Kevin Cassidy is in bother with the boss.

[ONeill]

We need to talk about Kevin

McGuinness knew Donegal needed ruling with an iron rod, but he may well regret banishing the All Star for his involvement in a book
Michael Foley Published: 13 November 2011

As people gathered in Gweedore last Saturday night, Kevin Cassidy knew what he wanted to say to them. He wanted them to know he was happy with This Is Our Year, the book they had come to launch. When Declan Bogue asked him to be among his eight players and one management team representing all nine Ulster counties through the championship, he liked the idea. It was different. It challenged its subjects and its author, and promised to push the boundaries for sports books into new places.

All those sentiments rang true with Cassidy. He had returned to play with Donegal knowing that everything about his own year would also be different. He was going to be honest with Jim McGuinness and honest with himself. If he did the book, the same would apply.

So he was straight and unflinching and didn't hide anything. He apologised to anyone who was hurt, but also wanted people to know he had no regrets. This was Cassidy: footballer and teacher, husband and father, former hellraiser and Gaeilgeoir, in the raw for people to see and understand.

His story, and the others, makes for absorbing reading. In time, the book should be celebrated as a fascinating snapshot of the modern footballer and a tribute to the enduring appeal of the Ulster championship. In Donegal, it should already be seen as a tribute to a wonderful year. Instead, it has triggered a small war.

Looking around the room in Gweedore there was no Donegal players and no trophies. Cassidy knew why. McGuinness wasn't happy. No player was allowed to attend the launch. A few players texted Cassidy full of bravado. They were coming regardless. They didn't show. Another rang to apologise for not coming. He simply couldn't be seen there.

By Tuesday, Cassidy was gone from the panel. By Thursday his place on the team holiday to Florida was also revoked. Before he even met McGuinness last week, he knew what was coming. To McGuinness, Cassidy's participation in the book was betrayal of a pact signed by all the players signalling their commitment to the team that included keeping details of their preparations to themselves.

To Cassidy, the pact was something he signed quickly without reading the fine print while rushing away from a meeting. McGuinness's biggest issue wasn't the content, but that Cassidy hadn't told him about the book. Cassidy reckoned sharing the news might distract the group if the book became common knowledge.

Dropping Cassidy seems at first glance an irrational, emotional response from McGuinness to a mildly irritating situation. So what if he talked about what went on in 2011? Over the years the stories about Tyrone's preparations during their All-Ireland winning years have also provided some of the most fascinating insights into modern GAA life of the past decade. When asked if he might prefer his players to keep those things secret, Mickey Harte's reply is always the same. What worked last year won't work next year. The rest of the world is welcome to it.

Only in the world McGuinness created for Donegal this year did his reaction make a weird kind of sense. When he took on a panel with such an erratic history, McGuinness knew Donegal needed ruling with an iron rod. Their playing style took no prisoners. Neither did their training or attention to detail. Back in May, Adrian Hanlon was dropped from the panel for drinking. In McGuinness's mind Cassidy's breach was the equivalent, and left him with no choice.

Could it have been avoided? Maybe if Cassidy had read the pact, maybe if McGuinness had read the book first and taken a breath. The question for McGuinness is whether adhering to the rules of 2011 is worth losing Cassidy for 2012. He might have inadvertently breached Donegal's code of trust, but Cassidy hadn't hurt anyone or revealed anything the public didn't know.

We knew about the pools of vomit on the side of the pitch at training the week after the Ulster final, the massive backroom team, the torturous training drills and the heart monitors. We hadn't heard about McGuinness confiscating every mobile phone in the room before revealing to the players Donegal's intention to play 14 men behind the ball against Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final, but playing that way didn't surprise Dublin or anyone else. We hadn't heard much of Brian Wolverine Dawkins either, the tough-talking, hard-hitting NFL player who became a motif for Donegal's season, but spotting Cassidy frequently trash-talking players during games this year said plenty about Donegal's approach.

We also knew about Cassidy's deep admiration for McGuinness, which is vividly clear throughout. It's hard not to wonder how his players see McGuinness now. His decision to stop players from attending the launch to support their friend was a severe intrusion when playing for Donegal already colonises so much of their lives, and might make some of them think what Donegal can demand from them before it becomes too much.

In the same way their style of play needs tweaking, losing Cassidy suggests Donegal also need to strike a better balance elsewhere. Like Tyrone under Harte eight years ago, McGuinness is nurturing a successful young team in a county with a losing tradition. He also has the smarts and ambition to take much from what Harte did.

His approach gradually evolved from basic tactics and man-management into a value system that gives players the space to be themselves in a way that benefits the team. Like McGuinness, Harte had no idea Ryan McMenamin featured in Bogue's book as the Tyrone story, or that the book even existed before its launch last weekend. It didn't raise a hoot in Tyrone.

