football to get involved with a female team in Gaelic games.
“I think that’s a brilliant statement right throughout the country. I guarantee you – because I know this myself, I would have seen it – there are fellas there who would get involved, but they might be afraid of what public perception is:
‘You can’t be involved with the girls’ team, why wouldn’t you get involved with the fellas’ team? What are you wasting your time getting involved with the girls’ team for?’
“Because that exists.
“If the Paul Caseys of this world get involved — and people would have given our group an awful lot of credit for the quality of their defending and tackling — and if he’s able to transfer that skillset over to them as a former senior inter-county footballer, I think that’s a really positive thing for other males who might be contemplating getting involved in the female game.
“Then all of a sudden, we’re not now taking about gender or equality, we’re just saying: we’re Gaels, it doesn’t really matter one way or the other. All those things start to break down barriers.”
Ephie Fitzgerald and Maxi Curran have since vacated their respective ladies football roles, but they enjoyed successful tenures with Cork and Donegal respectively.
Prior to the Rebels job, Fitzgerald guided his native Nemo Rangers and Ballylanders to club championship success, managed the Cork minors, and acted as coach and selector for the Limerick and Clare senior footballers. He was most recently the Waterford manager.
Curran worked alongside Jimmy McGuinness and Rory Gallagher in the Donegal men’s set-up. He managed the U21s and a host of club teams, including St Eunan’s, who won the county SFC under his guidance in 2014.
Like Bohan, this was Curran’s second stint in charge of the Donegal ladies football team having guided them to All-Ireland junior glory in 2003, and he shares similar sentiments with the Dublin supremo he admires.
“The arrival of Mick brought a whole new element of professionalism to it,” he said last year, assessing the LGFA landscape.
“The management structures within the game have definitely improved and pushed on a lot, where you have a lot of people coming across from the men’s game. Not even just managers, S&C guys.
“Eugene Eivers was the S&C guy for Donegal in 2012 when they won the All-Ireland. He’s now the S&C [coach] with Meath and I think that’s no coincidence that they have come. Our own guy, Paul Fisher, would have been with the men for six years. That’s happening quite a lot.”
Curran’s successor at the Donegal ladies football helm is John McNulty, a recognisable and experienced men’s club manager in the county. McNulty has been at the helm of Ballyshannon’s Aodh Ruadh men’s footballers for the past two seasons, and previously enjoyed a successful stint with his native Kilcar.
Elsewhere, former Kildare manager Shane McCormack has swapped Armagh for Meath, while double act Tom Devereux and Billy Kiernan have taken the reins in Laois, having formerly been part of the Emo and Portarlington senior men’s set-ups.
The background of Kerry joint-managers Declan Quill and Darragh Long is predominantly in ladies football, but there are several other examples of movement between the codes.
And however prevalent it is at inter-county level, it’s becoming more of a feature at club level.
The trend of moving from the male game to ladies football is sure to continue apace.
Liam McHale is just the latest example.
