New Mayo Manager

threebeards

Wouldn't be my first choice but I'll give him a chance.

From gaa.ie

Moran gets two-year Mayo term

Tuesday, October 25

Mickey Moran has been appointed the new Mayo senior football manager for a two-year term.

The ex-Derry, Donegal and Sligo boss had been favourite to succeed John Maughan at the Westerners' helm after the Crossmolina clubman stepped down at the end of the 2005 championship season, despite having two years left on his deal.

Moran will be the first outsider to take the post since Kerry legend Jack O'Shea was in charge back in 1994, and his term will be reviewed after 12 months.

The new man will be joined by John Morrisson, a sports officer at University Ulster Jordanstown. The pair have worked together for the past few years at Donegal and Derry.

Moran, who recently retired from schoolteaching, told the Irish Times that he would be giving the job his full attention.

"I have the time to get stuck into different tasks, which is what I'm doing," he said before his appointment.

"Mayo is one of the few counties with a great structure, and the players are there. It would be an ideal chance."

Moran was officially ratified on Monday night after a five man sub-committee, headed by chairman Paddy Naughton, had been set up by the county board to find Maughan's replacement.

Contenders for the position had included former Limerick chief Liam Kearns and the Hotelier and former Donegal boss Brian McEniff, but both ruled themselves out of the running.

Moran comes with a good pedigree as he helped steer Eamonn Coleman's Derry to an All-Ireland SFC title in 1993.

Flukey

Mayo is a county with great potential and of all the counties in the country, an All-Ireland victory would get a bigger welcome there than in any county, and would be welcomed by many other counties too. Being an outsider, he may be able to get above the internal politics and take a neutral view. This might get some of the better players around the county to get their chance. I think there would be better people for the job, though some were unavailable or not interested, so we'll see how it goes.

threebeards

Flukey wrote:

Being an outsider, he may be able to get above the internal politics and take a neutral view.

I think he'll have his work cut out tbh Flukey. The Mayo County Board is antiquated and until such time as they (or at least most of them) step aside, any manager will have his work cut out. If they really had the interest of county football at heart they would have moved over and let O'Mahoney into the frame. It's been said and probably with justification that as long as the current regime is in place that O'Mahoney won't consider the job even though it's publicly acknowledged that he's the best man for the job.

There's a commonly felt frustration in Mayo that over the past decade there have been teams good enough to win at least 1 All Ireland (we'll never have a better chance than 96) but it now appears to be a monkey that's proving difficult to get off their backs. 12 final appearances (at all levels) since the last win in 85 and I think it's fair to say that it's not looking likely any time soon.

I'd love to see Mickey Moran do well but I just hope he's not hampered by internal politics.

Culchie

Overall, I.m happy enough with the Mickey Moran appointment, with Johnno out of the running, I think Moran is a good choice.

He is a direct straight talking football man, he supports his players at all times, and his players have always put in 100% for him anywhere he has been before, so that is a good sign. He knows what he wants, and won't settle for anything less.

I was listening to an interview with his sidekick Morrison last night on Newstalk, and he is obviously a 'sports psychologist', he was talking about alot of concepts and behavioural patterns, about Self 1 and Self 2 principals.
Snooker Players, Darts Players use these techniques to 'get into the zone' as they say.
This is well and good if you know about this stuff (I play golf, and have read this sort of stuff before), however if the footballers don't believe in it, it can be ridiculed pretty quickly by non-believers who are in every dressing room.
So this is a risk.....however he has been with Moran all along, so again, they have the results of improving teams, so I'm OK with that, although I can already hear Spillane and Brolly preparing jokes already.

On the County Board issue, I think their number is up, I think Moran won't take any ****e, and Mayo people are sick of them at this stage, so worst case scenario, they will be 'softened up' for the future, and change will occur.

I also think we've lost more than 12 All Irelands in a row Threebeards

BTW, Mayo definitely left 2 All-Irelands behind them in 96 and 97.
They had easily the best team of players in the country during that period, but a poor tactical manager.

The debacle against Meath is undisputeable, they left it behind them. But 97 was the Maurice Fitz final and probably the worst Kerry team seen in Croke Park in my lifetime, and definitely the softest All Ireland ever won.

Kerry (Mauruce Fitz) won that year by beating Clare, Tipperary, Cavan and Mayo !

Lemlin

Interesting news yesterday that Mickey Moran has called David Brady back to the panel, along with his younger brother. Whether he returns remains to be seen but he's definitely in the 24 man provisional panel that don't have to go for trials.