If it goes well, it will be seen as the ‘best move ever’… if it goes belly up, it will be ‘sabotage’
Derry’s appointment of Tyrone icon Mickey Harte as their new boss is a risky move for both, argues John O’Mahony
JOHN O’MAHONY was never going to go the ‘Muggsy’ route and register his response to Mickey Harte’s shock move to Derry via social media. Post a photo of Mo Johnston’s inflammatory, turncoat transfer to Rangers after wearing the Celtic crest and draw a line from one hothouse rivalry in Scotland to one of Ulster football’s fiercest derby settings.
But he can see where Owen Mulligan is coming from.
Similarly with another one of Harte’s former star players Seán Cavanagh. On Wednesday, in a newspaper column, the former Tyrone captain described the decision by Harte to exit the Louth hot-seat, where he had already given commitments, to take over Tyrone’s massive rivals Derry on a three-year term as akin to Alex Ferguson leaving Manchester United to manage bitter rivals City.
A comparison based around the fact Harte was the pioneer who guided Tyrone to three All-Irelands in the noughties, including that historic first.
The same age as Harte this year – until he hit the 70 mark in June – O’Mahony is arguably the best example of a manager taking over his native county’s biggest rival and somehow emerging with his reputation – and popularity – not only intact, but widely enhanced. In fact, the long-time Ballaghaderreen school teacher turned Leinster House politician didn’t just guide Galway to double All-Ireland success in 1998 and 2001 – in between managing his native Mayo twice – but also took charge of a third county in Connacht. One of Gaelic football’s last great fairytale provincial final wins came in 1994 when he guided Leitrim to a first title since 1927 – beating Mayo in the final.
And yet even he admits the nature of the Harte switch left him ‘shocked’ on Monday night when it first broke. He can understand exactly where two of Harte’s former star players are coming from. There’s a way and means of doing things, he suggests.
‘I saw it on Twitter on Monday evening. A few of my mates got on to me and said, “surely this can’t be happening, that he is going to Derry”. I texted them back and said “I wouldn’t be surprised with anything this man would do”. I knew him; I managed against him.
‘I’m saying that now as somebody who managed three counties in the one province. But the reality of the time was you always left a gap, either a year or two years before you took up any other county. In the Mayo situation, I wasn’t wanted or needed when I went to Leitrim
– they thought I could do no damage in Leitrim against them so there was no problem there.
‘Obviously Mayo were in an AllIreland in 1996 and 1997 and John Maughan was going strong so I was a free agent, as it were. And there was a gap – I didn’t jump straight from the Leitrim dressing room into the Galway dressing room.’
But what about the argument that modern management leaves no room for sentiment? Harte has left a threeyear gap. He’s not wanted by Tyrone. Why is he shocked, like the rest of the Gaelic football world seems to be?
‘I’m shocked because he had already started preliminary work with Louth – I’m shocked from the Louth point of view. He had done tremendous work with them. I saw them against Mayo during the summer – if that game had gone on for another minute or two, I think they would have beaten Mayo in Castlebar at that time which would have been a huge result. So he made a lot of progress with them. And he had committed to another two years. ‘The suddenness of it…’
It’s still hard to avoid the idea that Derry is one of the most attractive jobs in Ireland right now for any manager.
‘Absolutely. But… everyone talks about a manager having a two-year contract – there’s no such thing as contracts in reality. Your word is your bond, as I would see it.
‘You might say to yourself “well it’s a pity I wasn’t free now, I might come in blind for that” or whatever – but the suddenness of this is bringing it to a new level.’
And yet Jack O’Connor batted his eyelashes at his native Kerry on a podcast while still in charge of Kildare?
‘He did. But at least he was coming back to his own county. I can clearly say that I was absolutely shocked. I went back to Mayo a second time when I felt that they wanted me badly. I just feel that this is bringing it to a different level in GAA terms.’
Hence the reactions of Mulligan and Cavanagh.
‘Absolutely I can see why they would react like that. I’m aware of the massive rivalry that’s between Tyrone and Derry. Enda Muldoon was on an All-Star trip with me – he’s literally on the border I think between Tyrone and Derry and if you mentioned Tyrone to him he’d nearly start frothing at the mouth!’
This is one rivalry that is real and visceral and deeply-rooted in parish pump politics, which O’Mahony knows all about from his time as a TD and in Leinster House and the Seanad. Ulster likes to think of itself as the ultimate provincial championship and in many ways it is – the ultimate in deep parochial passions. Did he get a sense of that coming up against Tyrone?
‘In the years that I managed against [Harte] in the early noughties and so on, if someone had said he would be managing Tyrone in 20 years’ time or whatever it is now, people would have said “not a chance”.
‘There’s a few things different about it. He’s going into his 22nd year in continuous management. After he wasn’t renewed in Tyrone he was in Louth within the week. Now he’s gone from Louth – and ratified the day after.’
O’Mahony himself is still deeply invested in the game, managing SalthillKnocknacarra who only lost last year’s Galway county final to a late Moycullen goal, the victors going on to be within a kick of reaching the All-Ireland club final. He does point out that he has ‘all Salthill people involved with me’, referencing the likes of county players Seán Armstrong and Finian Hanley being hands-on from a coaching point of view and there being an organic succession plan when he moves on.
HARTE comes with Gavin Devlin on his coaching ticket, another of his former players having established a blossoming reputation. What made them such a viable pairing is the manner in which they defied expectation, taking Louth from Division 4 to third position in Division 2, a first Leinster final in 13 years and the last 16 of the Sam Maguire Cup, giving Mayo that fright along the way.
With Jim McGuinness back in charge of Donegal, there is a sense of anticipation already about next month’s Championship draw, particularly in Ulster. At a time when we’re told the provinces don’t hold half as much value.
‘Oh, it’s box office,’ says O’Mahony. ‘I’d say there could be a few Ulster Championship matches played at Croke Park if it was available.’
The idea of allegiances or emotional attachments are dissipating though, they are being worked out of the inter-county game just by the very nature of it being so ultra-professional, so cold in the sense that it’s almost a full-time job in itself. One that requires massive commitment and a backroom team of perhaps up to 20 people – to the extent that there are only a select number of people equipped to properly manage all the required talent and expertise.
‘This is taking it to a new level,’ insists O’Mahony.
‘There are core values. It’s still an amateur game, one with an amateur ethos. He basically told Peter Fitzpatrick straight up that he was going to Derry to win an All-Ireland, that he wanted to win another AllIreland before he retired. That’s fairly blunt.’
Is that not the honest truth of it? Derry is the plum job in the country right now, perhaps only apart from
Dublin and Kerry? ‘True, but he doesn’t need to win an All-Ireland with Derry to prove he is a great manager. His legacy is secure. And he has put it at risk, actually, a little bit. Because he has brought pressure on himself. Derry have had a lot of upset in the last year – Ciarán Meenagh obviously did a mighty job to unite the troops after the controversy with Rory Gallagher.
‘Mickey Harte’s philosophy is different, I would suggest, than Ciarán Meenagh’s was, so it’s not perhaps as smooth a transition as it looks. Mickey thinks in black-and-white terms. He doesn’t think in grey. It will either work a treat or…
‘The big advantage that he has is that he has been an All-Ireland winning manager three times and has been through it all.
‘That is a huge bonus for them and for him. And he’s taking on a quality team.
‘The bottom judgement here is that if he does it, it will be regarded as the best move ever, unparalleled in GAA terms.
‘If it goes belly up it will be seen as sabotage. That’s the way it works,’ surmises O’Mahony.