GAA’s League final price drop was simply not on the money

Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney

First Published April 28, 2009

So the GAA’s price-slashing scheme to attract more punters to the National League Football Finals proved to be an unmitigated disaster.

It’s no surprise. Apparently, the prospect of saving five whole euro failed to drag people out of their houses and drive a few hundred miles to either Longford or Dublin.

The Division Three and Four finals in Pearse Park were played in front of almost empty stands, while a pitiful 20,545 were in Croke Park for the Division One and Two deciders.

The idea that the GAA could attract a larger audience by reducing the price of admission from €30 to €25 underlines just how divorced Croke Park has become from the typical GAA fan.

For those who perhaps aren’t aware, the typical GAA fan is a bandwagon-jumper, an armchair critic, and a couch potato. By and large, they don’t go to that many games.

But before anyone starts tut-tutting about this apathetic bunch, they should bear in mind that the typical GAA fan represents the overwhelming majority of supporters who spill through the turnstiles in the summer.

Not convinced? Consider the attendance at your county’s Dr McKenna Cup and NFL games.

Now think about the sea of red and black on Hill 16 during 1991 and 1994. Cast your minds to the same terracing in 1993 and the huge crowd in Casement Park for the Ulster semi-final replay in 2000.

Where were all those Down, Derry, and Antrim fans at the weekend? The chances are that a significant proportion of them were sitting at home watching the games on TG4.

The fact that the GAA thought they could entice these people to Longford and Dublin by dropping the admission charge by €5 (for Derry, Down and Antrim supporters, this represents a drop of a little over £1 when the change in exchange rate is factored in) illustrates the chasm that exists between Croke Park and the common gael.

But, for the benefit of the premium seat brigade in Croke Park, I’m going to explain a few things to them today.

For starters, they should realise that the price-reduction scheme at the weekend probably failed to attract a single extra punter.

The 20,000 hardcore fans in Croke Park would have gone regardless of the price of the tickets. Indeed, they would have been there even if the GAA had increased the price by €5.

The marketing strategists in Croke Park should also pay particularly close attention to the next few paragraphs.

The typical GAA fan shudders at the prospect of paying E30, or even E25, into a League final.

The fact that it’s a double-header makes absolutely no difference. The typical GAA fan has no interest in paying to watch any county other than his own. Any dope would know that.

If a working man went to Dublin at the weekend with his wife or girlfriend, the cost of tickets would be E50. But petrol is another E20 and then there is the E3.80 for tolls and E4 for a programme. That’s nearly E80 before getting a bite to eat. Did the GAA really think that the carrot of saving a measly E5 on a ticket would get this man through the turnstiles in Dublin?

It’s high time the GAA woke up and came to understand a few home truths. The cost of admission to all GAA games have been ridiculously over-priced for a long time. And the fact that provincial councils are probably going to drop their admission charges for this year’s Championships is really just a tacit confession that prices were too expensive in the first place.

Part of the problem stems from the situation whereby the people who set the prices don’t have to pay them. County board men and provincial council officials waltz into games free of charge. Meanwhile the hardcore GAA fan has been getting fleeced for years – while the typical gael has opted to stay at home.

Television is also part of the problem. Having pocketed E15m in a lucrative television rights deal, the GAA now faces the challenge of dragging its membership off the sofa.

And let’s remember, because it’s worth repeating, the typical GAA fan is a fairweather follower.

You – yes, you, the person reading this column – are probably a prime example. You are part of the GAA, you read columns and reports, you watch matches on the television, but you only go to a few county games each year. And if those matches were on television, you probably would have stayed at home.

Therein lies the challenge for the GAA during these leaner economic times. League attendances and revenue are down this year and that trend is set to follow in the Championship unless the GAA comes up with something different. Unfortunately, marketing isn’t exactly the GAA’s specialised subject.

An essential part of marketing is knowing how to communicate with your target audience – and this is where the GAA really struggles.

There is a desperate over-reliance on press releases. This is how the GAA sought to inform the nation that it had reduced its prices for the National League finals.

But who reads newspapers every day? Were you aware that prices had been reduced? A few television and radio advertisements would have helped the GAA to broadcast this offer to the widest audience possible.

And those television and radio advertisements don’t necessarily have to cost all that much money. If local radio stations want continued free access to games, then they could be obliged to carry a few advertisements. A similar deal could be struck with RTE. Some of that E15 million could be transferred to advertising slots.

Having worked out a more effective way of promoting its games, the GAA must also decide what it wants to achieve.

If Croke Park wants to maintain revenue, then increasing ticket prices is actually a viable strategy. The supporters who make the annual pilgrimage for their county’s few Championship games will not be that bothered by a price hike.

However, if the GAA wants packed stadia, if it wants children to be introduced to the glorious culture of the Championship season, and if it wants to stop alienating the ordinary working man, then it must reconsider its prohibitive pricing structure.

Let’s not forget we’re watching amateur sportsmen. The Qualifiers would be the perfect testing ground. £10 for adults. £5 for students. £5 for senior citizens. U16s free of charge. And each week’s fixtures and ticket prices advertised on radio and television.

