Why GAA must be wary of Lam and Connacht

EVERYONE out west was swept up in Connacht’s celebrations over the past week. I couldn’t help but think of Pat Lam and his impressive side when I heard the news that Shane Curran was appointed to the Laois backroom team as a coach, only days before they were due to play Dublin.

The increased size of backroom teams around the country is further evidence that counties are striving to become more professional, despite the amateur ideals of the association. And it can be argued that Lam and Connacht have achieved everything they did by borrowing much of the ethos of the GAA for their own side.

Lam has masterminded a sense of place with supporters – from flying out of Knock to the words that he spoke ‘as Gaeilge – that is generally only seen in the GAA. When they came back into Knock, there was thousands of rugby fans there to greet them, many of them from Mayo. Bonfires blazed the roads all the way to Galway.

The way Lam has engendered that sense of place is something that was once the sole preserve of the GAA. That they are seeking permission to play some games in MacHale Park is interesting – not just because Gaelic football now has its first genuine competitor for young hearts and minds in Mayo – but it shows they are making huge efforts to link in with the whole province and not just Galway. They have held open training sessions in Carrick-on-Shannon and Westport. Again, open training sessions is something more readily associated with GAA, especially in this part of the world.

While Connacht rugby has utilised a lot of what makes the GAA, Gaelic Games continues its drive towards professionalism. Donegal are searching for a commercial manager, following the success of Mossy Quinn in Dublin. My own feeling is that a commercial manager is a good idea and should be installed in more counties, but we are surely reaching the breaking point when it comes to size of backroom teams.

In some counties, backroom teams now comprise 20 or 25 people. Managers have to manage an entire panel of people aside form the 25 or 30 players. I have even heard of one team that has hired a peripheral vision coach – whatever that is.

Some teams have a performance coach, and also a performance analyst. What is the difference between those two? Psychologists, liaison managers, logistics managers, media handlers. Fifteen years ago, your entire medical team consisted of a doctor and a physio or two.

Now you have physical therapists and maybe three or four physios, each specialising in a different area. I keep going back to what John Prenty of the Connacht Council said at the launch of their Championship. That the money spent on preparing all their county teams in the province in 2015 was five times the money taken in at the gate of the Connacht SFC.

I do believe that it is close to breaking point. It seems that there is an attempt by teams to better their neighbour by having a bigger team of experts. So they employ an expert on everything. There is a full-time person on-site now for almost every eventuality. When I was in charge of Leitrim, I brought Colm O’Rourke down to speak to the team, because he had a connection to the county and had enjoyed success as a Meath player. Similarly, during my time with Galway, I used Keith Wood in such a role.

But now, guest speakers will have little to say to players as every area of expertise seems to be covered in a backroom team.

From a management point of view, the message can get diluted. All these highly-qualified people are coming forward with information that the manager has to be consumed. It’s a lot of egos for a manager to handle along with his squad of players.

It is only human nature that when there are so many different people shouting to be heard that tensions occur. And that can send all the wrong sort of signals to players. And if they are getting mixed messages, it means the team will only go on a downward slide.

I remember spending five hours picking a team with my backroom to play an All-Ireland final. And there were plenty of disagreements, plenty of debate. But once we left the room, everyone was on-message. We had a united front.

But when you have 25 people in a backroom team, it is harder to quell the dissent or ease the tension. And if someone is especially disgruntled that his voice is not being heard, then it will be easier for something to leak out of camp.

In a week when we have delighted in what Pat Lam and Connacht have achieved by using a very GAA model, it is worth considering if Gaelic Games is losing something in the drive to become more and more professional.