Taking up the reins from a legend

Mickey Ned O’Sullivan Kerry, 1990-93

How do you follow in the footsteps of the most successful manager in the history of the game? It was an impossible act, with Mick O’Dwyer (below) having won eight All-Irelands and 11 Munster Championships in a 12-year period.

But Micko also paid the price for not evolving a team that grew old together and when O’Sullivan, his former captain and selector, succeeded him, he had to start all over again.

It would show too, winning just 14 of his 31 games in three seasons, with the high point beating Cork in 1991 on the way to winning Kerry’s first provincial final in five years.

Munster final humiliations at the hands of Cork and Clare meant more bad days than good, but what he achieved at Under 21 level, winning three Munster titles in a row and the All-Ireland in 1990, would provide a foundation for the future.

Paddy O’Rourke Down, 2003-06

An All-Ireland-winning captain in 1991, O’Rourke was a natural fit to succeed Peter McGrath, Down’s two-time Sam Maguire-winning manager.

In truth, eight barren years that followed the second of those All-Ireland wins in 1994 meant that O’Rourke was hardly haunted by McGrath’s ghost and in his first season, the team almost seemed liberated as they took

Tyrone, under a rookie manager in Mickey

Harte, to a replay in the Ulster final.

By the summer’s end, with Tyrone having won the All-Ireland that result looked even better, but O’Rourke’s tenure would flatter to deceive, winning just three Championship games over the next three years and winning just 19 of his 41 games in charge.

It ended for O’Rourke when his team scored just 0-4 in a secondround qualifier to Sligo, but his departure didn’t herald a brighter future.

Eamonn Barry Meath, 2006

That the reign of Meath’s longestserving manager was followed by one of its shortest says it all.

Seán Boylan, the winner of four All-Irelands, eight Leinsters and three National Leagues, was always going to cast a shadow over whoever followed, although six years had passed since his last All-Ireland success when he stepped down after 23 years in charge.

A six-point defeat to Wexford in Leinster and a third-round qualifier exit to Laois would bring the curtains down on Barry’s 12 games in charge, six of which he won.

When the end came prematurely, he was hardly shocked: ‘I’m not a bit surprised. I’ve been well aware of the situation for the past couple of months.’