Backroom overhauls add fuel to the fire
Several Ulster counties have switched it up ahead of league battle
IT could well be the times we are living in, but the traffic zipping up and down Ulster roads as teams get ready for 2021 has gone haywire.
Last winter held only one major managerial change in Ulster football, with Rory Gallagher hooking up with Derry after two years in his native Fermanagh.
By vacating his post, it allowed selector Ryan Mcmenamin to stand on his own two feet as manager of the Ernemen, while Seamus ‘Banty’ Mcenaney stepped up from the county minors to take control of Monaghan seniors for the second time, having left in the winter of 2010.
The biggest bit of news this winter was Mickey Harte leaving Tyrone after 18 years in charge.
Within a couple of weeks, the board moved to appoint former captains Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher on a joint ticket. How the chemistry of that relationship plays out will be revealed in the fullness of time, but within a few days they had an extensive coaching team nailed down.
Joe Mcmahon left Fermanagh to sign up, Collie Holmes committed and Peter Donnelly returned after a one-year spell with Monaghan to resume his strength and conditioning role. Others may also follow.
“A new voice, or voices, sometimes helps around set-ups,” stated Logan on the night of their unveiling.
“But you look around you here and the clubs of Tyrone, there is not a pile that needs to be changed. In the reality of the Tyrone GAA family, we are in reasonably good shape.
“Of course, we will have a bit of a stamp on it now because of the position we hold, but we don’t intend to do anything radical whatsoever. We just want to build on what’s been done here for decades.”
Lenny Harbinson, meanwhile, stepped away from the Antrim job after missing out on promotion by a single point for the third successive year.
His replacement is Enda Mcginley, the former Tyrone player who takes in former teammate Stephen O’neill, ex-antrim player Sean Kelly and his Errigal Ciaran clubmate Stevie Quinn as his coaching staff.
This is his first posting in a county job. His previous experience was a couple of years with his club minors (they won a Championship) and two seasons with Derry club Swatragh.
Unusually interesting, Mcginley seems incapable of a blithe comment and set out his ambitions recently in an interview with the Saffron Gael website.
“You are working with a high l evel of players and set-ups where all the excuses that can sometimes be used by lads for not reaching their potential are removed or should be removed,” he said.
“When you remove excuses, you are left in an exposed position where you stand up and find out if you are good enough or not. That’s a hell of a challenge, but for any sports person, and I suppose now as a manager, that’s the one you want to take on.”
So that’s this year’s major managerial changes noted. In actual fact, the real meat and intrigue this winter is what is happening under the hood. Managers are fine and all that, but what players will confide off-the-record is that a good coach is almost more important — a bibs and balls man who will build sessions with an end in mind, someone who is able to sell a way of playing and bring them there.
Cavan, as Ulster champions, have made no changes. That is to be expected.
There will be no changes in the Down backroom either, with Gavin Mcgilly and Stephen Beattie expected to continue under Paddy Tally.
Fermanagh, despite having lost Mcmahon to Tyrone, won’t be adding anyone else. Instead, Paul Mciver is expected to get his teeth into the panel a bit more.
The only change in Derry has been Gallagher adding Peter Hughes to the backroom for strength and conditioning duties. Hughes, a former Tyrone player, replaces Ollie Cummings.
Donegal have lost the services of their own strength and conditioning expert, the long-serving Paul Fisher, after six years. It’s understood manager Declan Bonner is making efforts to fill the gap.
But for eye-catching appointments, the additions and losses in Armagh and Monaghan have been astonishing.
Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney is going into his seventh consecutive season. Heading out the exit door for whatever reason are coaches John Toal and Paddy Mckeever. It’s also understood that their top forward Jamie Clarke will not be there either.
Coming in is former Kerry captain Kieran Donaghy. The temptation for Mcgeeney is that he has always been keen to talk about ‘what Dublin do’. He continually referenced them in interviews, and certain traits of the Dublin team have been adopted by Armagh. He will be hoping that Donaghy can give him something of the tactical input that another basketballer, Jason Sherlock, gave Jim Gavin as they
transformed Dublin’s attack.
“(I’ll be) working with the forwards and defensive stuff, probably bringing my basketball background and my small bit of experience on the GAA pitch to the set-up,” said Donaghy.
Finally, we come to the most intriguing. In years gone by, Mcenaney has never been slow to reconstruct his backroom team. It has been different this year, with Conor Laverty taking over Down Under-20s and Donnelly returning to Tyrone.
It can be said, though, that Mcenaney has produced a spectacular response. Jonny Davis impressed during last season with Tyrone and fills the strength and conditioning role, while ex-limerick, Mayo and Kerry coach Donie Buckley is aboard.
What happens next, in a tightened league campaign, will be fascinating.