Ciaran Whelan on Mayo’s decision to rebuff Tommy Lyons in favour of a managerial rookie, the return of the International Rules and a Dublin All-Ireland success.
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It’s the season of managerial merry-go-rounds and the Mayo saga was the one that hogged all the headlines this week. There had been a good few weeks of searching, with a lot of people from outside the county, including my old Dublin manager Tommy Lyons and, at one stage, Mick O’Dwyer, mentioned in connection with the job. In the end, the Mayo executive had settled on a shortlist of three, and they eventually decided to go for one of their own with James Horan.
It was plainly obvious that after the year Mayo have had, with a heavy defeat to Cork in the League final and a tame Championship exit after losing to Sligo and Longford, they needed some stability.
I’m not sure Tommy Lyons, or any outside boss for that matter, was the man to provide that. I’ve always believed that outside managers are alright for smaller or weaker counties trying to raise themselves up a rung or two on the ladder, but that for established, bigger counties, those with any aspirations of challenging for All-Ireland honours, you need someone with an in-depth knowledge of the county scene, of the players that might be there already and of the U21s and minors coming through.
The job obviously appealed greatly to Tommy. He has spent a lot of time there and had said it was the only job that would entice him back into management after six years, and from what he’s said this week he doesn’t have any intention of taking on any other job.
Tommy is someone who has had a lot of success in the past. He took Kilmacud Crokes to the All-Ireland club in ’95 before leading Offaly from Division 4 to Division 1 as well as a Leinster title in ’97. His first year with Dublin was good. He came in and made an immediate impact – we won the Leinster title for the first time in seven years and came as close as we have done in the last 15 years to getting to an All-Ireland final, losing by just a point to Armagh in the semi-final. Things went backwards after the success of that first year, though, and he’s now been out of management six years. That’s a long time out, and the game has changed a lot since then.
He’ll be disappointed to have missed out, but he may not have had the level of knowledge of the Mayo club scene to really be the best man for the job, so all in all I think Mayo have made a wise decision to go for James Horan instead.
On the face of it, it looks like the people and clubs of Mayo have stood up and made their point, that they wanted someone from inside the county to take it on. He has the local knowledge and he’s taken an unconsidered team in Ballintubber to the county final there this year. He’s from a new stable of young managers, so he’s sure to be in touch with the modern day player. He’s also assembled what looks like a very strong back-room team, which includes another great Mayo player of the past in James Nallen. I was in Australia with both Horan and Nallen as part of the International Rules team in ’99, and they’re both very shrewd individuals.
They’ll take the whole thing back to basics. Mayo need stability and they need to improve the mental side of their game. Looking in from outside, they definitely have the raw talent to compete at the highest level. The job facing James Horan and his team now is to improve that side of things. After the lows of this year, I’d expect them to do that and more.
Graham Canty and Bernard Brogan could be two of Ireland’s key players
in the 2010 International Rules series later this month
Speaking of the International Rules, it’s almost upon us again. The two tests take place at the end of the month and after a couple of years of a break, there definitely seems to be an appetite for it again. It looks like the Irish management are going to have their best players available to them, which is a big boost to the whole thing.
I’m a firm believer that it should be a two-year cycle anyway. Playing it every year was always too much, and if they leave it to every second year there will be a lot more of an inclination for the best players to get involved.
There’s no doubt that players’ first allegiance is always going to be their county, but they still see it as a huge honour to pull on that jersey and represent their country. It can be a great spectacle, too. I still think it would be better to have a three-Test series, because I just don’t think the cumulative scores idea works. I’m not sure the Australian calendar would allow for three games, but that’s the way I’d like to see it going.
However, I wouldn’t concur with the thoughts of GAA Head of Games Pat Daly, who said at the weekend that Gaelic football has been greatly improved as a result of the exposure of the top players to International Rules over the last ten years or so. I just don’t think that’s the case. It’s a completely different game, with very different rules, so I just don’t see it as having that big an influence on the GAA – apart from the fact that it’s put the spotlight on Ireland as a potential source of new talent and a lot of lads have decided to take a punt on making it as a professional sportsman Down Under. But that’s a story for another day.
Ladies show lads the way
Finally, I’d like to take the opportunity to offer my congratulations to the Dublin ladies team after their superb All-Ireland final victory last weekend. I’ve watched them for a couple of years as they tried in vain to get over the line, and they finally did it in style by producing an exceptional display against Tyrone last week.
The standard of ladies football has improved hugely over the last few years or so, and it was great to see a Dublin team claiming an All-Ireland title in such impressive fashion. Fair play to all of them.
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