ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIER ROUND THREE: GAVIN CUMMISKEYfinds the O'Dwyer magic has lost none of its potency ahead of today's qualifier clash
Monday, October 9th, 2006
The Westbury Hotel, just off Dublin’s Grafton Street.
THERE ARE journalists sniggering down the back. It doesn’t come much cornier than a room filled with elderly Wicklow men, whooping and clapping at every lull in proceedings.
Some believe Mick O’Dwyer’s football blueprint to be outdated; his hard-running training methods defunct. Not this crowd.
He hardly helps to convince his detractors with the opening faux pas: “I’m not saying we’re going to win a provincial title, or anything like it, but I can assure you we’ll improve the standard of football in Laois . . .”
Oh dear. Cue more incredulous looks and chuckles from the fourth estate.
Respect is hard earned but easily lost. O’Dwyer knows this better than anyone but somehow his managerial style continues to thrive in the modern game.
Everyone present misses another trick, except old friend Arthur French, who was the butt of an act of devilish spontaneity.
“He said this time things would be different as he was going to come with an assistant and I was going to be that assistant. That was never rehearsed or even discussed. I hadn’t intended to be in there at all. There is a rogue in him and he had one over on me for sure.”
French only has himself to blame. Attracting such unrivalled expertise to the Garden of Ireland required a financier, a politician and Mr French to hatch a fool-proof plan.
Roscommon builder Seán Mulryan brought Ballymore Properties in on a three-year sponsorship deal, while Fine Gael’s Billy Timmons (All-Ireland club winner with Baltinglass in 1990) acted as conduit to the county board and chief harasser of O’Dwyer along with French, a Mayo auctioneer.
“Billy Timmons is a TD in Wicklow and I was at his uncle Christy’s, who was a great friend of mine, funeral in Kilcock and we started to talk football, which would be the normal thing. I hadn’t seen him for a while.
“Micko was finishing up with Laois and I don’t know which of us suggested it but Billy was ecstatic about the idea.
“Then I talked to Seán Mulryan about sponsorship – he is also a friend I do business with – and the last one I spoke to was Micko. When I said it to him he asked me ‘was I really stone mad!’”
Wicklow were ranked 31 in the unofficial football rankings just ahead of London.
“I convinced him by saying he came to Kildare when the fire had gone out and they were at an awful low level. I said he would be going to a place where there was never a fire started.”
The Past
O’DWYER moved seamlessly into management when his inter-county playing days concluded in 1974, usurping Cork and Dublin both provincially and nationally in 1975 – the start of the Kingdom’s golden era.
He brought his son Karl to Kildare for two stints (resting in 1995) when only the excellence of Galway forwards Michael Donnellan and Pádraic Joyce denied the most unlikely of All-Irelands. Two Leinster titles would have to suffice.
The Laois tenure (2003-06) delivered instant success, bridging a 58-year gap since they last ruled the province. He admitted in his autobiography (Blessed and Obsessed, with Martin Breheny) he overstayed his welcome by two winters. Six players at one training session should have been enough of a sign.
Despite excellent underage sides, Laois failed to build on 2003 but the subsequent tenure of Liam Kearns, and currently Seán Dempsey, helps to exonerate any perceived O’Dwyer faults.
Wicklow and Tommy Murphy
THE Wicklow story has hardly been without its own controversy, with another Laoisman, Tommy Murphy, to blame.
Seemingly, O’Dwyer has always clashed with the GAA hierarchy and certain opinions ensured the position of International Rules manager never came his way.
The Tommy Murphy Cup debacle deepened this animosity.
In 2007, some bright spark denied the bottom four teams in Division 2A and 2B access to the qualifiers, instead re-routing them to the lower tier competition when beaten in their provinces.
“That was the most outrageous decision,” said French. “It was brought in to help the weak but in Micko’s first year he had them in flying form. It took Louth three and a half games to beat them and Louth went on that year to make the qualifier third round.”