It’s is a sad indictment on the GAA today that the price of tickets actually puts many people off going to games.

The GAA should be affordable to all, not just the 4x4s which now constitute a worryingly large proportion of the vehicles on the M1 to Dublin.

The tradesmen and labourers who literally built the GAA clubhouses where I come from drove Ford Sierras, Vauxhall Astras and, yes – Ladas.

Sadly, it seems the officials who think that E25 represents some type of bargain have lost touch with the very man who built the Association they have been entrusted to run.

Uphill struggle for Ulster

Against the Breeze
by Paddy Heaney

First Published April 24, 2009

It should be a weekend to celebrate the strength of gaelic football in Ulster, but ultimately the overriding emotions are of resigned frustration.

Yes, it’s fantastic that Derry, Monaghan, Down and Antrim will contest the four divisional football finals, being played on Saturday and Sunday. And, yes, it’s great that six Ulster counties (Derry, Tyrone, Donegal, Monaghan, Armagh and Down) continue to be seeded in the top 16 League placings. It’s also good that there is no longer any Ulster presence in the basement division.

But. But. But. The question must be asked: What will all this progress and promotion count for when the Championship gets underway? How will the advancement of Ulster football be rewarded in the summer?

Consider this distinct possibility. Derry (League seeding: 2nd) will meet Monaghan (9th) on May 24. The following week, Tyrone (5th) will play Armagh (12th).

The losers of both these games will enter the draw for the first round of the Qualifiers.

There’s every chance that Derry could meet Tyrone in the back door and that the campaign of this year’s League finalists or the reigning All-Ireland champions will be over after two swift games.

Yet again, the big glass bowl of the Qualifiers will have gotten rid of an Ulster county and thereby succeeded where southern counties often fail.

The anti-Ulster alliance will offer little sympathy. They’ll scream: “That’s Championship football. It’s the same for everyone, so quit your crying, you loud, mouthy, Nordie whingebags. (And that’s just the measured consensus from chin-stroking members of the southern media).

But this isn’t Nordie moaning. Championship football isn’t the same for everyone. It isn’t a level playing field.

Take the Munster Football Championship where Cork (League seeding: 10th) will meet Waterford (28th). Ooooh! I wonder who’ll win that one?

Here’s a clue. Waterford’s last win over the Rebel footballers was in 1898 – 111 years ago.

If Cork happen to squeeze past the Division Four minnows, they’ll meet Kerry (1st), who, without have played a game, will be sitting in the Munster semi-final.

And here’s the catch. The losers of Cork/Waterford and Kerry will enter the second round of the Qualifiers, therefore missing out on the bearpit of a fight that takes place in the first round of backdoor games.

It stands to reason that the more games a team plays, the more chances they have of losing.

By virtue of their residence in a six-county province, teams from Munster don’t have to play as many games in the Qualifiers as those from Ulster and Leinster.
So we repeat: it isn’t a level playing field.

A similar situation pertains in Connacht. Mayo (League seeding: 4th) will meet New York (rank: bad) in the first round, while Galway (3rd) take on London (32nd). If Mayo sneak past New York, they’ll meet either Division Three’s Roscommon (22nd) or

Division Four’s Leitrim (27th). And if Galway scramble past lowly London, they’ll play Sligo (26th).

Again, it’s pretty much a cakewalk for both Galway and Mayo to the provincial final. And even if they do slip up in the semi-finals, they still enter the Qualifiers at the second round stage.

In contrast, the five losers from Fermanagh v Down, Derry v Monaghan, Tyrone v Armagh, Donegal v Antrim and Fermanagh/Down v Cavan will all be cast into the bowl for the first round draw with every chance that they could meet a not-so-friendly neighbour.

Of course, none of this information is particularly enlightening. We know the Championship isn’t the same for everyone. We know that the big teams from Munster and Connacht have an easier passage to Croke Park.

However, this is not to say that we should meekly accept this situation. It’s time the tribes of Ulster demanded a change which means they aren’t always playing into the breeze and up the hill.

One remedy that should be considered is to use a team’s final position in the League as a seeding system that will be employed in the Qualifier draws. (The team that finishes top of Division One will be first and the teams that’s bottom of Division Four will be 33rd).

For the first round of the Qualifiers, which includes a total of 16 teams, the top eight seeded counties would be drawn against the eight lowest-seeded counties. A seeded draw could also take place for rounds two and three.

The system would have obvious benefits for the strong Ulster counties in Divisions One and Two as it would provide an easier route into the second round of the Qualifiers. This would go some way toward recognising the advantages enjoyed by the big guns in Munster and Connacht.

Secondly, linking the League and Championship would also have benefits for the GAA as it would make the NFL much more

competitive as there would be a greater incentive to finish as high in the table as possible. This format would also increase the likelihood of the country’s best teams reaching the last 12 of the competition, thus providing a fitting climax to the season.

