Caught on the hop by kangaroo court

Offaly mangerial crisis: Tom Humphries on how the Offaly County Board possibly sacrificed Paul O'Kelly and his development plans in favour of instant gratification.

Eight months. Paul O'Kelly's head is a scrapbook of all the days.

They started late and the Offaly County Board had no gym organised and pitches around the county were initially hard to get so they went to the hill in Croghan and it bonded them together, squad and manager. They ran up and down the hill using the light from a tractor's headlights. They called it altitude and attitude training. They got Jim Kilty to design a fitness programme suitable to the terrain. Offaly were on the way.

They'd come to him in August last year. He had two other counties on hold and a business opportunity dangling. His heart is faithful though. Once Offaly called he was gone. It took till Christmas to ratify him but his enthusiasm prevailed. He started work on December 5th.

"Initially it was about how quickly we could get under-21 and senior sides together to genuinely compete in the summer. The objective was to get to the point where a third of this year's panel were under 21, that would be the first step in achieving a situation where in two years' time two-thirds of the panel would be new. We did that during December, January and February. Other counties would be well into stamina work by then but we were looking forward on a two to three-year time-frame at sustainable success, rather than the odd ambush."

There were constraints. Offaly has a low level of people going to third-level education, a pattern which bucks the trend of the game. Of those that go to college they have a higher than average drop-out rate.

O'Kelly worked on building a database of players and what they were doing in terms of education and career. Worked with them to make ambitious but realistic plans for their careers. Bursaries, scholarships and other means of support were investigated. The Armaghs, Galways and Tyrones were the proof he needed of the benefits of having a balance between work and play. In Offaly players constantly seemed to be changing jobs, drifting. He wanted their focus.

They created development squads. Offaly has an abysmal underage record. This summer they were ready to put the development squads through a complete screening process from fitness to diet to career. Ready to help them manage those things in a "generous way". The long-term idea was to end up with a sustainable team where players adhered to the plan.

Last year they had limited success. O'Kelly co-operated with team managers in colleges, dovetailing training and playing requirements. Later when reviewing the season with the county board he would be accused of giving certain players free time during the season. He knew then it had all turned a little Kafkaesque. The review had become the trial.

Take Conor Evans, for example. Evans is a masters degree graduate. Offaly didn't have him for the Limerick game in the league. He had to go to an academic conference in Lucerne. The sort of thing the Swiss wouldn't postpone because it clashed with a league game. Something hugely important for the next year of his life. O'Kelly didn't need to waste time wondering if there was any way he could compromise that. Evans went. Offaly lost. "His unavailability is not the reason we lost that match but that was brought up."

Limerick: detail of the preparation for that particular game. What happened beforehand, what happened at half-time. Who said what? All this was trailed across the examination table. Management and players are baffled.

"The Limerick game in the league? It was a very good performance. We were beaten by a point by a team on an upswing. There was terrible hail in the middle of the second half and the game was close to being abandoned. Our reality was we started with eight or nine of the previous year's championship team. We were doing well at half-time but the second half was tough. We lost Cathal Daly and Roy Malone through injury. We fought on.

"Then Karol Slattery, who had a yellow from the first half, got a very serious knock. A couple of minutes later he fell on a player and got sent off. It turned out he was concussed. We finished with 14 men and fought to the death. I was told by the county board the half-time team talk lost the match."

Championship came around. Mick O'Dwyer's luminescence spilled over the border into Offaly. Maybe there was some yearning for a Micko of their own. Who knows? Offaly drew with Laois in the championship, should have snatched it. They lost the next day and went on a nice little run in the qualifiers. It ended in that bizarre game against Roscommon in extra time, a rules anomaly meaning dismissals were wiped out in extra time but yellow cards carried over.

Offaly suffered. Still five championship games. A young team. A bright manager.

Some of those who saw Offaly lose to Roscommon reckon the board took things badly, the chafing of personalities became something raw on one side. O'Kelly went to the board a day or two later and asked could the annual review begin soon, he had work to do in getting some real momentum going before the end of summer. He was told to freeze everything till the board was ready.

In the interim O'Kelly engaged in his own review process. He asked every selector and adviser to identify two or three things which the management needed to do. He went to eight of the most experienced players and asked them to do the same and more. Identify three things which could make a difference to their performance and to the performance of the team. They did that and something else. O'Kelly asked them to come back and tell him the one thing he needed to do: "They had that entitlement, they had earned the right to challenge me that way. I got all that feedback, documented. I learned from it and got ready to move on."

The board took two months to initiate their review. It took two months to begin, it had no apparent criteria and it was over in a few strokes. O'Kelly got a call. Resign or be fired. "My failure was not to realise the county board were into instant gratification. I should have found a way of persuading them more about what we were about.

"These last few days the phone hasn't stopped ringing. I've been to kangaroo court. Firing squad. And the last few days have been like attending my own funeral. Two or three hundred people have called to say nice things. Players, officials, former players, fans. I've surrendered to the therapy of good friends and like-minded souls."

If kangaroo court seems an excessive term, consider the facts. The hurling review within the county proceeds at its leisure. The football review was wrapped up in six days. Pat Teehan, team secretary to the hurlers, attends every meeting. The football review was railroaded through while Jim Buckley, team secretary to the footballers, was in America dealing with a family illness. The board claims O'Kelly's players were widely consulted. The players deny this. The one who has spoken, spoke positively. As would Jim Buckley, who has resigned.

"I would have felt they should have been given another chance," says Buckley. "In eight months they had, as I think any reasonable person would say, done as well as last year, slightly better maybe. We won a few qualifiers and drew a championship game. They brought in 10 under-21s and one minor to the panel. That was going in the right direction as part of a three-year plan. The minimum was another year I thought."

The football part of Offaly is alive with rumours. Who is quitting. Who is getting shafted. Who is plotting. It is said the players want to meet but players are seldom as organised as they'd wish to be. It is said a big name is waiting in the wings. It is said politics matters more than football.

Meanwhile, time passes and Offaly football stands still again.