Mickey Moran & John Morrison New Leitrim Management

[The Real Laoislad]

his record speaks for itself

Never a truer word said.

I'd say there has been

[magpie seanie]

You would.

[m@yoman]

long time reader but first time poster...

I too would like to wish them the best of luck in Leitrim.....I, like a lot more on this board, were not happy with the way they were kicked out in of the Mayo job in 2006.......it was a great year to be a Mayo supporter albeit for that terrible Sunday in September....


Will be interesting if we meet them next year......there'll be a good possibility now!!

[imtommygunn]

Moran is a man who I'd have a lot of respect for and has been treated harshly in a few places.

He's done a lot for football and I truly think he will improve Leitrim.

He once coached our club team - it was the most interesting session I've ever been at between university and schools. Definitely a good coach.

Would agree with Screenexiles sentiments.

[JMohan]

Someone remind me of the ending at Mayo as I thought it was all agreed and everyone was happy ... no?

[Lar Naparka]

Someone remind me of the ending at Mayo as I thought it was all agreed and everyone was happy ... no?

Well; no one can tell you what exactly happened because anybody who really knows isn't saying a lot!
But from my own recollections of reports at the time I can give you a rough idea of events.
After the final, Mayo held a function at the Citywest Hotel. It seemed that there was no rancour whatever between M&M and the county board. Both M&M spoke of their plans for the following year and the county board indicated that they were still happy to have the pair of them onboard. By and large all seemed sweetness and light; certainly there was no overt move against them from any quarter.
However, Morrison made a speech and it did ruffle a few feathers. It was of the 'Tiocfaidh ár Lá' variety and it didn't go down well with some of those present.
Very shortly afterwards, Mayo held a delegates meeting in Castlebar to discuss events and the mood of the delegates was in sharp contrast to the welcome the pair got in the Citywest.
A considerable number of delegates voiced objections to M&M carrying on and some made references to Morrison's political tone in his speech. It was clear that there was going to be considerable opposition to a re-appointment.

It has to be said that not all speakers at this meeting were anti-M&M but a large proportion certainly was. There was widespread speculation that the board executive had stage managed this meeting in order to drum up opposition but it may have been a surprise to them also that there was so much evident resistance to a re-appointment.
At any rate, it was to become obvious over the following weeks that the welcome for Mickey and his sidekick to stay on was cooling rapidly.  Moran insisted that he wanted a meeting with the board to discuss the future but Feeney showed no haste in setting up a meeting. It was obvious to most that the show was over. Beefer unexpectedly announced that he was pulling out, citing the time spent travelling as the reason but Mickey insisted on having his meeting with the board.
This finally came to pass and both sides announced afterward that the show was over; both parties also agreed to keep the agenda of that meeting private.

It has been said that the board decided not to re-appoint Moran because Morrison had left and they had come in as a combined package but I don't think that could be the case. Sean Feeney was obviously putting off any meeting long before Morrison announced his departure. In any case, it was never spelt out at any time that Morrison was part of a management team.
The pair may have indeed fallen out but if they did it would have been over the "Brazilian" issue. Beefer announced before the Kerry game that he wanted the team to go out and play like the Brazilians; go all out to shoot out the lights and not worry about conceding a few at the back. Understandably, Mickey and the senior players had reservations about taking the likes of Kerry on in a shooting match.
The 'nuts' referred to a daft idea both of them had about passes being sprayed out to the wings for the corner forwards to collect and to lob across and the Ff was then to come in like a nutcracker.
It was obvious during the games to the final that Ciaran Mac was following management orders by slowing down the game to give the corner forwards time to get free of their markers but the rest of the team was ignoring M&M and playing it in direct instead.
Maybe the danger of the three buckos inside colliding and braining each other was the reason!

[BigJohnBrowne]

No training sessions in the vicinity of Derrada woods so

There will have to be open minds in Leitrim for JM but I think it will work as a lot of club coaches have already experienced his methods in recent years at coaching sessions and he is well regarded.

Cannot wait for the 09 season to start and it's still August 08 !.

[LeppinMick]

Leitrim had a very impressive list of interested parties, names rumored to have spoken to the Co Board expressing an interest included Tommy Carr, Luke Dempsey and Peter Canavan. Interesting times ahead with so man vancancies up for filling in the coming months!

[Rossfan]

Leitrim had a very impressive list of interested parties, names rumored to have spoken to the Co Board expressing an interest included Tommy Carr, Luke Dempsey and Peter Canavan.

And there was me thinkin that Co Boards approached individuals to see if they would be interested.

Anyway they had more sense than to take on Carr or Dempsey.