If Ulster counties formed an alliance to push this proposal, there is a decent chance they’d get the necessary support from other counties. Dublin (League seeding: 6th) and Meath (13th), who meet in the first round of the Leinster

Championship, would certainly be sympathetic. Ironically, Kerry, Cork, Mayo and Galway might also favour this system as they too would benefit from a kinder draw once they’ve entered the Qualifiers.

Weaker counties who cry about being treated as cannon fodder could be kindly reminded that they are indeed cannon fodder. They should also be reminded that if it wasn’t for the support they received from the stronger counties, they’d still be in the Tommy Murphy Cup.

Of course, an open draw is the grand solution that will instantly end the advantages enjoyed by Kerry, Cork, Galway and Mayo.

But the Ulster Council will never endorse a format that will force them into extinction.

Given that the Ulster Council will never vote against the very system which is so unfair to its constituents, it should be incumbent on the provincial body to actively seek new measures that will alleviate the handicap facing northern counties in the All-Ireland SFC.

At last week’s Congress, a motion that came from the Ulster Convention seeking the end of the International Rules was
dismissively thrown out of court.

A considerable amount of time and effort would have been required to put that motion onto the floor of Congress. It was always going to be a beaten docket. Yet, this is the nonsense that is occupying the minds of our elected GAA officials.

Maybe at this year’s Ulster Convention, the powers-that-be can come up with an idea that will address the flawed and biased Championship structure that has dogged northern counties.

Mull this over. Would Kerry have won 35 All-Ireland titles if they started out in Ulster ever year? Would Jack O’Connor’s men be the 13/8 favourites for this year’s All-Ireland Championship if they were facing a trip to Clones and a game against Tyrone on May 31?

It’s time to level the playing field.

Integrity, passion, pride:

Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney

First Published April 14, 2009

On the day he won the election to become the next president of the GAA, Nickey Brennan cried.

It was the 16th of April, 2005. Shortly after beating Christy Cooney by just 17 votes (171 to 154), Brennan was brought into an anteroom to speak to reporters.

Still emotional from the news that he would be the 35th president, the tears rolled down his cheeks when he talked about the honour that had been bestowed on him.

He talked about his family, his mother, and the village of Conahy that was so small it “doesn’t even have a pub”.

It was an extraordinary sight. Here was a man who had played hurling for Kilkenny. He has five All-Ireland senior medals, two as a player from 1979 and 1982, and three as a sub.

Those medals would be regarded as the ultimate reward for any gael. For a former county hurler such as Brennan, the rise to the presidency could be seen as an extension to his career.

But this was clearly not how Nickey Brennan viewed the vote by Congress. It was evidently the crowning achievement of his life in the GAA.

Nickey Brennan would regard the post as the ultimate honour because he is totally and utterly wedded to every aspect of Gaelic Games.

The unbridled joy that the teetotaller derives from watching hurling and football is untypical for both officials and ex-players.

The fact that he once managed the Kilkenny senior football team always provided a strong signal that Brennan was in love with the games and not with himself.

Indeed, the full extent of his fascination with both hurling and football became obvious to me when I was in his company during last year’s International Rules series.

During a conversation about the club games that were going on in Ireland, Brennan was able to give a detailed account of the final between Ballyhale Shamrocks and James Stephens that had taken place in Kilkenny the previous day.

Curious as to how he was able to have such extensive knowledge, I enquired how he acquired this information.

Nickey replied that he got up at 4.30am, turned on his computer and listened to the game on the internet. To Nickey, there was nothing extraordinary about this behaviour.

Another anecdote is typical of the man. In February of this year, Brennan was a guest at this year’s All-Ireland Scór finals in Athlone. The All-Ireland club semi-final between Crossmaglen and Dromcollogher-Broadford was held on the same day.

This presented a small dilemma for the 55-year-old. Brennan’s personal radio and a pair of earphones solved the problem.

As the singers sang, and the dancers danced, Nickey sat with his earphones on, listening to the action from Pearse Park in Longford.

Not everyone was impressed, but Nickey was quite oblivious to the tut-tutting of the Scór aficionados. Midway through the second half, he turned round to the Armagh contingent behind him to announce that: “Cross are giving Drom-Broadford an awful scalping.”

That’s Nickey. The Kilkenny man has no truck with phoniness or pretension. Those who describe him as a hurler may as well be describing the man.

He was all about passion and effort. Not particularly polished, he lacked the style and elegance of silkier team-mates, but he got the job done.

Following this Saturday’s Congress in Cork, Brennan will return to the village of Conahy and reacquaint himself with his wife, Mairead, and their four children.

Unlike more recent presidents, Nickey doesn’t have a big hook upon which his legacy will hang. Sean Kelly had Rule 42. Sean McCague had Rule 21 and Peter Quinn had Croke Park.

But don't think for a second that Brennan didn’t affect change. He did. It’s just that his achievements weren’t of the same interest to the media.

As the communications and IT purchasing manager at Glan Bia, his business acumen served the Association well.

The recent re-branding exercise, the switch to a multi-sponsorship model for the Championship and the new lucrative TV rights deal were all conducted during his watch.

His greatest accomplishment, however, is the way he has re-staffed Croke Park.

Peter Quinn wanted to do it, other presidents should have done it – Nickey Brennan did it.

