Even managers need a good engine

On Gaelic Games: The hiring season is at full tilt, a sort of a cross between the street corners in Kilburn before the van pulls up and the more urgent demeanour of Boys from the Black Stuff.

Given the rampant and frequently irrational expectations placed on managers, it's becoming more and more difficult to detect what attractions candidates see in the prospect of immersing themselves in intercounty management.

One All-Ireland winning manager, no longer involved, remarked that the best prospective appointments were those who had a sensible grasp of what was involved - and consequently were reluctant to commit themselves: "It's the fellas that are mad for it you don't want," he concluded.

The impact of all of this on the club scene has been attracting attention of late. It's a circular process: the more a manager controls the availability of his players and disrupts the county fixture list, the more pressure he creates, as clubs expect some return on this investment of inconvenience; the more pressure, the more controlling the manager becomes.

These pressures are par for the course throughout the country except for the comparatively few counties with virtually zero ambition, for whom even modest interim targets are unattainable.

Although the hiring season is just about at full throttle and looks to be delivering a very high turnover of managers it's surprising to note that there's nothing particularly unusual about the trading this year. This year there have been 14 vacancies among senior intercounty teams, half of which are now filled. This compares with 19 last year.

Nor is the popularity of managers from outside of the county a new phenomenon. A list of football managers from 1990 reveals that 10 of them were not from the particular county - compared with current figures of 11 (allowing that that figure should rise when remaining vacancies are filled).

It's easy to see the attraction from both perspectives: in all likelihood he won't have any baggage coming in and from his own point of view won't be living among the people scrutinising him most closely.

Former Offaly manager Eugene McGee, writing in his Irish Independent column, was critical of the rush to appoint outsiders and pointed out that only two such appointments in the past 25 years had delivered All-Ireland football titles.

Given that - as he acknowledged - McGee is one of them his scepticism is surprising. But his point that county board officials frequently exhibit a lack of rigour in assessing the credentials of non-local candidates is valid. As he also acknowledges, though, the scale of success is wholly different at provincial level: ground-breaking achievements in Clare, Leitrim, Cavan, Offaly, Kildare, Laois and Westmeath were all attained under the guidance of managers from outside of the counties.

It's difficult to quantify the promotional impact of these provincial triumphs. Throw in Charlie Mulgrew taking Fermanagh to an All-Ireland semi-final and we're talking about a quarter of all counties.

Yesterday GAA president Nickey Brennan emphasised the unacceptability of paying managers and the importance of maintaining the amateur ethos throughout the association. It's the elephant in the GAA's sittingroom. It is well known that certain county managers are paid - ironically not in the big traditional and therefore more successful counties - but as Brennan reiterated yesterday, nothing can be proved.

One of his predecessors Peter Quinn came out with the memorable line that when looking for under-the-table payments, they couldn't even find the table.

Quinn chaired the 1997 Amateur Status Committee that pushed out the boat for players in terms of legitimising sponsorship and endorsement earnings among other relaxations of the then code.

There was, however, an interesting interlude at the special congress that accepted the committee's report when Leitrim proposed drawing a distinction between players and managers, recognising the special contribution made by managers.

Des Quinn, the Leitrim chairman who proposed the motion, made a cogent case for remunerating managers.

He pointed out that good managers - particularly in smaller counties - performed a vital service in, not alone maximising the prospects of a limited playing resource, but also through their efforts publicising and promoting the game among children and the wider population.

This motion was withdrawn after a debate during which Peter Quinn drew applause by affirming he regarded players as more important than managers, but it was agreed that all reasonable expenses incurred by managers should be met.

Managers frequently do as much for this promotion as full-time administrators. Few teams win anything with talented players and an unimpressive manager. Whereas good players regularly go unrewarded on the playing field, good managers achieve results. And, ultimately, managers take responsibility for what goes wrong by forfeiting their positions in a way that rarely applies to players.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One yesterday All-Ireland winning Donegal manager - and one of the long-suffering Railway Cup managers - Brian McEniff appeared to back the case for remunerating managers or at least increasing expenses by pushing their mileage rate up to around one euro.

He argued that although people like him, who were sufficiently well off, could carry the commitment, it wasn't the same for everyone.

"We have sports dieticians, strength and fitness people and they're all being paid and they're a back-up team for a county manager and he's not even getting the proper expenses for a car," he said.

Many travelling managers will wear out an engine during their term of office. It's frequently a long old road - and a lonely one, something that it's easy to forget at a time of the year when the same managers are being traded like commodities.