Insiders, outsiders and Kevin Walsh in Sligo
by
Daire Walsh
The recent trend of young managers, as well as ‘outsiders’, stepping into inter-county management has continued with the news that Kevin Walsh, the former Galway midfielder, has taken the vacant Sligo football job.
If you take a look at the age profile of inter-county managers currently in place, there are a number of managers in and around Walsh’s age of 39. For instance, there is Wexford manager Jason Ryan, who had an unforgettable first year in charge of the Slaneysiders, who is only 31. Glenn Ryan, who came out second-best to Walsh while representing Kildare in the 1998 All-Ireland, has taken the Longford job at 38, having brought the Kildare Under-21 side to the All-Ireland final this year. Even a high-profile side like Dublin has pitched for a young boss, with the 38 year-old Pat Gilroy taking over from Paul Caffrey. There are also Kildare’s Kieran McGeeney, who was only retired a cold day from playing with Armagh before he stepped into big-time management at 36. Roscommon’s Fergal O’ Donnell also fits into the same category having not reached his 40th birthday yet.
Of the above three, Gilroy and O’ Donnell are the odd ones out because they are in charge of their native counties. The others, and Walsh, are coming from an ‘outside’ county, which is an even bigger trend in recent years. There are currently 15 ‘outside’ managers in Ireland at the moment, with Leinster having the most with seven. Very often it can successful, Mick O’ Dwyer and John O’ Mahony have done it on more than one occasion, but things can turn sour when things don’t work out. The likes of Brian McDonald in Mayo and Peter Ford in Galway came in for stick when they didn’t live up to people’s expectations and, especially in Ford’s case, there was a clamour for a native to return to the post, which led to Liam Sammon becoming the first Galway man to take charge of the football side in 10 years.
Another fine example of an ‘outside’ manager not quite working as planned comes from Ger Loughnane’s recent spell as Galway hurling boss. When he arrived from Clare in the winter of 2006, he was hailed as something of a ‘Messiah’, and he took the job only after a number of well-respected locals stood aside. After failing to achieve his objective of an All-Ireland within two years, there were many people who began to raise the point about the likes of Sean Silke and Joe Cooney letting Loughnane run on his own. It has even become public knowledge that Cooney hasn’t attended a Galway match for the last two years because of this fact.
So, it is clearly a risk whenever you bring an ‘outsider’ in, and when you couple this with Walsh’s relative inexperience at the highest level, it makes the risk of this particular appointment even bigger. In terms of experience, it has been said by some that his only experience has been as manager of the Aran Islands and an Under-14 Ladies’ team. This isn’t quite the case, as has more experience than this, having trained the Galway Ladies Senior team in the season of 2006/2007. While still playing with Galway, he was the manager of his home club Killanin, and he has also served under his old mentor John O’ Mahony as Connacht selector for the past three years.
While all the above can’t really prepare you for the huge task of inter-county management, you have to start somewhere, and it is Sligo who have decided to give Walsh his managerial berth. As manager of the Aran Islands, he got them to the Junior Championship Final this year, which they lost to a Lorcan O’ Callarain-inspired Spiddal, in a match which was marred by some very unsavoury incidents.
It remains to be seen whether or not Walsh has the pedigree to manage at senior inter-county level, but there is no denying that he is a man that possesses excellent characteristics that are tailor made for such a job. During his playing career, he was an inspirational leader during the good, bad and mediocre times of Galway football, and was always a strong voice in the dressing room, among leaders like his cousin Gary Fahy, Ray Silke, current captain Padraic Joyce, Ja Fallon, Michael Donnellan and Tomas Mannion.
He also had remarkable resilience, having suffered numerous injuries throughout his career. Such injuries almost brought his time in the Galway set-up to an abrupt end in 2000 following an injury picked up in that year’s decider against Kerry, but he kept going and came back to win 2 All-Irelands, as well as winning All-Stars in 2001 and 2003, to go with his first award in 1998.
What he also had, which separated him from the also-rans of football, was superb aerial ability and a unique footballing brain, which enabled him to slow the game down to his pace.
If he can bring these characteristics to bear in the Sligo position, then there will be every chance that he could be a success with the Yeats County. It will probably help that he will have three ex-Sligo players with him in Paul Taylor, Paul Durcan and Dessie Sloyan. If he has any problem getting to know the Sligo club scene, then these seasoned ex-players, who have helped to bring Sligo football out of the wilderness during Peter Ford’s reign in charge, will no doubt make that aspect of his job a little less painless.
However, when the dust settles, and he has a long look at what lies ahead for him, then Walsh will surely recognize that he has a huge task ahead of him. Because, after finally reaching the promise land with a Connacht Final win in 2007, they had a huge fall from grace last year, losing their Division Three status, before suffering a 3-11 to 0-7 defeat to Mayo in the Provincial semi-final. There was worse to come though, and a Tommy Murphy Cup defeat to London, with some high-profile players like Eamonn O’ Hara deciding not to take part, brought an unhappy end to Tommy Jordan’s spell in charge.
Because of this, Sligo now lie in Division 4 of the National Football League and they will be expected to get back into Division 3. Unfortunately, it won’t be as easy as some may think as there are three other counties with high-profile managers who will be vying for the top two places. Mick O’ Dwyer’s Wicklow, Mickey Moran’s Leitrim and Luke Dempsey’s Carlow will be extremely disappointed if they don’t break into the third tier for 2010, and failure to do so could potentially cast a shadow over their respective positions.
They should be well able to handle the likes of London (as long as they don’t let lightning strike twice!), Kilkenny and Waterford, as well as being able to tackle the big guns with much efficiency. The championship though is where the real test lies for Sligo this year. They will await the winners of London and Galway, and barring an absolute miracle, it would appear that Kevin Walsh will be facing the county, and indeed some of the players, that he knows so well.
They famously beat Galway in their last clash in 2007, but that was their first Championship victory over them in 32 years, and Galway will undoubtedly be red-hot favourites going into this match, given that they operate three divisions above them in the national league.
Whatever happens in that game, it should make for very interesting viewing, as it is always intriguing to see an ex-player coming up against his old side, whether it be as a player or a manager. It is important that, if he is to be successful, that the people of Sligo get behind him, and that is something that Eamonn O’ Hara has already done by labeling the new management set-up as the ‘dream team’.
This leaves Walsh and his selectors with quite a bit to live up to, but if he can enjoy even an iota of the success he had during his playing career, then they might be onto to something.
Only time will tell.