When Liam Mulvihill stepped down, Brennan seized the opportunity to restructure the way Croke Park conducts its business. He facilitated the appointment of a host of new posts including those of HR manager, director of finance and head of communications.

Those who didn’t retire were given new contracts with specific targets – this included the new director-general Páraic Duffy. There are no more jobs for life in Croke Park and everyone is accountable.

Under the new arrangement, the head of each department and the four provincial secretaries meet every fortnight to discuss GAA policy and any new proposals. It is already proving to be a much more focused and effective mechanism way of managing the GAA’s affairs.

Although the restructuring work at Headquarters took up a huge amount of his first two years, Brennan still got out to the clubs. He clocked over 160,000 miles in the complimentary Toyota Avensis that came with the job. He was also a frequent visitor and a strong ally of Ulster.

This was something of a surprise because his approval of opening Croke Park meant that he only received a smattering of votes from the six counties.

Yet, Brennan didn’t hold a grudge.

Antrim are a prime example. They voted en bloc for Christy Cooney, yet Brennan has worked tirelessly for the Saffron county.

He lobbied and helped to secure the £2m grant for their Centre of Excellence. More recently, he got a further £160,000 grant to assist the coaching and development of hurling in the county.

He was also influential in getting Antrim into the Leinster Championship.

Antrim chairman John McSparran neatly captured the outgoing president when he said: “He is totally upright and honest. If he says he’ll do something, then you can be guaranteed he will do it.”

Of course, it must be acknowledged that Brennan’s position on many issues has been in direct opposition with the prevailing sentiment in Ulster.

Apart from being in favour of opening Croke Park, he helped to broker the deal for the grants scheme and he is in favour of the new experimental rules. It’s all fairly heretical stuff.

But Brennan is fit for his northern critics. He was a guest speaker at the recent Ó Fiaich 125 Conference that was held in Armagh. Many of Ulster GAA’s big wigs and big hitters were in attendance.

Brennan could have played it safe. He could have talked about the strength of the GAA in Ulster. He could have indulged them.

That’s not Nickey. Instead, he rolled up the sleeves, grabbed the hurl and started pulling.

He talked about the grants, the experimental rules and why the men who met in the Hayes Hotel in 1884 would approve of the Heineken Cup semi-final being played in Croke Park.

It’s definitely not how a politician would have handled the situation. But then Nickey Brennan is not that kind of animal.

He’s the kind of man who gets up in the middle of the night to listen to the county final. He’s the kind of man who defends his opinions and keeps his word. He’s the kind of man that Congress knew would make a damned fine president.

All those who preach and pray at soccer’s altar are Dunph for

Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney

First Published April 7, 2009

t’s hard to know which is the more annoying aspect of professional soccer – the debased culture that contaminates it at all levels, or the individuals who nourish the morally bankrupt charade that assaults us every day.

The manifest superficiality of the ‘beautiful game’ has been showcased in the past few weeks and reminds us of why the GAA must protect itself against the ‘Mé Féin’ attitude that has corrupted soccer.

Andy Reid’s absence from the Republic of Ireland soccer squad and the refusal of manager Giovanni Trapattoni to beg Stephen Ireland to play for his country has illustrated the fundamental differences between professional soccer and ODS (ordinary decent sports).

This chasm is reflected in the views of the people who comment on the respective codes.

RTE pundit Eamonn Dunphy embodies the brittle and willow-like nature of the game that he comments on.

Dunphy often worries about how ‘the game’ has been tarnished by the corporate greed of multinationals who only use clubs to make a profit.

He also deplores the cult of the personality footballer and, in this regard, he holds Cristiano Ronaldo as football’s public enemy number one.

The irony is that Dunphy is just as susceptible to placing personalities before principles. During the World Cup in 2002, Dunphy was in the midst of his ‘Red period’ – this was when Roy Keane was his muse, his idol, his friend and his next big pay packet.

Since ghost-writing Roy’s biography and collecting the cheque, Dunpho now thinks Keano is a “bullshitter”. (Multinationals would show greater loyalty).

While Dunphy condemns those who admire Ronaldo’s step-overs but fail to see his failure to track back, the Dubliner was equally blinkered in his defence of Roy Keane’s antics in Saipan.

Players do not call the shots. Players do not storm out of training sessions. Players do not publicly criticise the manager during the build-up to a World Cup. And it doesn’t matter if that player happens to be Roy Keane.

The inability of Dunphy and many other soccer commentators to understand that basic system of management underlined the inherently flawed values that have polluted soccer.

It just wouldn’t happen in other sports. If Henry Shefflin walked out of a Brian Cody training session, or if Brian O’Driscoll publicly berated his team-mates, they would struggle to find any defence in the print or broadcast media. Soccer is different because soccer is sick.

Giovanni Trapattoni is a member of football’s aristocracy. He has won league competitions in four different countries.The 70-year-old Italian understands that while languages change, the principles of successful management are universal.