There are no bans or restrictions. Players are nurtured to think independently. In time, that unfolded into an intimate understanding of Tyrone's system, allowing Tyrone to change tack quickly during games if required. Once they bought into the ferocious work ethic that underpinned everything, and understood that ethos, the players had the space to make their mistakes and rectify them.

Over the years, teams like Tyrone, Kerry, Armagh and the Cork hurlers allowed a mystique build around their preparations. This book presented that opportunity to Donegal, too. One member of a management team working with a top-six county expressed amazement during the week at the apparent gap between Donegal and his own county. If Donegal raise the bar again in 2012, heaven knows what his crowd need to do to keep pace.

Instead, it's turned into a messy fight. At 30, Cassidy's time might have been up anyway, but Donegal will regret losing him. He was a constant voice at their meetings. He finished the championship with eight points from wing-back and an All-Star. If there is no détente over the winter, Donegal have a huge gap to fill. They knew the lessons of 2011 would shape a lot of their future in 2012. But never like this.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ireland/Sport/GAA/article820318.ece

[BennyHarp]

I'm a very cynical person and think this whole incident is just a little bit too untidy to be true. Every move that McGuinness and his team has made throughout the year was carefully planned and I wouldn't be surprised if this was too. Cassidy was probably retiring anyway so McGuinness has made the most out if this incident to further generate an aura around him and his team.

[yellowcard]

I'm a very cynical person and think this whole incident is just a little bit too untidy to be true. Every move that McGuinness and his team has made throughout the year was carefully planned and I wouldn't be surprised if this was too. Cassidy was probably retiring anyway so McGuinness has made the most out if this incident to further generate an aura around him and his team.

So what your saying is that McGuinness told Cassidy to reveal things in the book that were said and done during the year so that he could manufacture a situation whereby he could be seen to be exerting his authority? As opposed to Cassidy simply retiring!!! I severly doubt it.

[screenexile]

Paddy Bradley has just said that Declan Bogue has fabricated a conversation between himself and John Brennan during the year where he asked him to be a team player and to stop criticising his team mates. Apparently Paddy was asked neither of those things!

[yellowcard]

Good article by Colm O'Rourke in todays Indo


By Colm O'Rourke


Sunday November 13 2011

When Abraham Lincoln made his famous speech about the abolition of slavery in 1858, he wanted unity in pursuit of this end. "A house divided against itself cannot stand," he said, and it seemed a bit like that in Donegal last week. Kevin Cassidy may have been slightly naive in some of his comments about Donegal's tactics this year, but since when is freedom of speech banned? Banishing him to Outer Mongolia seems a bit harsh.

Donegal manager Jimmy McGuinness was less than impressed with the breaking of the code of omerta and has axed one of his main men. To most people this would appear to be an over-reaction, but if a manager wants to drop a player he needs for next year there is no better time to do it than when there are no games on. It is a long time till next May.

It's not the first time that Cassidy has walked the plank for alleged indiscipline, but a team has to accommodate many characters and sometimes widely different opinions on all sorts of matters. The best managers are comfortable with this so long as everyone pulls the same way when it counts.

That requires an iron will to succeed on the day of a game, but trying to control everything else is like doing you know what against the wind. Anything other than allowing, and even encouraging, players to be themselves off the pitch and to develop as responsible adults is taking things a bit far. Do we want to end up with teams of zombies? Maybe someone will develop a microchip the manager can put in his players' ears so that they all spout the same clichés and nobody is capable of original thoughts. If this is the road we want to go down then all forms of individualism will be wiped out. So much for educated players.

While other sports are opening up their dressing rooms and players to more interviews -- some probably going a bit far -- the GAA in Donegal are retreating back to the cold war days if they allow a player to be axed for comments which are, by and large, harmless.

Naturally, McGuinness does not want a light shone on his modus operandi. Neither would I if it was being publicised that players had to hand in their phones a few hours before the semi-final against Dublin in case someone released the state secret that Donegal were going to be very defensive.

Before that semi-final I wrote that the game would be as far removed from a traditional game of Gaelic football as had ever been played, with both sides opting for a very defensive strategy.

Well, instead of having 13 defenders they had 14. Big deal. Was it worth giving out a dummy team to all the spectators and TV viewers? I don't think that Pat Gilroy was quaking in his runners in the Dublin dressing room waiting for the Donegal team. The pattern of play was not going to change and the few personnel changes involved were largely irrelevant. God be with the days teams were picked and went out and won on Sunday without all this bull. There is nothing wrong with a policy of phones being turned off several hours before a game, but I certainly would not survive in the Donegal team. I would have no trouble having the phone turned off all day, but having to hand it up is silly stuff.

