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Enda McGinley: New year, new manager, same old mountain of challenges

Rory Gallagher is one of a quartet of new inter-county managers in Ulster facing up to a host of challenges as the new season gets under way
Rory Gallagher is one of a quartet of new inter-county managers in Ulster facing up to a host of challenges as the new season gets under way Rory Gallagher is one of a quartet of new inter-county managers in Ulster facing up to a host of challenges as the new season gets under way

FOR those of us who take an interest in all things GAA, January brings an end to the relative fast of December.

The dearth of activity leaves us stuck for conversation, a plight not helped at having to fumble around shops looking for presents to pacify our nearest and dearest.

Suddenly even blanket defences look entertaining.

Thankfully the new year, along with those dreaded resolutions, brings with it the return of the Dr McKenna Cup and the promise of a new season.

Teams will approach it from different angles but, given the level the National League is now played at, all will need to be on an upward trajectory by the end of the month.

The pressure is most acute in the teams with new managers.

It doesn’t take much awareness at all to at least begin to appreciate the enormity of the challenge facing a new management team at county level.

Back in October/November time when they were newly appointed, the initial challenge was to get a handle on their playing pool. In counties with 30 to 50 clubs and up to 3,000 adult players, picking 30 senior players is an onerous task to be thrown into right from the start.

A wee bit like new year’s resolutions, managers are hoping to turn over a new leaf and create a better team but in the world of GAA, there is no bringing in of top talent. They are essentially working with the same resources as the previous year.

Facing facts and contrary to many a good pub stool ‘fact’, it’s unlikely that any county manager will have purposefully overlooked talented players. Therefore, quite often most of a county’s squad will remain in place.

There will be a natural turnover from retirements and young players coming of age, but rarely will this be enough to change significantly the overall quality of the team.

Despite this, as a new manager you are expected to produce results. To help you there will be opinions from all directions about certain players or style of play.

While many of these opinions will be made with the very best of intentions, many will inevitably suffer from some bias either due to family, friend or club.

Key for any new man will be to get a few trusted advisers alongside him who must have great local and game knowledge if their opinion is to be sufficient benefit.

The balance required here is between people who have a similar approach so that the relationships are workable but aren’t ‘yes men’ who just go along with everything the manager thinks.

Regarding the panel, there will of course already be established players plus the lads that were on the fringes. How much heed should a new manager pay to that or do they come in with a clean slate? Do they cut the established players some slack and exclude them from pre-season trials or do they demand the same from everyone and risk alienating the senior members of the squad who may be in need of a break in November and December?

Then comes perhaps the biggest decision of all – approach. 

Style of play is such a big issue in the modern game that this will be where managers make or break their name.

Barring an All-Ireland winning-manager stepping down, most managers will be replacing a manager on the often-unsaid understanding that what was achieved the year before wasn’t what was hoped for.

Consequently, there is a clear need for a new manager to attempt to bring a new approach, including on the field. 

This is important for their own authority but also to give the players a new focus and belief that the new year can bring new levels of performance.

To do this they need to know the players at their disposal: what they can or cannot do, the tactical level they can take on board or, even if all this is in place, can they do it on the biggest days or in the crucial moments?

So much of this cannot be known so soon and yet the new manager still must start instigating his gameplan.

On top of all of this, there is the small matters of strength and conditioning plans, skill/fitness sessions structure, dieticians, collective, group or individual training plans, GPS systems, video analysis, medical/injury management, psychologists, training camps and the small matter of the county board and funding. It is quite simply a crazy amount to take on.

Now consider that nearly all these managers are still working their day jobs.

During the Dr McKenna Cup, by far the most interesting things for me will be in the new men in charge and Ulster has had a busy off-season.

Declan Bonner in Donegal, Rory Gallagher in Fermanagh,

Damian McErlain in Derry and Lenny Harbinson in Antrim all have taken on these seemingly impossible tasks.

All are taking over from respected managers who were judged to have failed to hit the heights hoped for last season and somehow, they must all try to rework the same talent pool into something new and superior. Suddenly my new year’s resolutions don’t look so difficult after all.