Trap played for AC Milan and Italy. As a manager, he has won every Uefa competition. Eamon Dunphy played for Millwall. When he was an apprentice at Manchester United, he spent time smoking fags and backing horses with his good friend Barry Fry. On returning to Ireland, he coached St Benilda’s College.

Yet, Dunphy, the former cigarette-smoking coach of St Benilda’s College, recently saw fit to accuse Trapattoni of suffering from an “impoverishment of ambition”. Even by Dunphy’s hilarious standards, it was a bit rich.

All success is built on discipline and on the willingness of the individual to serve the greater good of the team.

Andy Reid breached Trapattoni’s code of conduct and Stephen Ireland doesn’t want to serve the team.

For most followers of GAA, therein the debate ends, particularly when the manager involved has a track record such as Trapattoni’s.

But the cries from Dunphy and other quarters of the Irish media for Trap to convince Stephen Ireland to represent his country and for him to recall Andy Reid only highlights their misguided subservience to the notion that the individual supersedes the collective.

Put simply, they reckon the ‘me’ is more important than ‘we’.

Now consider the difference with Gaelic Games. For Andy Reid, think CJ McGourty. In terms of talent, CJ is the most gifted young footballer in Antrim. But talent alone doth not the footballer make.

CJ has been dropped from the Antrim panel for a “breach of discipline”. Bear in mind that Antrim are on the verge of gaining promotion from Division Four. A win over Waterford will seal the deal.

With McGourty in their ranks, success would be virtually assured. If Dunphy and his cheerleaders were Antrim supporters, they’d be calling for McGourty to be reinstated immediately.

But there has been no little or no outcry from the Saffron supporters. Gaels understand that, without discipline, there can be no success.

For Stephen Ireland, think Stephen O’Neill. When O’Neill surprisingly retired from inter-county football in 2007, his decision was reluctantly accepted.

Again, there were no calls for Mickey Harte to court and cajole Stephen O’Neill back into the squad.

Tyrone supporters understood the fairly basic idea that there is no point forcing a man to play if he doesn’t want to play.

The chin-stroking scribblers of Irish soccer will contend that this argument is too simplistic and doesn’t recognise the nuances and intricacies of the individual cases. This is rubbish.

Professional soccer has become so diseased, and the effects are so corrosive, that it has infected many of those who have come into contact with it.

And, by my humble reckoning, Newcastle must be one of the most contagious places in the world.

Thousands of poor dumb Newcastle fans went into delirium last week when it was announced that Alan Shearer will try to steer the club from relegation by taking over for the remaining eight games.

A huge crowd descended on St James Stadium to greet Shearer who told them that he “loved” Newcastle FC. He said the club was “in his veins” and that it “meant too much for him” to sit idly by and watch it go down.

He didn’t tell them about the huge bonus (reckoned to be £1million) he will collect if he succeeds in his quest.

“Loving” a club means that you will do anything you can to serve it needs. That can mean risking your popularity and reputation. It can mean personal sacrifice.

Shearer’s words somehow ring hollow. During an interview on Match of the Day, Shearer promised Gary Lineker that he will be returning to his cosy seat on the sofa next year.

Why manage a club that you profess to ‘love’ when you get well paid for boring a nation to death with a hackneyed analysis of football matches?

Alan Shearer loves Alan Shearer. Now contrast Shearer’s conduct with some figures from the GAA.

Think about what Gerald McCarthy and Teddy Holland were prepared to put up with for the honour of managing a Cork team free of charge. That’s love of the jersey.

Joe Kernan owns an estate agency that employs two of his sons. The property business isn’t exactly flourishing in the current climate. Kernan could easily secure a hefty payment for managing a number of county teams. But Joe has gone on record that he will not put himself in the position where he is plotting against the men with whom he shared a changing room. That’s loyalty.

Peter Canavan is a living legend in Ballygawley. He is also a married man with a clatter of children. Peter could find more profitable of ways of spending his time rather than taking on the task of managing Errigal Ciaran. That’s love. That’s loyalty.

In the world of professional soccer, Stephen Ireland can’t bring himself to represent his country, while the carrot of a huge cash bonus has finally convinced Alan Shearer he loves Newcastle enough to manage them for eight games. Such sacrifice! And yet the thrills and spills of late goals from Yossi Benayoun and the 17-year-old Federico Macheda provide a timely reminder that soccer can still lay claim to being the ‘beautiful game’. It’s a just a pity about all the awful ugliness that surrounds it.

Cassidy’s troops must learn how to stick to script

Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney

First Published March 31, 2009

DURING a radio broadcast on October 1, 1939, Winston Churchill famously said it was difficult to predict the actions of the Russian electorate because the Soviets were “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.

Churchill could also have been talking about the current crop of Derry footballers.

Consider the following facts. On Sunday, March 8, 20-year-old James Kielt stood on Pairc Sean de Brun and pointed two sideline kicks, one with the outside of his left boot from the left wing, the other with his instep from the right wing.

Six days later on March 14, Eoin Bradley was in Parnell Park. From a distance further than Kielt’s, he also thumped over a sideline kick with the outside of his left boot. A few minutes later, he was presented with a similar opportunity and he performed the remarkable feat once again.

