MICKEY CULBERT was the first man I heard coin the phrase: ‘Stop looking out the window - and start looking in the mirror.’
Mickey was full of wise words and thought-provoking phrases. His window/mirror metaphor made a lot of sense. The St Gall’s man took over the Antrim senior football team in 2005.
It wasn’t the easiest of roles. It would be safe to say Antrim officialdom still had some road to travel in terms of providing the requisite facilities and expertise for their county teams to flourish.
In those days, not a season went by when an Antrim inter-county player bemoaned the state of affairs in the county. Flick through the dusty, faded yellow archives of The Irish News and you’ll find copious amounts of back page evidence.
Mickey Culbert wanted to eliminate the blame culture in Antrim. He wanted his players to stop looking out the window for somebody to blame and start looking in the mirror. That had to be Antrim’s starting point. But of course, it wasn’t just as simple as that. It was always tempting to gaze out the window in Antrim.
At times, Mickey was just as disillusioned as some of his players, particularly the night when the team turned up at the gates of Woodlands playing fields - Antrim’s stop-gap training ground - to find them padlocked and the whereabouts of the caretaker unknown. This was Antrim.
On another occasion, an Antrim player let rip at the county board’s choice of post-match cuisine for the team - pizza and sausage rolls. A lot of the time, the criticism of officialdom was justified.
The creation of the Gaelic Players Association did help. In the early years, the GPA’s raison d’être was casting an unforgiving light on player welfare issues. They were like a county board watchdog.
Slowly, player welfare issues were addressed. Excuses - at least the more glaring ones - were removed. Sure, there was the odd fixture own goal and examples of where Antrim lag behind the rest of Ulster, particularly in the area of developing players at underage level.
At the tail end of last year, the grouping grandly termed Saffron Vision swept the boards at county convention, winning the vast majority of posts on the new county executive.
Antrim senior footballer Sean McVeigh paid tribute to the outgoing executive: “In terms of the senior team, I have to say our county board - and I’m only speaking of the outgoing one - have got a lot of stick recently,” he said.
“In terms of what they’ve provided the Antrim senior football team with, it was second to none. We get food after every gym session and pitch session. Anything we’ve wanted from the county board, we’ve got. I wouldn’t have many complaints.”
Saffron Vision have been in office roughly five months. They didn’t pretend to possess a magic wand, nor was there a Roman Abramovich-type figure among them. And they can’t transform the culture of modest fundraising in the county overnight. But there have been examples where they’ve stretched themselves to help their county teams.
At the beginning of the season, new senior hurling boss PJ O’Mullan wanted to take the squad to Cork for a couple of games to help them bond. The new manager’s request was met. And with the Antrim senior footballers winning promotion out of Division Four, there’s a feel-good factor among them and not a hint of dissent.
The new county board members may still be getting their feet under the table, but they’ve had to release two statements over the last week that they probably didn’t anticipate doing.
PJ O’Mullan stepped down as senior hurling manager for “personal circumstances”, although it was no secret results and performances contributed to the Loughgiel man’s departure.
When you lose three NHL games on the bounce to Westmeath, Carlow and London, your performance will always fall under the microscope. PJ knew this to be true and admitted after the Carlow loss - which ended all hope of promotion - that Antrim’s season was “a failure”.
It’s a crying shame it didn’t work out for O’Mullan, as he was the proudest man in the county whenever he was announced as Kevin Ryan’s successor last November. And given his track record with Loughgiel Shamrocks, PJ deserved a crack at the plum job.
But the waters are a lot deeper at county level and the problems you encounter seem more difficult to overcome than at club level. It won’t be much consolation to PJ right now, but he will emerge as a better manager for the experience.
The most lamentable chapter of the last seven days was Liam Watson’s scathing criticism of the county board. Here’s a player whom I’ve admired since coming into journalism. I recall his warrior spirit and ruthless precision against Na Piarsaigh four years ago and that perfect afternoon in Croke Park when he single-handedly beat Coolderry in the All-Ireland final.
As a hurler, Watson had skill to burn. You could forgive the odd rush of blood to the head because he was so good. The real pity was that he was never asked to play for Antrim during Kevin Ryan’s time in charge. They were Watson’s peak years. Ryan should at least have tested the water.
Watson, now 33, returned to the fold this year, but it was painfully obvious the umpteen knee problems and hard miles had taken their toll. In explaining the player’s absence from the recent game in London, PJ said that his club-mate couldn’t commit. A couple of days later, PJ departed the scene.
On one level, Watson’s interview earlier this week was simply one club-mate backing another. He insisted that Antrim’s woes weren’t the fault of the out-going manager. He was being loyal to PJ O’Mullan. But Watson should’ve stopped there.
To blame a “cut” in mileage expenses - a charge strongly refuted by the Antrim county board in their second statement of the week - and the lack of new training gear were the weakest of reasons for Antrim losing National League games to Westmeath, Carlow and London. A new hoodie doesn’t make you play better.
Antrim GAA is far from a utopia, but Watson’s criticisms didn’t really stack up. They were as unconvincing as they were outmoded. Mickey Culbert’s wise words of mirrors and windows were never more apt.
