The summer has been book-ended by departures that say a lot about the current intercounty climate.
The Galway hurlers have joined their neighbours to the north in rebelling against their manager and, while their heave has been less well planned than that of the Mayo footballers, Anthony Cunningham faces a battle to cling on – just days after being ratified for the 2016 season.
Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly bowed to the inevitable on Friday night, resigning as Mayo’s joint managers, 24 hours after 30 0f their erstwhile squad members had turned up at an emergency county board meeting to add emphasis to their vote of no-confidence in the pair.
Cunningham this year went one better than Holmes and Connelly, guiding Galway to a second All-Ireland final in four years, where they once more fell to Brian Cody’s Kilkenny.
The St Thomas man led Galway to a first Leinster title in 2012 and has successfully rejuvenated the panel with talented youngsters such as Jason Flynn and Cathal Mannion.
But, not for the first time this year, an intercounty squad has displayed a remarkable level of ruthless ambition.
Back in March the Clare hurlers found themselves at the centre of a controversy when they backed manager Davy Fitzgerald’s punishment of Davy O’Halloran and Nicky O’Connell. The pair were forced to train alone for three weeks after breaking a team charter that forbade socialising in the week of a game. Even though the pair were injured and not in contention to play.
O’Connell eventually returned but O’Halloran (above) joined the football panel and had to watch on from the outside as the 2013 All-Ireland hurling champions’ season spluttered to an early end at the hands of Cork in the qualifiers.
The Clare hurlers are poster boys for the new breed of intercounty players – young, ambitious and impatient. They tasted success in 2013 and are willing to sacrifice a lot, even friendships, to enjoy that sensation again.
Standards at the highest level of the GAA, at both club and county level, have risen astronomically in the last decade. As training schedules became more demanding and the sacrifices became bigger, many pointed fingers at the coaches and managers asking so much of their charges.
Now the wheel has turned full circle and it is the players, having committed so completely to their projects, who are expecting more and more of the managers.
Connelly and Holmes maintained the status quo in Mayo by taking the eventual All-Ireland champions to a semi-final replay. Cunningham returned the Galway hurlers to the final stage, but the Sunday Times today report that this week’s vote against him was the second in four months.
History tells us that once a manager “loses a dressingroom” there is very little hope of reconciliation. This week’s heaves from Connacht’s two most successful teams is not new, but it is very significant.
The modern day managers set the standards but it is now the players enforcing them and Mayo and Galway have shown that standards are getting higher and higher.