How many counties in Ireland possess two players who could convert two sideline kicks in the same game? Let’s also remember that Paddy Bradley and Enda Muldoon are more than capable of the same task.

Counties like Fermanagh crave such outrageous talent.

Monaghan would point to Paul Finlay, but they’d struggle to produce a second marksman of such quality.

And yet, a limited, but plucky, Fermanagh side deservedly beat Derry in last year’s Ulster Championship. Monaghan then dumped the Oak Leafers out of the Qualifiers.

How could Derry, a team that has beaten Kerry in a League final, and Tyrone and Armagh in the Championship, get ousted by such middleweight opposition?

The conundrum that is Derry football was wonderfully illustrated at Healy Park on Saturday night when a side in possession of two players who can convert sideline kicks failed to score from a 13-metre free that could have won the game.

As the Yanks would say: ‘Go figure.’ Nevertheless, despite their failure to win the Ulster title for over a decade, Derry are being tipped as the side most likely to dislodge Armagh as Tyrone’s biggest rival in Ulster.

The rationale is that new manager Damian Cassidy will harness the existing talent pool by getting Derry to execute an orchestrated and effective gameplan.

Cassidy’s start with Derry has been encouraging. He has repeatedly insisted that he wants Derry to play to a system.

Reports from the training ground reveal that conditioned games are standard practice.

‘Pace’ and ‘purpose’ are the key words. Consequently, a five-yard ‘purposeless’ pass can be punished with a free-kick to the other side.

Early results have fuelled further optimism. League victories against Mayo, Westmeath and Dublin were achieved without a host of first choice players.

It was also notable that when Derry were allowed to impose their style of play against an

inferior Westmeath and an off-guard Dublin, they looked irresistible.

More difficulties arose when Derry encountered opposition from a higher echelon. Former Irish News columnist Damien Barton always maintained in his column that when teams come under pressure, or get tired, they “revert to type”.

Barton’s adage was certainly true when Derry played Kerry and Tyrone. When faced with a physically strong Kerry side and a well-organised Tyrone outfit, Cassidy’s charges quickly returned to their default mode.

The first half of Saturday night’s game between Derry and Tyrone was like watching a repeat of last year’s Championship game against Fermanagh at the same venue.

Mickey Harte got Philip Jordan to drop off Paul Murphy and sweep in front of the two Bradleys. And if Derry dithered at all, then Jordan was quickly surrounded by a dozen reinforcements.

As the first half wore on, Derry ‘reverted to type.’ Their play was aimless. Tyrone set up a cordon around the scoring zone and Derry looked like basketball players passing around the edges of the key, but were unable to make any headway. They scored just one point during this period.

The pleasing thing from a Derry fan’s point of view is that they weren’t subjected to the torture of watching their side being tactically outwitted for the entire duration of the game.

At half-time, Cassidy got out his flipchart, read out the match stats (Derry were dispossessed 21 times in the fist half), and asked his players if they thought they were implementing the plan. Derry were transformed after the interval. They scored five points without reply and could easily have won the game.

But it would be extremely foolish to get carried away. Saturday’s game in Healy Park demonstrated that while Derry are improving, they are still a considerable distance behind Tyrone.

At this stage, the All-Ireland champions hold two crucial advantages over their neighbours.

Firstly, Mickey Harte has already programmed his players. They don’t require half-time lectures because the system is now written into their DNA.

On Saturday night, Harte fielded a skeletal side. He started without Brian Dooher, Ryan McMenamin, Justin and Joe McMahon, Enda McGinley and Stephen O’Neill – yet the replacements performed the same roles and proved to be more than a match for Derry.

Secondly, Harte has a much larger pool of quality players than Cassidy, or indeed any other manager in Ulster. Harte used 29 players in last year’s Championship.

Smaller counties like Derry just don’t have this spread of talent and are not as well equipped to deal with injuries, loss of form and suspensions.

All things considered, the bookies appear to be correct in their assessment of this year’s race for the Ulster title. Rated as 2/1 shots, Tyrone are the favourites and they are followed by Armagh (9/2), Donegal (9/2), Derry (5/1), Monaghan (6/1), Down (16/1), Cavan (16/1), Fermanagh (16/1) and Antrim (50/1).

Three All-Ireland football finals have shown us that when it gets hot and heavy, Tyrone stay on message.

With just one League game remaining and eight weeks before their first round fixture against Monaghan, Damian Cassidy’s men are still veering off the script. His players have a lot of learning to do in a relatively short space of time.

And learn they must, because Derry’s record during the past decade proves that players who can convert sideline kicks are merely a sweet luxury, whereas players who have a system, and can stick to it, are an absolute necessity.

It’s all about heart

Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney

First Published March 24, 2009

When the professor of veterinary science at the University of Kentucky performed the autopsy on Secretariat, he discovered that all the horse’s vital organs were normal, except the heart.

Considered by many to be the greatest racehorse ever, Secretariat’s heart weighed 22 pounds. The heart of a normal thoroughbred weighs about eight-and-a-half pounds.

It’s all about the heart.

