Lessons for a coach before they takeover
This column last week spoke about part of the process required for managers to recruit the correct personnel to optimise performance for their players. The headline: If you are standing still, you are also going backwards, suggested that success is hard won through embracing the fact that past failures will lead to future gains, so long as you have the capacity to frame failure as an opportunity to learn and not blame.
In the week since, yet another inter-county manager has vacated his position, leaving, among others, four of the biggest jobs in our national games looking for helmsmen. Stephen Rochford is no longer the manager of the Mayo senior football team, joining Kerry’s Eamon Fitzmaurice on the football side of the house. In hurling, the significant departures of Michael Ryan from Tipperary and Derek McGrath from Waterford create a symmetry across the codes.
Historically, Kerry football and Tipperary hurling would be seen as GAA royalty for the honours they have experienced throughout the decades. But for Mayo football and Waterford hurling, they remain the two greatest stories waiting to be told. Both with their last All-Ireland triumph as far back as the 1950s with many a close call between now and then, notwithstanding their respective losses in last year’s finals.
The common course of action when recruiting a manager is that a select group of people is tasked with finding the replacement. Often these committees, per se, are made up of county board members, who may not always have their finger on the pulse as to what a high performance sport environment looks like.
One thing is for sure though, that each of these four vacancies requires a manager with a deep appreciation of what an environment like that actually is, and how to build it if it is not already in place.
How many recently departed managers are engaged in an exit interview to eke out the learnings that ultimately lead to their departure? Think of the rich information gained from a knowledge transfer to inform his successor.
How many of these selection committees will have a representative from the players on board, either a former player or a current one, or both? How many former managers will sit around that table? How many coaching officers, those who work on the ground around the county will have a platform for inquiry? How many outside, independent people will contribute to the process, bringing an essential helping of objectivity to proceedings?
Think of the depth, breadth and quality of questioning that would come from such a diverse team of individuals tasked with finding the right replacement to either return Kerry football or Tipperary hurling to their place at the top table or to finally bring glory to the nearly men of Waterford hurling or Mayo football.
This is not to suggest that every one of these people sits in on an interview process, but their insights, experiences and queries should inform the line of questioning beforehand. All too often, such a process is decided on by the presentation of a vision from the candidates. But a vision is often a best-case scenario presented with the best will in the world without any of the real life pressures of implementation. A strong selection panel will know how to pressure test a vision before committing to one over another.
Critical to a vision is to measure how it aligns with what is already in place. Unfortunately, many new managers speak with an arrogance that they’ll be the one to right the wrongs they observed from the outside looking in. However, no set-up is void of some positives. The people who have gone before had their ideas, and they may not have worked for many different and complex reasons.
Especially, in the case of Eamon Fitzmaurice, Michael Ryan and Derek McGrath whose tenure has either championship or league silverware to show for their efforts. That said, because Stephen Rochford won nothing in his three years does not mean he would not have a wealth of experience and insights to hand over to his successor. But will such a conversation ever take place? In the way that great players often pass on their knowledge to those who follow in their footsteps, managers appear to be less inclined to share with those who fill the hot seat. Or maybe it is the new man who is unwilling to engage. Does ego pollute this space, rich with lessons for everyone to learn from, and ultimately benefit the players in place?
Save a thought for the players, those who are required to adapt to a new voice with relative speed and fit into a new vision regardless of how well the previous one may have suited them. How often are they engaged in the process of finding a replacement? The culture within in the GAA would not be known for how it engages with the voice of the players.
Take Mayo for instance. Think of what that squad has experienced in the last ten years, with four different management teams, each convinced they were the ones to finally maximise the potential from within the county, only to fall short time and again. Will the next man be sensible enough to recognise that it is not major surgery that is required, but merely refinements and a return to standards of excellence? Will the players be respected for what they have achieved and engaged in as stakeholders critical to the process of figuring out where they are deficient or will it be a one-way conversation, void of interaction, akin to a teacher speaking down to a pupil?
The likelihood is that some of these counties will have learned from the past and over the coming weeks will implement a method that would be comparable to the recruitment process of a world-class leader to a world-class environment. The reality is that some will not.
However, in a week that should be about celebrating our national games, with the All-Ireland football final only a matter of days away, two well-established managers go head-to head. Neither Dublin’s Jim Gavin nor Tyrone’s Mickey Harte have ever lost an All-Ireland football final. Something has to give on Sunday afternoon in Croke Park.
Both men are known for their tactical prowess and coaching ability with an eye for how to keep the wheels of progress turning even after success has been experienced. Like all good finals, the speculation as to how they will match up is at fever pitch. Can Tyrone match Dublin in a shootout? Will Dublin figure out a way to cope with the inevitable defensive strategy of Tyrone and manage their effective counter-attack?
If Dublin do go onto win, the manner with which they do it could have far-reaching consequences. An annihilation will surely spell the end of hyper-defensive football for good and for the good of the game. A close run thing will inspire many others to adopt a game of strangulation that will subject us all to many more seasons of uninteresting, uneventful football.
However, one thing is for sure; both managers operate in an atmosphere of figuring out a way to highlight their own strengths while marginalising the strengths of the opposition.
The 2018 season may finally have a game to get excited about.
? Irish Examiner 2018
@DrSkillAcq