"Who'd be a manager?"
June 21, 2017
Meath manager Andy McEntee and Donegal manager Rory Gallagher.
Life as an inter-county manager can be a lonely existence when your team flops on the big day, according to Darragh Ó Sé.
Writing in his Irish Times column today, the Kerry great highlighted the plight suffered by both Meath's Andy McEntee and Donegal's Rory Gallagher last weekend.
Drawing from his own experience as manager of the Kerry U-21s, Ó Sé gave an insight into how both men must have been feeling in the wake of the demoralising defeats suffered by their respective sides.
"Who'd be a manager?" he asks. "I was watching Andy McEntee and Rory Gallagher over the weekend and feeling nothing but sympathy for them. I was just thinking of everything they must have done with Meath and Donegal since they got their squads together last October.
"Imagine all the times they must have watched training or a sat up the front of the bus on the way home from a game and thought, 'Yeah, we're getting there. These fellas are doing what I want them to do. We're ticking all the boxes.' And then the day of your big test comes and the wheels just fall off.
"It happened to me when I was over the Kerry under-21s... the referee throws the ball in the air and there's nothing you can do.
"They were watching a total non-performance and that goes deeper than trying to make a few switches. You may as well be standing in front of a train asking it politely to stop."
The range of options open to a manager who finds himself in that position are limited - to say the least!