This was the idea that Adrian McGuckin left with the footballers of St Paul’s, Kilrea as they prepared for the Ulster U16 Vocational Schools final at Casement Park.

It was the first time the school had reached a provincial final. St Paul’s are minnows when compared to their competitors. With a roll count of 307, they are often pitted against rivals with twice, and sometimes three times, as many pupils.

So, when they secured a dramatic extra-time victory over St Malachy’s, Castlewellan in the Ulster semi-final, the three-man management team of Mickey Boyle, Paddy McGurk and Stephen Murtagh left nothing to chance for the Arthurs Cup final.

Realising that Adrian McGuckin, the managerial maestro of colleges’ football, resided in the neighbourhood, they asked him to come and speak to their squad.

‘Big Adrian’ obliged. He arrived with his laptop and powerpoint presentation. New tricks for the old dog, but the message was still the same.

For 40 minutes, the boys sat enraptured under McGuckin’s spell. In earthy tones, they were told to forget about the glory, and to cast aside any silly dreams about beating three men and roofing a long distance pile-driver. Instead, they were told to focus on the basics – taking a catch, securing possession, staying strong in the tackle, finding a man.

Adrian finished his speech by focusing on the heart. When faced with a worthy opponent, who has trained as hard and is just as talented, it can become a test of character. The team with the players who are willing to keep going and suck up the most pain, will emerge triumphant.

The boys hung on every word. Adrian’s presentation ended with an image of a beating heart.

The management team’s preparations only started with McGuckin. Aware that their young players could be distracted by the novelty of a first appearance in Casement Park, they wanted them to get a test run on the west Belfast ground.

Phone calls to Antrim county chairman John McSparran and secretary Frankie Quinn paved the way for a preliminary visit a few days before the final against St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley.

The programme for the day of the final also presented new challenges. St Paul’s had a set routine for their pre-match warm-up. It wasn’t possible to adhere to the usual schedule because their game was preceded by the U14 final.

A new plan was required. Paddy McGurk had a contact at St Gall’s. The Belfast club instantly agreed to allow Kilrea to use their pitch before the game. However, the St Paul’s management still wasn’t sure about the best way to conduct a warm-up under these new conditions.

The players would be running about, then stepping on a bus, before going to sit in a changing room. The weather forecast was also awful. Unsure of how the players could avoid cooling down and stiffening, the management team sought the advice of former Armagh and Derry trainer John McCloskey.

McCloskey provided a detailed itinerary. It was recorded and heeded.

On the day of the final, everything went pretty much to plan. Despite being reduced to 14 men after star forward Gary Keane was sent off, St Paul’s, Kilrea won fairly comfortably.

A first Ulster title for the small Derry school. It’s like Sunderland winning the Premier League.

Obviously, Kilrea are well coached, but their management team would be the first to acknowledge that this group has been successful because it has a bit of bling among the rank-and-file.

That diamond quality was supplied by centre-forward Benny Quigg and full-forward Gary Keane. But Keane was suspended for the All-Ireland semi-final against Clonakilty.

Could the Kilrea boys cope with the loss of Keane’s scoring power against the Munster champions? And would the players be able to reset their sights on an All-Ireland title just a week after creating history for their school?

Paddy McGurk scoured the internet searching for information and old match reports about Clonakilty. Stephen Murtagh rang the local papers in Cork and sweet-talked their sports reporters. The game was in Tullamore so Mickey Boyle recruited Maths teacher James McCormick and put him in charge of logistics. He looked after the hotel and travel arrangements. School caretaker Fergal O’Rawe assumed sole control of the kit.

Despite all this forensic planning, Kilrea started poorly. At one stage, they trailed by five points and Gary Keane wasn’t there to save them. But lads like Joe Morgan, Denver Johnston, Cahal Bradley and Enda McFerran stepped into the breach. Kilrea won with a few points to spare.

Next up was an All-Ireland final against Dunshaughlin Community College – another school that is twice the size of Kilrea. Efforts were redoubled. The players came into school and trained on a holiday. Adrian McGuckin, the veteran of four Hogan Cups, returned to dispense more advice.

Clones was another new venue. Ryan Feeney, a Derry man who works for the Ulster Council, was contacted. He made a call to Mick Ryan, the gatekeeper at Clones.

‘Would St Paul’s, Kilrea be allowed a quick session on St Tiernach’s Park?’

‘Absolutely no problem. Come down whenever it suits.’

Dunshaughlin were a good, honest, proud team. But there was only going to be one winner. Captain Tiernan Rafferty lifted the cup and read an acceptance speech that had been written in advance.

It will take some time before this crop of players from Kilrea, Dunloy, Rasharkin, Slaughtneil, Swatragh, Ballerin and Glenullin appreciate the full scale of their achievement. In due course they will come to realise how and why they progressed so far.

As in the sport of kings,  bloodlines, owners, trainers, stable-lads and jockeys play a huge part in getting the horse into the best position on the final straight.

Similarly, the parents, principal, coaches, backroom team, supporters and the wider family of the Ulster GAA helped to prime the St Paul’s boys for every race.

But once on the back straight, the supporting cast disappears.

