Michael Ryan, Brian Cody, Malachy O’Rourke and Eamon Fitzmaurice.
We could even name a few more of the top managers in the GAA right now but these are the four men that sprang to mind immediately.
What do all of these men have in common? Well, obviously, apart from being the best and being in charge of the best teams, they’ve shown common sense, they’ve treated their own players with respect, they’ve encouraged their players to enjoy their games. They’ve done that recently.
How have they done that? Well, let’s start with Brian Cody. A fortnight ago, Padraig Walsh played in the Ryan Cup final for his college Maynooth. The Tullaroan club man scored five points from midfield in that clash which took place on the Saturday. Cody allowed his man to enjoy his celebrations of the win, giving him the day off for Kilkenny’s clash with Tipperary in the league that took place the next day.
Fellow Kilkenny player, and DCU star Conor Delaney received the same treatment after he lost the Fitzgibbon Cup final on the same Saturday. Cody didn’t rush him back. What would be the point?
Just think of the players for a second. They want to win, and when they win an All-Ireland like these lads did, they want to celebrate these wins. If they didn’t, what would they be doing it all for?
Most county panels have enough strength in depth to afford to lose one or two players, especially for these league games which aren’t the be all and end all anyway. Kilkenny could, they won an enthralling encounter against old rivals Tipperary.
Michael Ryan did the same thing on the same weekend. Jason Forde, John McGrath and Barry Heffernan were all permitted and encouraged to bask in the glory of their Fitzgibbon Cup win with UL.
It was a special day for one @LorrhaGAA family. It was a special day for @MaynoothUniGAA. https://t.co/xlZ0Lcfwls
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 24, 2018
So it was good man-management by Cody, Ryan and By Fitzmaurice and O’Rourke who did the same thing. Their players would have came back into the camp during the next week in much better form than if they had been requested to play.
Players love playing for their colleges. College days are the best days of these lads’ lives. They make friends for life and college GAA is a huge part of this. All of these inter-county players are supremely dedicated to their county panels and to their games in general.
They will respond to a manager’s beckon and call without question because they know how precarious a position it is to be on a county panel.
Some other managers, however, are abusing this control they have over players.
A clear-cut example of this power abuse was displayed by the Cork camogie manager, Paudie Murray over the weekend.
Two of his players, Hannah Looney and Maeve Cahalane were a part of the UCC O’Connor Cup football team this year. They made it to the semi-finals of the competition which took place in Blanchardstown on Saturday.
We're hearing from the UCC Manager now who's expressing his disappointment that Hannah Looney & Maeve Cahalane missed today's O'Connor Cup Semi Final because they were not permitted to play by Cork Camogie Management https://t.co/n1pKQ5m3mF
— RedFM Sport (@BigRedBench) March 10, 2018
Now the O’Connor Cup is a highly respected competition. Akin to the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for players and is treated as such.
An understandably frustrated UCC manager Shane Ronayne took aim at the Cork bainisteoir Paudie Murray after his side had been knocked out of the competition by UL in the last four. Murray had blocked the two players from playing for their colleges because they had a league semi-final taking place the next day.
Now we give out about player burnout, but at the same time, we saw Corofin man Kieran Molloy play an All-Ireland semi-final and an All-Ireland final within the space of two hours of each other just three weeks ago.
Don’t tell us for a second that these two girls wouldn’t have went out and done the same.
Players are mad to play. These girls would have been mad to play.
It’s bully-boy tactics by a manager. It’s not on and it feeds into the notion that everything is all about the inter-county scene.
It’s not even about the players anymore when that sort of stuff is going on. The question is, what is it all about? Why are we all becoming so blinkered and missing out on the bigger picture?
The game is about enjoyment. That’s why we all got into it in the first place.
