James Horan Appointed Mayo Manager 2011

[The Konica]

Surely McHale and Wille Joe aren't of the standard needed in Mayo?

[muppet]

Surely McHale and Wille Joe aren't of the standard needed in Mayo?

Two men well used to the high jump.

[AbbeySider]

McHale out of the race.... did I heard somewhere that Colm McManamon was interested?

McHale staying with Clare
23 July 2010

Liam McHale is out of contention for the vacant Mayo football manager's post after agreeing to continue as a selector with Clare.

McHale, along with manager Michael McDermott and fellow selector James Horan, have been ratified for another season with the Banner County, ruling the former Mayo midfielder out of contention to replace John O'Mahony.

McHale was quick to declare his candidacy for the Mayo job following O'Mahony's resignation last month, but has since had a change of heart, opting instead to continue his long commutes to Clare.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, McDermott said: "The county board wanted it put to bed before the club championship got going, so it would give us the opportunity to look closely at championship matches to help us build a panel.

"Liam is very committed to the cause and enjoyed it last year. The reaction of the players was that they enjoyed the work he did, and the three of us on the management team got on very well together and now hope to build on last year."

[bucko]

"The county board wanted it put to bed before the club championship got going, so it would give us the opportunity to look closely at championship matches to help us build a panel.

Something the Mayo county board should be keeping well in mind!

[Farrandeelin]

Abbeysider, you've brightened up my day!  McManamon is doing mighty with Burrishoole.

[TheReelest]

I like the comment about the local radio's open forum and how not all the comments were for the good of Mayo football. They have a f**king cheek, people care about Mayo football, pay the "expenses" for these clowns and their opinion isn't  worth a shit. What they mean is the comments don't suit our board. Well f**k them and the horses they rode in on. It's time for each and every one of them to hit the road for the good of Mayo football. End of Rant.

well said

[commonsense]

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

[Farrandeelin]

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

[commonsense]

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

I meant LIAM McHale. The ex-mayo footballer.

[Lar Naparka]

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

I meant LIAM McHale. The ex-mayo footballer.

Oh! I see what you mean now.
I thought you could be referring to Archbishop McHale, "The Lion of the West."
He was a hardy oul' bucko sure enough but I don't know if he had anything to do with football management—probably the GAA was a bit before his time.
Still, if he was still about, he'd have knocked a bit of life into the shower that took the field against both Sligo and Longford. On the other hand, he might just have knocked the biteen they still left had outa them.
It would be a hard call alright but anything is better than nothing, if you follow me.
If it's really the Liam fella you meant, he doesn't count for much in Castlebar.
Ballina is the place where they kiss the hem of his garment. Or so I am told.
I dunno.
Since he pansies about in Bermuda shorts most of the time, they might as well kiss his ass as the hem of that particular garment as there's feck all distance between them.
They're a quare crowd; them tulips in Ballina.

[stephenite]

Indeed, but he's much more handsome than Denis Kearney, the thought of kissing him in Bermuda shorts is a bit too much

[highorlow]

Mick O'Dwyer

[Hardy]

Mick O'Dwyer

This could be a post on any number of threads:
Greatly exaggerated GAA Myths
You know what really grinds my gears?
Corny One for Friday
Kerry The Handpass Kings
Job Opportunity
Ulster Final Virgin
Donegal manager wanted
The why do Kerry players get away with Blue Murder thread

But definitely not:
Improving Gaelic Football

[muppet]

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

Welcome to the board John.

We in Mayo have kinda forgotten your days but watch your back with the Tyronies, they never forget.

[moysider]

Liam O Neill in this weeks Mayo News. Such a change from the watery shite we're usually subjected to. Any chance we could coax him back. Find out what he makes and offer him double.


"Passion and heart" needed


Liam O'Neill says the next Mayo manager's first step should be to interview players

Daniel Carey

ASKED what advice he would give to the next Mayo manager, Liam O'Neill says it's good to talk. Whoever succeeds John O'Mahony in the hot seat should, he says, "interview every single person who has aspirations of coming into a Mayo panel", outline the commitment required, and ask: "What have you done for yourself?"
The Galwayman met ex-Mayo players 15 or 20 years after he gave them the opportunity to wear the green and red in the 1980s. Some admitted they were happy enough to play for their clubs; it was never their ambition to bring back the Sam Maguire Cup. It would, he hints, have been rather useful to know that back in the 1980s.
"Not everybody is prepared to put in the hard work, and it isn't their top priority to win an All-Ireland ... when they know what's entailed," he notes. "You and I might think 'Jesus, I'd do anything to win an All-Ireland', but you want to find that out [off every player], and find out very, very fast. And one of the ways you find it out [is to ask] 'Well, what have you done in the past?' That's a fair indicator. And then you've got to monitor that, and see is he improving."

The coach's checklist
O'NEILL says a manager needs to demand goals of his players, build-up self-esteem, establish good habits, and be a good communicator and delegator. He prefers the word 'coach', and advocates a structure similar to that used by athletic directors in American universities, who oversee and co-ordinate the work of various specialists. After all, "he can't do everything himself".
Quoting former Dublin manager Kevin Heffernan, O'Neill adds that it's crucial to establish if players have the capacity to listen and learn, and be willing to change if necessary. That could, he believes, lead to major changes in personnel – "Because I believe some of these guys that I see on the Mayo team at the moment ... they may have the capacity to listen and learn, but they haven't the capacity to change in their attitude. And you can see it in their body language."