When the reins tighten to the sound of thundering hooves, it is all about racing eye-to-eye and winning the individual battle of wills.

Such conditions provide their own type of sporting autopsy, so no further tests are required of the lads from St Paul’s, Kilrea.

By winning the Derry, Ulster and All-Ireland titles they have shown that they have the heart – the heart of champions.

For young men preparing for a life beyond the classroom, it should be reassuring to know that this is what is beating inside their chests.

Good coaching key to future

Against the Breeze
by Paddy Heaney

First Published March 17 2009

“If they haven’t learned, you haven’t taught them.”
Anonymous

ANYONE who wants to become a better coach or teacher should read at least one of John Wooden’s books. Mickey Harte swallowed them up years ago.

Wooden was the basketball coach at UCLA. He won 10 National Championship titles during his last 12 seasons, including seven in-a-row from 1967 to 1973. His UCLA teams had a record winning streak of 88 games and four perfect 300 seasons. They also won a record 98 straight home games at Pauley.

A pious, good-living, sober individual, Wooden lived a simple life, teaching and coaching.

Although a ball of energy on the training court, he sat still during games and rarely expressed any emotions. Does this ring any bells?

I’ve only read one of Wooden’s books, but a friend of mine is digesting them on a weekly basis (they are easy to order through Amazon.com). He is now a fully-fledged Wooden disciple.

During a recent conversation, he tried to recall one of Wooden’s coaching principles, which is: ‘You haven’t taught until they have learned.’

My friend got it slightly mixed up and came up with his own version. It’s printed at the start of this column – and I think it is far better than the Wooden original.

John Wooden would certainly approve. One of his constant maxims is that coaching is teaching. A good teacher makes a good coach, and vice-versa.

Sport provides us with plenty of examples. This weekend an Ireland rugby team will try to complete a Grand Slam for the first time since 1948. They’re managed by Declan Kidney, formerly a maths teacher at Presentation Brothers College, Cork.

The legendary Vince Lombardi started out at the blackboard, as did many of the ground-breaking coaches in the GAA, such as Mickey Harte, Pete McGrath, John O’Mahony, and Ger Loughnane.

In football management, the net effect of good coaching is easy to measure – trophies. It’s not as easy to quantify in the classroom, but it hasn’t stopped the Americans from trying.

The leading US journalist Malcolm Gladwell recently wrote an article for the New Yorker which examined how academics are trying to identify the qualities that characterise a good teacher.

They believe it’s a worthwhile venture because educationalists are discovering that the difference between very good teachers and very poor teachers is “vast”.

Gladwell’s article cites the findings of an economist at Stanford University who estimated that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth.

Think about that. The difference is a full year’s worth of material. ‘But what has all this got to do with the GAA?’ I hear you plead.

It has got everything to do with the GAA. Because if we accept the comparison with coaching and teaching, and if we accept the astonishing chasm that can lie between good coaching and poor coaching, then the implication for every club in the country is obvious.

The identification, training and appointment of quality underage coaches is the single most important function of any club that hopes to enjoy success at any level.

Find a club that keeps failing, that keeps underachieving, that keeps going nowhere, and you’ll probably find a club with a string of poor underage coaches.

You know the sort. Coaches who do the same old thing every year – and keep getting the same mediocre results. And each year they never fail to be astonished at their team’s ineptitude.

Each year they prefer to blame referees, their players, and other outside factors rather than turning the searchlight inwards and onto themselves. Unwilling to learn and resistant to new ideas, they stick with the old routines that bring the same outcome – failure.

Sometimes the coaches are genuinely ignorant. Parents often get involved with a GAA club via their child. Often they have no background in the GAA or coaching. Although willing and eager, the club fails to coach the coach. This is an equally inexcusable mistake.

Again, if we look at the two clubs competing in today’s All-Ireland Club Senior Football Championship final, their emphasis on underage coaching is evident.

A total of 13 players on the Crossmaglen squad have completed a Grand Slam ofunderage Championships, winning medals at U12, U14, U16, and minor level. Another dozen have won medals at U12, U14 and U16 but missed out at minor level.

Kilmacud Croke’s come from a different universe to Crossmaglen. South Dublin. Urban. They rely on imported talent such as Brian Kavanagh, Liam McBarron and Adrian Morrissey.

But they also produce their own players, a fine achievement in an area where rugby, golf, foreign holidays and cappuccino-sipping provide huge rivalry.

There were no imports in the Kilmacud Croke’s team that won last year’s All-Ireland football Feile competition. Tommy Lyons, the former Offaly and Dublin manager, was one of the team’s mentors.

Given the consistent link between quality coaching and the production of quality players, there is no excuse for clubs to persist with individuals who refuse to improve their methods.

Ignorance is no excuse either. The Ulster Council and Croke Park have a library of manuals and coaching DVDs for anyone eager to learn new ideas. There are also coaching tutorials and forums held throughout the country.

There will always be excuses for losers. But if, 10 years from now, your club hasn’t moved on, don’t blame the players. If they haven’t got better, it’s because your club had no-one there to teach them.