It's time mercenary managers were booted out of the game
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Tuesday March 09 2010
COLUMNIST OFTEN wonders when their 'wisdom' fails to get a community jumping, but then I admit there are those who scribble just to annoy and without having to walk among those they criticise. Ever wonder why many columnists are not too welcome in dressing-rooms?
I too wonder why occasional indictment of teams, managers and administrators fails to result in a shower of daggered emails in our direction. Conclusion? Like the Indian, we don't normally speak with forked tongue and what we say has embarrassed those who are reluctant to engage in debates they possibly would not win.
This scribe has for many years called for 'inside' trainers/coaches/managers, call them what you wilt, for few do little but to impart routines they have been through as players and without a whit of professional training.
Many a club and county is being 'taken' by 'managers' who have little to recommend them save for what the learned during their own playing days, and paying through the nose for the service.
This writer has for years called on the GAA to grasp a nettle which has stung them so many times in the past and which they have failed to address, and to the financial detriment of so many clubs and counties.
There is a dreadful perception out there that a big name will wave a wand and silver will follow, but at what expense to the others who fell by the wayside simply because they did not have the talent in the first place.
I was thus delighted to read that Sean Quinn has 'picked up' on this bleat that if board officers must hail from the county – by birth or residence – then why call in relative strangers to train teams, which in many cases could not win a match in a cheche? The former president has thrown down a gauntlet other administrations have not had the balls to tackle. These nomads are costing a fortune and many merely chancing their arm.
It's time the mercenaries were booted out by an organisation which is only paying lip-service to amateurism and save clubs from making financial fools of themselves.
How many 'outside' managers have actually fashioned victory? And at what cost? Kerry rely on Jack and Kilkenny on Brian, so what's the secret? players who want to be groomed. If the others cannot obey their own then they obviously do not have the belly for the contest.
Why should any club pay for a trainer when those who are floating the cause year after year don't even get recognition for their contribution? The imported trainer/manager/coach will walk away on defeat, yet the secretary, treasurer and other guiding officers will be there for the long haul and for some it's a lifetime commitment, win or lose.
- PAUL DONAGHY
