Sideline View - The person behind the player

“I’d say handling people is the most important thing you can do as a coach. I’ve found every time I’ve gotten into trouble with a player, it’s because I wasn’t talking to him enough.” – Lou Holtz American Football Coach

A VIDEO doing the rounds on the web last week got me thinking.  We have all heard and laughed at Rory’s Stories at one time or another.  His comedy is never far off the money.  This aforementioned piece wasn’t funny but it still hit home.

In the staged clip, former Cavan U21 winning goalkeeper Alan O’Mara shanked a kick-out over the line.  In the next clip he flapped at a high ball only for an inrushing forward to poke the ball to the unguarded net.  Two mistakes – but I have been there myself, you don’t set out to make them.

All the while a lunatic manager, played by Rory, was going absolutely crazy along the line.  Eventually O’Mara heard enough and headed over the fence and away to ‘safety’.

A third party came in and pointed out to Rory about the error of his ways.  The penny dropped and with the aid of hindsight, Rory set off to build his bridges with his goalkeeper.

In this column a few weeks ago, I spoke about referees – how we don’t always agree with them but the GAA needs to make a stand and protect them.  A referee came forward to tell how he was physically assaulted after a game and felt Derry county board didn’t deal with the incident adequately.  He has since hung up his whistle until the end of the season - on principle.

In a similar trend, we have a collection of hot heads that are driving people away from our games with their level of aggression – just like Rory in our example above.  Managers, coaches and personnel inside the wire on matchdays - there are far too many who cannot control themselves.  It is a real epidemic and the GAA needs to take a strong stance.

A few seasons ago I was in attendance at a match with a supporter in front of me roaring all sorts at a linesman.  I let it go until eventually I pleasantly asked the man to give it a break.  It didn’t have the desired effect and I was met with aggression - I was the bad guy.  How dare I?

The people who pay their £3 on a Sunday feel they can roar whatever they like.  The GAA has very little control who comes through the turnstiles – but we can control who takes charge of our teams.

I bumped into a former work colleague from Dunloy recently and was asking him about their improving hurling fortunes.  He put it down to two factors.

The first was their indoor centre of excellence, allowing the youth to train all winter.  The second was all down to personnel.  The committee controls who exactly they put in charge of teams.  Now their golden era of the 1990s are charged with bringing the next crop through.

DUTY OF CARE

I heard another yarn the other day about an U10 mentor blaming a player, in a team huddle, for losing a game.  This is so wrong in every way.  Rather than backing the child’s family, the club backed the coach.

Nobody wants their son or daughter wrapped up in cotton wool.  Far from it.  They need to be able to deal with failure – but there is a better way of passing on the need for improvement than embarrass him/her in front of their peers.

Do people really know what is going through a player’s head when they pull on that jersey?  The player may have family trouble, could have lost their job or be struggling with exam pressure.  The sporting arena is their release and for all a coach knows - they could be the only friendly face their player might see in the week.  We just don’t know.

Players will continue to make mistakes but many will strive to eradicate them and there is way of telling them.  Those heading for the top level will crave to have a DVD handed to them with examples on how to improve.  Some will welcome a manager having a subtle word with them before training about what exactly is needed to turnaround a below par performance.  The essence of real coaching.

Turning on the hairdryer and dishing out bad manners serves no-one.  Well almost.  In the corner of the dressing room, there will be a strong minded individual who thrives on proving the manager wrong – but they are in the minority.  The mouthful of aggression pushes his buttons and in return comes the desired reaction.  ‘I’ll show that manager he is wrong’.  But do know we really know who those people are?

I remember an extract from Galway’s 1998 behind the scenes documentary ‘A Year ‘til Sunday’ and John O’Mahony holding up a newspaper extract criticising Galway’s midfield as being ‘fancy dans’ and not being able to win clean ball.  He held it up in front of Kevin Walsh and Seán Ó Domhnaill at a team meeting after their Connacht Final draw with Roscommon.

O’Mahony knew his men and how they would react.  Walsh and Ó Domhnaill didn’t stop until they cleared Roscommon, Derry and Kildare from their path on their way to Sam.

Take Mickey Moran for example, he has the Slaughtneil players eating out of his hand.  A club that traditionally has never lacked fire in the belly.  Moran’s demeanour didn’t quash the fire – but merely harnessed it.

Paul McFlynn made a comment one day about Malachy O’Rourke and how high he held his Ulster winning manager.  McFlynn offered the following example.

O’Rourke rang the house one night and his wife Aideen answered, rather than ‘hello, is Paul in’ - it was ‘well Aideen, how are things with you?’  O’Rourke cared, knew how to manage people and understood the intricacies of peoples’ lives.

LET THE KIDS PLAY

That is the elite level, with players giving up so much of their time in the pursuit of excellence but at underage, teams deserve the same level of respect.

There is an assortment of underage coaches coming from failed playing careers who expect their young charges to be absolutely perfect.  You know the ones I mean – they are barking instructions from nearly 20 metres inside the sideline.  They will have a few pints in the club later and wanting everyone to tell him/her how good their coaching is.

At underage, all mentors should be put outside the wire - with the exception of the designated first aider.  Pick the team beforehand, make the substitutions from the stand and at half-time.  And just let the kids play – that’s all they want.

The one thing we don’t want to dilute is the passion we take into our games. But we need to take our heads out of the sand and make our clubs a safe and enjoyable environment for everyone.  The worrying fact is that the Rorys of this world don’t even realise they are doing it.  Clubs need to give them the curly finger.

For more information about Mental Health in the GAA, visit www.realtalks.ie.  Swatragh have already signed up to the Real Talks Roadshow.