Sport

Leahy’s ‘my way or the highway’ approach not doing him any favours

Mary Hannigan: Mayo manager’s methods a cause of concern for some

Almost three months in to this dismal Mayo dispute we’re probably still none the wiser about Peter Leahy’s managerial skills. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Thu Sep 20 2018 - 06:30

There's a scene in Blue Sisters, the documentary that followed the Dublin women's team through their ultimately triumphant 2017 Championship season, that might have left the faint-hearted wincing.

“IF YOU DON’T PLAY TO THE STRENGTHS WE’VE IDENTIFIED IN YOU,” the manager roars at a player in front of the group, “YOU’RE NOT WORTH A F**K TO THIS TEAM.”

If she was one of your own you might have wanted to remove her from the dressingroom and take her home there and then. Never mind the stage, Mrs Worthington, don’t put your daughter on a senior inter-county panel.

It’s unlikely, though, that too many sports people, whatever their code, whatever level they play at, would have blinked at the scene. Most of them probably get a rollicking of that nature at least once a week.

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And the player in question went on to not only win an All-Ireland medal, she was named Player of the Year. And she gave much of the credit for that to the manager for pushing her to the standards she had reached, for being the best she could be. The rollicking, it seemed, just drove her on. Still, though, it made for uncomfortable viewing.

But in any collection of personalities, in any walk of life, one size never fits all. The finest managers, we’re often told, are the ones who know which players need encouragement and which ones require a kick in the rear.

Almost three months in to this dismal Mayo dispute we're probably still none the wiser about Peter Leahy's managerial skills, the players who have stayed loyal to him approving, the ones who left the panel scathing.

Choppier

It was back in May, ahead of the National League final against Dublin, that Leahy chatted about his first six months as Mayo manager, admitting that the trip up until then had been far from "plain sailing". Since then the waters have become decidedly choppier.

“Like any job when you go in first there were hairy moments,” he said, “a lot of people don’t want to accept you. Our management team is different, our structures are different, how we do things is different. It’s bad enough with men, but with women change doesn’t go down that well.”

That line might have prompted the wiggling of the odd eyebrow, but it wasn’t as if Leahy was new to managing a women’s team having led his native Westmeath to All-Ireland Intermediate success in 2011, before joining the Mayo set-up as a coach half-way through the 2017 Championship. In between he had been on the backroom team in charge of the Westmeath senior hurlers in 2015 and was manager of the county’s minor footballers the following year.

A lively sporting CV, then, and an interesting man he is too, his passion for sport knowing no bounds. One of the coaches who most influenced him in the early days was none other than Joe Schmidt when he joined Mullingar’s rugby club in 1991, Leahy then the prop on the team. “He had an amazing way of getting on with people,” he said.

Whether Leahy has displayed the same quality is, clearly, disputed by the Mayo players who walked away. In that May chat he certainly came across as old school, a “my way or the highway” kind of manager intent on setting down his mark. When asked about the possibility of Cora Staunton returning to the panel after her spell in Australia, he said: “Cora is a big name, but if she comes in, she’ll be coming in as a team player.”

Which was perfectly reasonable on one level, but there was a confrontational antagonism about it too, the insinuation about Staunton’s role in the team clear enough. It should have been dealt with behind closed doors. It hardly helped the atmosphere.

And when captain Sarah Tierney questioned his training methods his response, according to her, wasn't exactly welcoming of a discussion. "He basically said he didn't give a 'f**k' about how many All Stars I had or what name I had made for myself in football. He was the manager and what he said goes this year."

Irritating

Tierney has been on the Mayo panel since 2007, when she was just 15, a whole 10 years before Leahy arrived in the county. She has given everything and more to the cause. So, irritating as her observation might have been, the least she deserved was some civility and to be treated like an adult.

Without question, Staunton referring to the environment under Leahy as being “unsafe” was reckless and irresponsible, leading, as it did, to the most damaging of speculation. For that he is owed an apology.

But perhaps Leahy and the Mayo LGFA should reflect, too, on how they have handled it all. Former selector Denise McDonagh, one of the group who walked out of the panel, is now a pilot but previously was a military training instructor with the Army. And in that world, it’s nothing but “my way or the highway”.

But, she said, “there is a massive duty of care to every individual who is part of that high performance environment and for me that is a huge factor at play here”.

If a former military training instructor has a problem with how things were done, maybe we should listen?

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