Doing something because it worked before is a one-way ticket to mediocrity

There is an expectation that every team will be better than they were in last year’s championship. In fact it is hoped that your county will be at least as good (if you’re Cavan), or a lot better (if you’re Louth), than they were in the recent national league campaign. But of course, such expectations are achieved by only a few teams each year, who might still need to convince themselves and others that progress was made.

A semi-final showing for Tyrone last year was likely to be seen as progress, yet Mayo, who once again fell only seconds short of All-Ireland glory, will likely see the season as a failure. Not for the first time, context is key in any performance review. Maybe the new structures will finally encourage counties to give the league the respect it deserves and not dismiss the potential for learning as soon as its curtain falls, especially on the football side of the house.

Any changes seen on the field of play will reflect the changes the management team had previously identified as key performance-limiting factors. It is worth remembering this when we all become experts as the summer unfolds passing comment on players development and progression or lack thereof. In most teams, the players are merely pawns used for the delivery and execution of the vision of their manager or at best, their management team.

The traditions and cultures of the GAA suggest that most teams still operate in an unbending hierarchy between management and players, where engagement is minimal and often, sadly, as a last resort. It begs the question, how long will such outdated coaching and management principles prevail as the information available to players grows exponentially year-on-year?

Consider the number of players nowadays compared to yesteryear who are graduates of sport science, PE and coaching management degrees and Masters programmes throughout the country who are been managed and coached by individuals with little or no qualifications in that space. Think of the untapped resources on the field of play alone that could elevate a team’s approach should a manager have the strength of character to ask the necessary questions to tap into their knowledge.

The impact of a coach’s philosophy on the likelihood of any change emerging over a season will depend heavily on the coach’s willingness to challenge his or her own approach. We often think about this in relation to the coaches who have more obvious problems that need addressing, such as a team leaking too many goals or fading physically in the final ten minutes of a match.

But look out for, and learn from the coach who is winning and is expected to continue to do so.

One such manager is Jim Gavin, who has nurtured an air of invincibility in Dublin football as Brian Cody once did in the previous decade with the Kilkenny hurlers. Both men are in the news this week, Brian Cody again preaching a lack of tactics in his coaching method, an illusion surely long since dismissed by how he has adapted his own approach in recent seasons as he oversees a period of change for the previously trophy-laden county.

It was quite brilliant what Cody managed to convince the country of for so many years. Suggesting that there was no such thing as tactics in Kilkenny as if to say that they won all they did because they just threw a ball in amongst the players and let them flake away at each other from one session to another, season after season.

It is almost as if he recognised the tradition of emulation that slowed the progress of real change throughout the GAA long before anyone else did. For decades, the master plan at the start of each season was to look at what the winning team did last year and try and copy that. So of course if Kilkenny don’t do tactics, none of the rest of us should either – brilliant.

There is a likelihood that Dublin’s Jim Gavin will once again build throughout the summer towards a fourth All-Ireland final success in-a-row, not that anyone in the DCU training grounds would ever mention it. The default for those trailing in their wake will always cite resources and population to mistakenly explain how they do what they will continue to do this season, which is to build on last year’s success without looking back on last year as a reference point.

It is the ultimate challenge for a management team to start with a blank sheet of paper each year. Of course, you may find that certain items get retained, but they should only be kept having gone through the rigour and challenge of fresh eyes. The single most important thing for successful coaches to avoid is doing something because it worked before. That is a one-way ticket to mediocrity.

Maybe a lot more respect should be given to what we are seeing from Dublin in recent years, and not wait for it to be over before we realise that it was something special to behold. If Mayo or Kerry or Tyrone are looking at footage from last year to find out how to beat Dublin this year, we might as well hand Dublin captain Stephen Cluxton Sam Maguire now and switch on the hurling.

From the outside looking in, successful successive managers always appear to be more reflective than others, embodying the cliché, what won for us last year will not win for us this year. The capacity to start from scratch when the temptation to do a reheat is a powerful statement of intent for returning players and coaches alike.

It is often said that however challenging it is to achieve your goals, it is even more challenging to stay on top when you have secured them. With this sentiment in mind, Mayo must be bursting at the seams to finally climb the steps of the Hogan stand in Croke Park to raise the Sam Maguire cup aloft in victory.

The painful memories from those single-point All-Ireland final defeats in 2016 and 2017 at the hands of Dublin will be best dealt with if they can approach this season with fresh eyes. Any thinking that they are close because of the proximity of the final score will deceive them into thinking that a tweak here and there should suffice to get them over the line this year.

There are outstanding leaders throughout that team that will fulfil the county's promise so long as the preparation is right. It will come down to the simple things in training. How many real-time decisions are they making, week-in week-out, that simulate the chaotic environment of an All-Ireland final? How often do they go into a scenario in training with little or no knowledge of what the expected outcome is, to challenge their problem-solving skills? How early are players made clear of their role within the squad to enable them to develop themselves in the image of a Donaghy in Kerry or a Cooper in Dublin to facilitate the development of someone ahead of them in the roster? Will there be palpable changes in players’ ability this season compared to last, the likes we have seen in Dublin over the years, with players developing their skillset in a steady manner year-on-year?

Of course, these questions are not only for Mayo but for every county hoping to emerge from the early stages of the championship and survive the cull that creates the Super 8s competition. Connacht will see Galway going for a three in-a-row, something that was unheard of during the James Horan years.

It is quite remarkable to think that Stephen Rochford still has no silverware to show for his time in charge in the weakest province of the four. Surely the circuitous route they ventured last year will ramp up the importance of winning locally before ever considering winning nationally.

? Irish Examiner 2018

@DrSkillAcq