As for all the mouthing off at opponents, well it was clear to anyone watching that Dublin game and it was commented on on TV. Helping to get Diarmuid Connolly sent off was just an extension of that. They are not the first team to have players doing it and Dublin a few years ago were at it too. Now they have moved on and have realised how stupid it is.

When I was playing there were plenty of players who were very good at winding up opponents and there were few who didn't make the occasional uncomplimentary remark, but this type of concerted and organised baiting of opposition players is something I find particularly distasteful.

As for signing a confidentiality clause, well that is off the radar altogether. Never in a million years would I ever sign up for anything like that.

A team is based on trust and no signature on some silly rules and regulations changes that. If the trust breaks down, the contract is not worth the paper it is written on.

That goes for every walk of life. One of the great gifts of Seán Boylan was that he was able to operate in a rules-free zone. There were no drinking bans, you could talk to whoever you liked, the team was picked and sent out to play. These

and other things are now looked on as outdated, even though Dublin, and indeed Kerry, still hold true to many of those virtues. Treat a player like a mature, responsible person with interesting opinions and they will respond. Treat them like mushrooms, with no light, and they will only tolerate that for so long. Rigid systems don't work long term.

It is hardly surprising that Donegal players were happy enough to buy into this system last year. Being successful is worth that for most. After an initial high, players then change for the challenges ahead and great players don't have to be brainwashed.

Perhaps Kevin Cassidy is a loose cannon. Banning the players from appearing at the book launch -- if that is true -- only fuelled the oxygen of publicity. Would a quiet word not have been a better way to handle things? And it certainly looks from the outside that a sledgehammer has been used to crush a small nut. We live in very strange times.

- Colm O'Rourke

[Mountain Gael]

Put this whole story to bed as that clown McGuinness does not deserve the limelight, More than likely he was going to write a book and now Cassidy has spoiled it on him.
As i said before, McGuinness can talk the talk but could never walk the walk,
Was as cold as a real frosty morning while he was playing himself

[TheThirdManning]

Has Cassidy really been dropped from the Team Holiday? That is a disgrace. All he gave in 2011 and he won't get the holiday because of taking in a book. Joke.

[Mont]

Has Cassidy really been dropped from the Team Holiday? That is a disgrace. All he gave in 2011 and he won't get the holiday because of taking in a book. Joke.

flight and accom cancelled for him and the mrs - no team holiday

felt sympathy for both parties when this story broke but the more I read/hear about it the more i think mcguinness needs to wind his neck in a bit and catch a grip.
this holiday business is a disgrace. cassidy busted himself all year - one of the best they had and he gets treated like this - f**k him off the panel as it is your right but stopping him going on holiday

[muppet]

The holiday being cancelled betrays the real problem here. And it isn't Cassidy.

The idea of forcing amateurs to sign a confidentiality clause is very twisted. Does anyone have any idea whether the individual forcing the amateurs to be silent is being paid himself?

[Declan]

Cancelling his holiday is just taking the piss and is an exercise in humiliating Cassidy - Says a lot about McGuniness's character and not in a good way   

[orangeman]

Has Cassidy really been dropped from the Team Holiday? That is a disgrace. All he gave in 2011 and he won't get the holiday because of taking in a book. Joke.

Not a funny one at all.


Cassidy starting to look very much the victim here and Mc Guiness is starting to come acorss as a bit of a Pol Pot dictatorial figure.

[rrhf]

None of my business here but If a man who gave as much service to his county over the years as Cassidy did was thrown out of a holiday he was entitled to and outsiders say for example team trainers etc were being funded by Donegal supporters on the same trip Id be livid. 

[seafoid]

None of my business here but If a man who gave as much service to his county over the years as Cassidy did was thrown out of a holiday he was entitled to and outsiders say for example team trainers etc were being funded by Donegal supporters on the same trip Id be livid.

Yeah but would you want to go on holiday with the Borg?

[shawshank]

None of my business here but If a man who gave as much service to his county over the years as Cassidy did was thrown out of a holiday he was entitled to and outsiders say for example team trainers etc were being funded by Donegal supporters on the same trip Id be livid.

Yeah but would you want to go on holiday with the Borg?

lol  if this is true about the holiday business, it has gone to far

[ONeill]

Removal of the holiday is incredible but the most disturbing feature is that not a single man on the squad feels able to stand up for a team mate who was prepared to do anything for them.

That crossed my mind yesterday. If Cassidy asked a few (I don't know if he did) to attend the book launch and they didn't because McGuinness said so, then what does it say about Jimmy's influence v Cassidy's friendship with them.