Can’t wait to get new term going
I MET with the county board to discuss and review our season last Thursday. For people not familiar with this process I will give you an insight of what happens.
Our county chairman, Joe Taaffe gave me a call on the Monday to see when I would be available and we agreed to meet in Scarden three days later.
Obviously we were also going to discuss my future as manager for 2017 but before that, I had to get a general feeling and consensus from my present players if they felt I was the right man to lead them.
You are never going to please all your panel of players but if there is any inkling of unrest in the camp about management from a majority of players you have to step aside. Thankfully everyone felt we had unfinished business as a group and it was important we stuck together and put things right next year.
So my mind was made up that I wanted to continue on as manager for at least one more season.
The next major stakeholder is the county board and I arrived in Scarden to meet Joe Taaffe, Peter Greene, Padraig Clancy, Richie Brennan and Gerry O’Connor, who were also given a mandate by the other major stakeholder - the Sligo clubs - to decide my future as senior football manager.
It’s a little under three hours of a journey from my work place in Dublin to Scarden so I had plenty of time to ponder. My main policy in these situations is to be very honest and stick to the facts so that’s exactly what I did.
Joe thanked me for making the trip before inviting me to give a summation of the year from my perspective.
So as planned, I stuck to the facts. To summarise, I was very disappointed that we didn’t reach any of our targets for the year, which had been to achieve promotion to Division Two of the League and reach the last eight of the All- Ireland Championship.
I did feel that we had made progress though, even if the results might not have backed this assertion up. We were one win away from promotion, and in both games we lost in the championship against Roscommon and Clare, showed really positive signs of the improvement I was referring to. However, I was very disappointed that we didn’t kick on in the second half in both of these games.
I also made reference to the fact that everything I asked for in relation to team preparation was always available for our team and that we wanted for nothing
Of course myself, Peter and Joe had our disagreements but the big thing here is we all have one goal which is to improve Sligo football.
Peter has to keep our heads above water in the finance area and Joe has to keep things as smooth as possible with the clubs etc. Meanwhile, I have to do what I feel is best for my players. So obviously we would have clashed during the year but we met each other half- way.
That’s not saying that I wasn’t annoyed because I didn’t get my own way because I was at times and I’m sure that Joe and Peter felt the same on occasion! As I said though, we all want the same thing.
Overall the meeting went very well and after about an hour of discussion, they decided that I would be back for another year.
I’m away with the family this week on holidays but from next Monday, my work for 2017 begins as manager of Sligo senior footballers. Already I have met with some of my management team and I have also spoken to Paul Taylor, our U21 manager and I know he is eager to get started also.
As manager these few months are so important. You have to get all your ducks in a row so that when the FBD starts you have no distractions.
The first thing is to attend as many club games as possible I had Keith Carty and John Donnelly at games over the weekend. It’s impossible to make every game so we will spread it out as much as we can but I am looking forward to unearthing a few more players.
We will meet every player individually from the current panel, and anyone new we’re looking to bring in, to discuss what lies ahead. There will be discussions with Peter Greene to discuss fundraisers going forward. There will be ongoing conversations with Paul Taylor and my own management team to make sure everything is in place for when training commences in November.
I can’t wait to get going.