Only good players make good managers!

[corn02]

Why is it that there seems to be a mindset within the GAA that only former County players are worth making a manager. The majority of County managers have Inter-County experience. Clubs appoint managers simply because they played County Football. There are few examples of mangers who were terrible at Football or rarely played.

Surely a bad footballer who has watched the games fro years and knows it inside out is as qulaified as a superstar?

[Kernan_is_King]

Who is Uladh, how could he occupy the space previously occupied by Big Joe?

[corn02]

No 5times I am not although I do think he is one of the most sensible posters on here. So Kernan watch out, Uladh on his way?

[darbyo]

I think you're right corn02, if you look at most other field sports many of the top managers never played at the top level. While I believe that inter county playing experience is an advantage, it is only one small component of what makes a person a good manager. One of the problems I feel is that clubs look for former inter county players to manage their teams. This means that fewer non-IC players get the experience of club management or the opportunity to show what they can do. In my experience rarely do the best players make the best managers.

[clarshack]

there defintely is a mindset in the gaa that to be a good manager at either club or county level you had to have been a decent player for 20 odd years.
there are plenty of people out there that know their stuff but never get the chance to manage because they might have only played junior football. how many times do you see a big name manager not being able to see when a switch needs to be made yet everyone in the crowd can see it?
the classic case of a manager who hardly kicked a ball and is able to manage successfully at the highest level albeit in a different sport is jose mourinho yet the likes of bryan robson who was one of the best midfielders of his generation couldnt manage any team!

[rosnarun]

but most top managers in the gaa were not top players look at Jack o connor pat oshea, John o'mahony brian ivers,pillar caffery sean boylan, mickey harte even joe kernan only ever played for armagh

[Uladh]

Its a trap that almost every club falls into corn. If you look at other sports the same trend certainly exists but there are always exceptional exceptions to the rule. wenger and morinho in soccer spring to mind. on a local level there is a fierce record of clubs dolling out the dosh to former county players who you'd have to wonder whether they had opened their ears and eyes at all during their careers. the only county manager i can come up with at the minute who didn't play county football is banty mcenaney, though there may be others down the country. did pillar play county football?

the overpaid outside manager phase for clubs seems to be passing. initially i think there was an inferiority complex among small clubs that because they had no history of success, they're former players couldn't possibly achieve that. it's notable that clubs like cross and clans very rarely appoint outside managers. increasingly, with the advent of coaching badges and bad experiences with big reputation coaches, clubs are steadily looking inhouse more and more.

Give 5 no heed. he's either Ronan Murtagh or one of his relations and can't comprehend that i don't rate the "bad boy" as a defender.

[thebandit]

I heard a story recently where a lad took a club's under 10 team to 13 wins out of 15 last year and didn't get the team this year. The reason given was that he hadn't played football much himself. The club had never had an under 10 team before, and has no history of success at underage level.

Needless to say they are gonig nowhere near as well this year.

[stpauls]

well, in our club we had the opposite effect, last year we brought in an outside manager and we got promoted to division 3 for the first time in the clubs history. now i have only been with the club for a couple of years, but the consensus from the guys that have been there for all of their lives was that nobody really took it too seriously when there was an internal manager, and could get away with not turning up for training etc etc because there was no real chance of them being dropped from the first 15, but now with an outside guy, they cannot take this risk. it also may have been that there was no history of winning major honours at the club so there was no pressure of winning so the proper attitude wasn't really there. some of the guys may tell you differently, but this is just my point of view.

[Dangleberrys]

Basically comes down to the mindset that if you have 'talked the talk' you can then 'walk the walk'.  So if you have been at the top level for a few years its assumed that you will garner respect and can instill the fight and commitment needed to be a top team.  
Pretty obvious that this is only one side of management, look at the Down setup at the moment, heroes on the pitch in their day, but do they have what it takes in this day and age to achieve?  Remains to be seen I suppose....
Fact is, football training and techniques change every 3-5 years, 'non-player' manager's would have the edge in acknowledgeing this and would put more effort in to instill change whereas a 'player' manager would do as 'he had done in his day' which might work for a year or two but would be found wanting eventually.

[corn02]

Of course we are making generalisations here. Kernan being the best current exapmle of a County Player working wonders pre 2003, now of course he has lost the plot.

[darbyo]

Do ppl think that a child is better to be shown something and then allowed practice, or just explained something and then figure it out by trial and error?

There is a simple method of teaching skills to young chidren that is used the world over by educated coaches:
1. Introduce the skill- why and when you use it (be brief)
2. Demonstrate the skill, without description, a few times.
3. Pick out the main points of the skill, i.e 'head down', 'follow through' etc.
4. Let the kids attempt the skill.
5. Correct where necessary (this is one that many coaches fall down on)

People don't generally learn to drive, play the guitar or do their jobs by trial and error, developing sporting skills are no different. There have been numerous studies that have shown the benefit of teaching instruction in developing kids skills ability.

Lack of proper instuction, lack of correction, lack of activity with the ball, too many skills being introduced too early and in a haphazzard fashion, and little awareness of the needs of different kids, are all weaknesses in the coaching of underage teams that I have personnally witnessed.

[the Deel Rover]

i think there is too much emphasis played on the role of the manager in both club and intercounty football.
At the end of the day you can only work with what players you have at your disposal  if they are not good enough your team won't be successfull. For e.g Look at Paidi o' shea great success at Kerry leading them to All irelands but what did he do with Clare nothing is he a good or bad manager?
 

[darbyo]

i think there is too much emphasis played on the role of the manager in both club and intercounty football.
At the end of the day you can only work with what players you have at your disposal  if they are not good enough your team won't be successfull. For e.g Look at Paidi o' shea great success at Kerry leading them to All irelands but what did he do with Clare nothing is he a good or bad manager?

That's very true, you often hear lads saying Mickey Harte/Joe Kernan/Jack O'Connor are the best managers in the country because of their track record. A managers track record is not necessarily an accurate reflection of his ability. The mark of a managers worth is how close he got his team playing to their potential. I'm not saying that the aforementioned managers are not among the best but when guys come out with "he's won X number of AI's so he must be the best" I wonder if they know what their talking about at all.

[rosnarun]

I think there is actually a trend even at club level to have a professional trainer ie. one who is educated in fitness conditioning weights ect often fron a non football backround and a name manager who does bugger all most of the time but inspires the team on the day. this of course leaves a hole where the football should be which the big name manager may or maynot be able to fill Paudi o shea is probably the bes example of this kind of manager or in a broder sense eddie o sullivan who nearly  has a bootlace trying coach to help him