Eugene McGee One of the Greats

Very sad news. A great gaa man.

I have to say he is one of my heroes. I admired him as a manager. But also as a pundit. When I was young there was two people after every game I had to read the next day in the paper to hear what they would say. The first was Con Coulihan in the Evening Press. The second was Eugene McGee. Con was a great writer who had a brillant way of summing up games. But Eugene had a great football brain and was always straight and told it as it was. As I said he is one of my gaa heroes. One of the gaa men I admired most.

I dont thinik Eugene got the credit for he what achieved. When people talk about great gaa managers of all time they mention Dywer Boylan Heffernan and Harte and desevedly so. But Eugene McGee was right up there with them.

Eugene McGee was a great gaa man. One of the greatest gaa managers of all time. He was the Jimmy McGuiness of his day , a true innovator who was ahead of his time. Two stats below show his greatnesss.

Only one manager defeated both Dublins Heffernan 70s teams and Dwyers kerry team of the same era in the championship and that was Eugene McGee. Secondly only two outside managers have ever won Sam Maguire. The first is John O Mahoney a Mayo man who led Galway to Sam in 1998 and 01 and the second is Eugene McGee, a longford man who led Offaly to win Sam in 82.

He came from a county that produced great gaa men at the time who were real innovators that changed the face of the gaa. Eugene was from rural north longford and he changed the face of gaa management. Another longford man who changed the face of the gaa at the same time , was the man who built modern Croke Park . That was liam Mullivill , the director general of gaa in 80s and 90s. When Mullivill said he was going re modernise and re build Croke Park and build a new stadium in the late 80s ,many people were critical of him and saw it as a waste of money. Mulihvill would build a new Croke Park under cost in time , a world class stadium. Like Eugene McGee, Mulihvill was from a so called weaker county ,who changed the face of the gaa.

Eugene McGee was the Jimmy McGuiness of his day. He would video tape games of opponents, this was unheard of at the time in the gaa. He worked on players diets and this was also unheard of at the time in the gaa. He would give all his players information and anyalsis on their direct opponent. Again this was unheard of at the time. He would go over to Arsenal and watch professional soccer players train to find out how professional sports people trained. At the time again this was unheard of in gaa circles . At Arsenal at the time Frank Stapleton Liam Brady and David O Leary were playing for Arsenal and Eugene would ogover to see them train and find out what modern training techniques that he could use as a gaa manager.

But his true greatness was he took on three great football teams who were seen as unbeatable at the time, and he defeated these three unbeatable legendary teams against all odds. His first sign of greatness was as manager of UCD. In 1970s St Vincents influenced by Kevin Heffernan and led by Jimmy Keaveney were not only the best club team in Dublin, but were the best club team in Ireland. Between 1950 and 1977 St Vincents won 22 Dublin senior titles. And at the start of 70s another great Vincents team was emerging. St Vincents won 3 in a row senior club titles in the years 1970 71 1972. St . Vincents were seen as unbeatable in the Dublin club championship at the time. Yet Eugene McGees UCD dethroned them in the 1973 and the 1974 club finals, beating St Vincents in both finals. St Vincents would win the 1975 and the 1976 finals beating UCD in both finals . ( Vincents won the All Ireland senior club title in 1976). In 4 years in a row , UCD and St Vincents played in 4 Dublin senior club finals versus each other, with two wins apiece. These were legendary games were Eugene McGee went up v Kevin Heffernan. And Eugene McGee suceeded in beating a great Heffernan Dublin team, not for the last time. (Eugene also led UCD to two in a row leinster senior club titles in 1973 and 1974 and led UCD to win two in a row All Ireland senior club titles in the mid 1970s. Simply put this UCD team managed by Eugene McGee is the greatest college GAA football team ever.And it is no coincidence that after he left UCD . it would be another 25 years before a UCD team would even reach a Dublin senior club final)

After his huge sucess with UCD, Eugene McGee took over the Offaly senior job. .He took over Offaly who at the time were heading towards div 3 and maybe even div 4. Offaly had a great team in the early 70s but by the mid to late 70s that team was broken up. In his first two years there was little sucess. But he was placing in strong foundations. In 79 he was unlucky not to beat Dublin in a leinster final. But in 1980s he defeated Dublin in a leinster final which stopped Dublin from winning 8 in a row leinster titles and stopped Dublin from reaching their 8th All Ireland final in a row. And in 1982 he defeated Dublins Heffernan led team in a leinster final by 9 points , which is Dublin worst ever defeat in a leinster final ever. At the time Dublin in leinster were just dominat as they are now. And were just as sucessful and dominant nationwide as they are now , the only difference was Dublin can beat kerry now , they couldnt in late 70s and early 80s. Yet this unbeatable Dublin team who were feared throughout the land were dethroned by this great longford man , not once but twice.

After dethtoning Heffernans two great Dublin teams in leinster (St. Vincents and Dublin inter county team ), Eugene turned his attention to Mick Dwyers great kerry team who were seen as not just only as unbeatable but were seen as the invincibles of gaelic football, seen as the greatest football team of all.time.. No one could see anyone beating Kerry in the late 70s and early 80s, it was an impossible dream. As kerry won 4 in a row All Ireland titles and won 8 Munster titles in a row. The 5 in a row in 1982 was seen as unstoppable. Kerry couldnt be beaten , kerry were seen as unstoppable.

Yet Eugene McGee over a 4 year period kept building Offaly to get closer and closer to kerry. They played Kerry in the1980 All Ireland semi final. They lost to kerry in 1980, but scored 4 - 10. They lost in All Ireland final v kerry in 1981, but kept kerry to 1 - 12 , after letting kerry score 4 - 15 in the 1980 semi final. They were slowly closing the gap between themselves and kerry. And any chance they could play a challenge game v kerry, it was set up. And many times in those challenge games they were hammered by kerry . And people would say to Eugene McGee, why play kerry so many times in challenge games and get so many bad beatings?. Surely its not good for team confidence , they would say. Eugene McGee would answer back, the more we play them, the more we get used to playing them, the more we learn about them, the better the chance we have of beating them in the future.

And he was right. For in the greatest All Ireland final of all time which ended with the most famous gaa goal of all.time , a man from North rural longford stopped the greatest gaa football team ever from achieving the greatest gaa achievement ever. A great gaa man, one of the greatest managers of all time. Eugene McGee.

Eugene McGee RIP.