Football

Paidi O Se: his spirit will never be lost

In the last few years, around Christmas, there has been little if any interesting GAA-related documentaries, charting the highs and lows of a team season.

The last really good programme was one in which Paidi O’Se was tracked in his move to assuming the reins of Westmeath’s senior team manager.

I am sure the documentary makers had no idea when the season started that it would end up being an incredible journey for the players and supporters of Westmeath.

Winning a Leinster title for them, at that time, may as well been an All-Ireland.

When you consider the drumming Westmeath took at the hands of Dublin this year, 10 short years later, the landscape has changed beyond recognition.

It would not take much of a programme now, if the camera were introduced to the current Westmeath squad, to tell you that the chances of a Leinster title residing outside Dublin is highly unlikely.

I only met Paidi a few times, not long enough to know the man at all.

His passion, his drive for perfection, his ruthlessness would be clear in the documentary.

However it was his refreshing honesty with which he carried.

Credit to the documentary makers too for capturing this.

Paidi was obviously comfortable in himself to allow the media access to his life and that of the team.

And that is what it can boil down to sometimes.

Being comfortable with media, players and the public or supporters.

The days of getting unrestricted access to a county GAA panel is becoming more and more a thing of the past, in terms of media access anyway.

In many sports, the current manager is a man who suspects the worst and it is up to players, supporters and media in some cases to prove their intentions are good.

It does get a bit tiring to hear the same regurgitated interviews from managers and players, how they have been written off, criticised and verbally insulted over a season or campaign.

Taking the stance of a man wronged, these tactics appear part and parcel of the modern reverse psychology being employed.

Jose Mourinho, a breath of fresh air on his arrival to England, has now become a rather sorry individual who will blame everyone bar himself.

We could all name a number of managers and players who are doing the same with the press.

I pity the sports journalist on having to write a piece based on player or manager interviews.

The much derided Brendan Rodgers was becoming quite the laughing stock and if he used the word ‘character’ or ‘intensity’ once, he used it a thousand times.

While Liverpool have been rejuvenated under Jurgen Klopp, Newcastle deservedly beat them last weekend, much to my disappointment.

It was refreshing to see Klopp come out and say, basically that Liverpool, deserved nothing as they were s**t.

We have become so numb to manager sound-bites, going on the defensive from day one, when anything that slightly resembles honesty is treated as subnormal.

I recall, Roy Keane once saying that he treated football a lot like acting.

He would do tunnel bust-ups, mistimed tackles and general aggression.

Did people really think that he went home to his family and carried this aggression into the family home?

Of course not.

He was right in so many ways.

In almost every facet of life, you put on a front.

You could be the most self-assured, confident gaelic footballer in the country from the outside.

However, your family and friends will probably have a different opinion and the vulnerability and anxiousness which accompanies any inter-county footballer is well and truly suppressed from others.

Keeping up appearances is the sole reason for a number of famous sportspeople burning themselves out.

It is the same with the manager.

The confident and composed individual who we think acts as if they know what they are doing, in reality, could be ‘winging it’ in real terms.

The Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson and Jurgen Klopps of this world have charisma but are also honest.

They call a spade a spade.

This goes a long way in management, indeed in the management of people in general.

In the movie ‘Moneyball’, Billy Bean (played by Brad Pitt) told his assistant general manager to drop a player.

''Don’t sugar-coat it,'' he said.

''Which would you rather have, your throat cut or shot five times and bleed to death?''

Paidi O’Se seemed like a Billy Bean type of individual.

He never sugar coated anything.

In the unlikely development that a documentary will emerge of a team’s inter-county season, containing unlimited access to player and manager interviews, it would certainly be a much-viewed and welcome inclusion in the TV listings for the Christmas Holidays.

I am sure the viewing figures would look good in Irish terms at least.

If you secured a breakdown of the All-Ireland Club finals in Ulster and Leinster TV viewing figures, it would give you a national idea just how popular gaelic games are.

Considering that the two games were brilliant spectacles, it has definitely played its part in lifting spirits.

While Paidi may no longer be with us, his spirit will never be lost and at least once every Christmas, the documentary of some 10 years ago will make for good viewing.

If you haven’t seen it before, I suggest you do.

If it’s on again, it definitely worth watching.

We need a few more Paidis.