It’s over a month since this column referred to the situation that saw half of the Division One football counties without managers for next season. In that time, only Mayo, who had a well-subscribed application process, have filled the vacancy.
Donegal, Monaghan and Roscommon are among the top teams in the country, the only ones guaranteed access to next season’s Sam Maguire. All three have won provincial titles within the past 10 years.
Speaking to The42 at the weekend about the demands of intercounty management, Cavan’s Mickey Graham, who has extended his tenure, was in no doubt that difficulties in finding new appointments reflected the significant demands of the role.
“The managers who are in management now can make it work but if you look at the jobs that still haven’t been filled yet, is there a reason for that? Maybe it’s getting harder and harder to get someone to commit to these jobs because of the time it takes to manage a team. Years ago, these jobs would be filled in a couple of weeks but [in] the last couple of years, it’s taken counties longer to fill these positions.
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“Maybe people just don’t have the time to do them that they used to have years ago. Jobs now are more demanding, people are busier than ever, and there’s definitely a pattern after starting there over the last two or three years.”
Of the three top-division counties still to appoint, Monaghan may be close to resolution, as there is strong speculation that former player and selector, last year, Vinny Corey is being persuaded to take up the reins. A vital presence in defence for the county and occasionally an effective convert to full forward, he enjoys high standing in the county’s football community.
Initially, he ruled himself out of the running but as one former intercounty manager put it succinctly: “It’s the fellas who don’t want it, you should be after. The ones that want it most are generally to be avoided.”
Neither Donegal nor Roscommon however appear to be on the brink of an announcement with both waiting to hear back from specially convened committees.
If the demands on managers have risen remorselessly in recent years, the blunt reality of the undertaking was succinctly expressed in former director general Páraic Duffy’s discussion document 10 years ago on the potential payment of county managers.
“It is conceivable that many team managers devote, in terms of hours, the equivalent of a full working-week to their function during the playing season (which covers the period of preparation that precedes the playing season), and this, often, on top of their own full-time employment commitments.
“In addition, the modern senior inter-county manager is the figure most publicly identified with the team in terms of the its performance and is, therefore, the person most solicited by journalists.
“The public nature of this representative function creates in itself an extra layer of responsibility, but has the added consequence that, in the event of defeat and perceived failure, the manager is identified in the public sphere as the person most responsible, whereas players, to a large extent, tend to be judged collectively, and less severely.”
That counterpointing of players and managers was significant and continues to be. Teams with malfunctioning management are rarely expected to achieve anything and players are excused their disengagement but managers with underwhelming playing resources won’t survive either, as the burden of expectation to make the best of what they have generally falls on them.
It’s no surprise that panels of players, who despite far more crowded schedules continue to deal with daft training-to-match ratios, question their involvement and look for optimal preparation environments. In many cases though, that can lead to situations where unrealistic expectations absolve individuals of taking responsibility for their own shortcomings.
Players mightn’t get actively involved in the selection process but they frequently have a power of veto. That’s not always unreasonable – in some cases it can be advisable, but neither is it uncommon to hear ousted managers blame a dissatisfied rump within the dressing-room for poisoning the atmosphere.
This can be particularly acute if senior players are due to be cleared out – in which case it’s a question of who goes for their guns first.
Aside from the inherent pressures, modern management also entails assembling vast backroom teams and effectively running a small firm. Testimony to how demanding that has become came from the most experienced manager of all. Jack O’Connor took Kerry to a fourth All-Ireland in July, for the third time winning the All-Ireland in the first year of his appointment.
That experience goes back nearly 20 years to 2004 but this summer was different in that he had retired from teaching, a liberation he saw as now essential for the job.
“It’s very time-consuming,” he said at the pre-All-Ireland final media event, “but I’m in the lucky position that I’m retired and I have the time and the energy to put into it. But I literally can’t envisage somebody with a demanding full-time job doing this. I don’t think you’d be able to do either job properly.”
Next year the pressure ramps up for all managers. The league will again determine a county’s championship status but more ruthlessly than last year when exemptions were on offer.
Championship comes with a round-robin format, which leaves an underperforming team no place to hide from either the public dissatisfaction or – at times, worse – indifference that can potentially entail.
Is it any wonder that some counties are struggling to fill these positions? Why would anyone want to do it?