Memory lane
PART of O'Neill's answer to the low self-esteem he encountered as Mayo manager was to implement a weight training programme. He took a group of players to the National Institute of Higher Education (now the University of Limerick) for a fitness evaluation and got some bad news. It was, he was told, too late for a lot of the players. They should have been doing strength, flexibility and endurance tests while still in their teens, not when they were in their mid-20s. More shockingly, one individual "couldn't bench-press 35 pounds" when the average man in good physical condition could manage 195 pounds.
Yet he met with some resistance – "When you brought that back to certain individuals, they said: 'I have been successful up to now, why do I need to do weight training'?" he recalls. One player cited his All-Ireland minor title as proof that he didn't need to bulk up. Sometimes, he notes, wryly, major success at underage level "can be the ruination of a player" who "feels he has arrived" when "he's only starting" out. Furthermore, he notes a pattern where "we're looking for these young guys to be the saviours if Mayo", and are expected to carry the weight of the county on their shoulders, rather than find their feet at senior level.

Passion
O'NEILL adds that what he did 20 years ago coaching-wise "wouldn't survive today", but says the principles are still sound: "Gaelic football is not a complicated game. You need passion and heart. If you ain't got that, you ain't going any place ... when I see some Mayo footballers, and physically they haven't improved over five years ... I would seriously question their passion to play with Mayo."
That question of desire is one O'Neill returns to more than once in the course of our conversation.
Earlier this year, he met former All-Ireland winner Paddy Prendergast (now aged over 80) in San Diego. "By just talking to that man, you come away with the amount of passion that he still has to this day ... the love of Mayo ... and how much he'd give to see Mayo win an All-Ireland," he says.

BEFORE he looks forward, former Mayo senior football manager Liam O'Neill wants to look back. He recalls meeting double All-Ireland winner Fr Peter Quinn, who spent a lot of time in America and researched stateside training and coaching methods before presenting the information he had collated to Mayo GAA Board. What happened next?
"The Mayo County Board at that time took a look at it and it was never heard from since – which to me was a pure insult to the man," O'Neill told The Mayo News in a telephone interview from San Diego. "Here was a man who had won two All-Irelands, and he was giving Mayo an opportunity to see what the professional people were doing out here in America."
O'Neill has long been a student of sports coaching in America, where he has lived for the past 16 years, but also keeps a close eye on events at home. The Mayo GAA Board are undertaking a review of the state of football in the county. The man who managed the Mayo senior team between 1983 and 1987 wants to see a five- to seven-year plan, a Director of Football, and a particular emphasis on 15- to 18-year-olds. He's looking, in short, for "something different", rather than "the same thing over and over again".

"A pruning process"
IN O'Neill's vision, the Director of Football would put together a plan, monitor the plan, and monitor the individuals in his charge. It's not, incidentally, a post he's interested in taking himself, but he insists there are plenty of people in Mayo capable of doing the job.
"And it's a pruning process as well, to see: Is that [player] able to stand up to the rigour? What does it entail? Put down goals in front of them and hold them accountable. Because every guy thinks he wants to play county football for Mayo, but does he want to put in the time when nobody is looking? You've got to monitor that, and deal in facts and figures. How fast can you run the 40-yard dash? How bigger and stronger did you get this year? I think you need a Director of Football [to] hold those people accountable."
This would not be a shot-term project, the former All-Star emphasises. County Board officials who would back it may not still be part of the executive by the time the plan bears fruit, but the steps can be put in place now. "The old house is going to fall down if there's no foundation!" he says wryly.

Underage Apprenticeship
THE envisaged Director of Football would have "total control over football matters" in Mayo and would oversee a programme for promising underage footballers. Such a programme might, O'Neill says, turn up two or three people every year, and feedback and monitoring would establish that these players "have the passion and commitment to play for Mayo".
"It would be the Director of Football's job to do the apprenticeship with those guys, and have them ready for the senior team manager. Because it is a culling stage – there's no way that you have 100 guys ready and fit and able to play for Mayo that have that amount of passion [required]. But there are certainly plenty with a burning desire, [which] is going to show up with commitment and based on facts and figures over three or four years."

Learning from the best
O'NEILL cites the example of Jurgen Klinsmann, the US-based former German soccer manager who "wasn't afraid to bring the dynamics, the professionalism and the thinking from different sports" in his adopted country.
He says Mayo GAA has much to learn from best practice at home and abroad – from Tyrone to Kerry, who even have a five-year programme in place for hurling; and from 83-year-old Penn State football coach Joe Paterno to the late John Wooden, winner of nine back-to-back basketball championships with UCLA.
"You can learn from people that have been successful in other sports – if you have an open mind, rather than saying 'I have it all done'," says O'Neill. "The right people are not afraid to bring in somebody else's ideas, and learn from them."

The Money
GIVEN the current economic climate, and the loan on the McHale Park development, many people may recoil at the projected cost of such a strategy. But O'Neill is adamant that Mayo people the world over would row in behind it if was well thought-out and properly marketed.
There is, he says, no point in appointing a Director of Football if he can't do what's needed because of a lack of funds.
"Don't let the money be a factor," he says simply. "If you put down a plan and sell that plan to people, [be they] businesspeople or people out foreign, they will come up trumps. So get the best person, and give him the resources needed. Don't expect to do a professional job with an amateur budget ... People in Mayo are looking for a plan. They want success, and I think they would row in behind it."