Illness saw French take the Bainisteoir bib for late summer football but O’Dwyer was present to witness Tommy Gill’s late goal defeat Antrim in the Croke Park final. Not many others were as the GAA’s distain for the competition meant a 12.15pm throw-in.
“Last year we beat Kildare and they got to the last eight via the qualifiers but we were unlucky to lose to Laois and again the Tommy Murphy Cup was our destiny,” French continued.
“That’s the GAA for you. I don’t think it would ever have been (removed) if Wicklow beating Kildare hadn’t shown the lunacy and hypocrisy of the whole thing. We lost two years.”
Timmons echoes these sentiments: “There is always a sense of regret that the qualifiers, which were brought in for weaker counties, were denied to Wicklow for two years. I think they did a lot of harm to a lot of counties. As evidence by the continued presence of Sligo, Wicklow and Antrim who are in the Ulster final this weekend. It only kept the weaker teams weak.”
This year an assault on Leinster was stymied by the loss of five players through injury or dismissal against Westmeath, defeat following in extra-time.
Tony Hannon and Thomas Walsh were sent off against Fermanagh but somehow they survived. Then Cavan were beaten as back-to-back success was finally achieved.
The Players’ Man
Wicklow’s most decorated player, International Rules representative Leighton Glynn rubbishes the idea that O’Dwyer’s methods are archaic.
“It can’t be outdated if they are still working. It’s more of a movement game. He doesn’t want lads holding on to the ball. Try to get it into the forwards quickly. When it comes to championship we play an awful lot of football in training. His winter training is running, running and more running but it is in the legs when you come into the championship.”
French attempts to encapsulate his motivational powers: “He is a players’ man. One of the great qualities in Micko is the youth respond to him. Sure Micko has spent his whole life with the young and he is extraordinarily young at heart. He acts younger than them around them. The fun, the banter, and the atmosphere he creates. They marvel at that.”
Timmons is enjoying the fruition of this three-year plan and the legacy that will be left behind.
“He kept his enthusiasm through thick and thin when many others would have waned. Displayed a belief that is now evident in the team he manages. They play in his likeness. And with his commitment and abandon.
“One vivid memory I have after a heavy defeat to Offaly in the league was down in Knockananna on a terrible February night, with sheets of rain, but there with the whistle was Micko putting his players through their paces. Nights like that is where the strength of the team comes from.
“Micko’s methods are simple and basic. Not alone has he fostered a bond in a team and commitment to him but that has filtered down to the clubs who now see their players playing with the county team as an honour. In the past it was seen as a hindrance to the club game in Wicklow. That has turned around.”
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
A HEAVING GAA ground in Aughrim The former superpower of Down come seeking a route out of the qualifiers.
We briefly spoke with Micko this week but a young journalist was never going to get an outpouring of emotion from the 73-year old. His 1960s defeats to Down as a player were “irrelevant”.
The “Aughrim factor” was dismissed by noting victories in Croke Park, particularly against old friends Kildare.
“Sure, a football pitch is 160 yards long by 100 yards wide. You have to play on that. You play within the rules. Two goalposts and that’s it,” he said.
He flirts around the edges of these confines yet wields more influence on the action than any before him. The Down players and manager Damien Cassidy don’t remember the All-Irelands won when O’Dwyer was a defender in 1960 and ’61 or a corner forward in ’68. He does though.
Benny Coulter may catch fire and end the Wicklow dream today but don’t be surprised to see the old man flash his crazed smile under the television lights, yet revealing nothing about the inner workings of a pure football mind.
Next Up
THE DRAW for Round Four of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship will take place on the Sunday Game tomorrow night on RTÉ 2 (around 10pm).
This will involve four games with the winning teams from Round Three taking on the beaten provincial finalists.
If Laois defeat Limerick in Phase Three of the hurling championship, then there will be a draw for the All-Ireland quarter-finals. If Limerick win, however, they will meet Dublin, and the winners of Cork v Galway will play Waterford.
