John O'Mahony was a one-of-a-kind operator

John O’Mahony was a brilliant football manager and a thoroughly decent man. I was deeply saddened to hear of John’s passing early on Sunday morning.

It is barely nine months since I saw him for the last time in his familiar berth on the sideline as we played Salthill/Knocknacarra in a club match—tracksuited, clipboard and stopwatch in hand, surveying all before him. He was flanked by Finian Hanley and Seán Armstrong, his assistants in Salthill, passing on his wisdom to the next generation of coaching aspirants. It was only a challenge match so he adopted a more measured approach but had it been championship I’m certain that he would have been his usual cajoling and coaxing self as he bellowed his trademark phrase “PRESSURE”. Johno had teams pressing and squeezing before those terms were even invented.

I met him for the first time as a 13 year-old in a dressing room in Tuam Stadium during Galway’s golden days around the turn of the millennium. I had a bit of an injury niggle at the time and was being treated by Seamus McWalter who happened to be the Galway physio that season. Seamus told my Dad to bring me in to Tuam to be treated after Galway had finished up training. Johno, seeing myself and my Dad waiting outside the dressing room and looking out for fellow Mayo men, invited us in to meet the players and start my treatment right away instead of waiting a few hours.

Once treated, we headed out on to the pitch to watch Johno and Eddie O’Sullivan put on a coaching masterclass in a savagely intense session as he primed his Galway charges to win All-Irelands. Growing up, I was bewitched and beguiled by his Galway team that played liquid, champagne football. To get such access to the team of the noughties left an indelible mark on that football-mad child.

And while Johno had a galaxy of stars in Galway, they all had huge personalities that needed managing. And, boy, did he manage them. Winning those two All-Irelands and going so close to a third was a monumental feat for a team from the West.

I think what he achieved in Leitrim was an even bigger success. He had no Donnellans or Joyces or Meehans but he found a way to pull it all together and make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. That is the essence of coaching, improving teams and players, inspiring people to achieve more than they ever thought possible on their own.

For me, Leitrim’s Connacht Championship win and Leicester City’s Premier League title are two of the biggest sporting underdog stories of the last 30 years. Seismic triumphs which defied all expectations and odds. A motivational quote he regularly used prior to big games was that “this opportunity of a lifetime must be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity”. In other words, seize the day. Go out and win it now. By God, Leitrim, and most of his teams, heeded his advice.

Of course, he sprinkled magic dust further than just Leitrim and Galway. It’s a true sign of a top quality operator when they have success nearly everywhere they go. He managed Mayo to an All-Ireland U21 in 1983 aged just 30. As well as their senior successes, he guided Galway to an Under-21 title in 2002. St. Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen, won a Colleges ‘B’ All-Ireland under his tutelage. His huge presence and aura was always in the background in Ballagh' as they won a brace of Senior Championships in 2008 and 2012. What’s more, he worked behind the scenes helping his good friend Tommy Lyons as Ballina Stephenites claimed the Andy Merrigan Cup in 2005.

There were other near misses too. Mayo in 1989, Galway in 2000, Salthill/Knocknacarra lost a county final in the last minute in 2022. He also led an unfancied The Downs team to a Westmeath County Semi-Final in 2020. He made progress everywhere he went.

His biggest regret was probably his second stint in charge of Mayo from 2007 to 2009. It was Johno who gave me my first call-up late in 2006. I remember taking his call on my way to NUIG Sigerson training on a dreary November night. Such was the boost I got from the call and from talking to a legend that I don’t think I’ve ever trained harder or better.

Trying to juggle life as a TD and intercounty manager though was probably too big a task for any one man, even this remarkable one. Listening to the departing Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Eamonn Ryan in recent times, it is clear that being a politician is a 24/7 job. There is just no let up. Intercounty managers would likely say the same about managing a county team. Johno probably just bit off more than he could chew in that period and struggled to find time for it all. However, given his uber-organised and highly systematic mind, if any man could do it, it would have been him.

There were some evenings when there may have been a late vote in the Dáil and he would have had to wait for that before leaving to head off to Mayo training. His car must have barely touched the road as he tried his utmost to be back on the grass in time for our session. Such a busy existence meant that he had to delegate more of his coaching than he would have liked but Mayo’s up and down form during that transitional era was not for a want of time, effort or care on Johno’s behalf.

Even with all our travails during that period, we still reached two league finals in 2007 and 2009 and won a Connacht title in 2008. That is not something to be taken for granted as recent times have shown. He also blooded an awful lot of players who can now rightly be considered Mayo greats. Aidan O’Shea, Lee Keegan, Kevin McLoughlin, Chris Barrett, Ger Cafferkey, Donal Vaughan, Robert Hennelly, Tom Parsons and Seamus O’Shea can all thank Johno for kickstarting their Mayo careers.

I was based in Dublin for most of his second stint in charge and we used to go to a local Italian restaurant after training to refuel on pasta and carbs. I remember a stern-faced Johno instructing a hungry Aidan O’Shea to put down the bread rolls as he tried to get his prodigious new star in tip-top shape. Nowadays, Aido is a serious athlete and in unbelievable nick but I’m sure he would acknowledge Johno’s role in starting his fitness journey.

John would also enlist the help of his faithful ally, Tommie Gorman, to narrate inspirational videos which were shown at team meetings prior to big championship matches. At the time, Tommie was one of RTÉ’s most recognisable voices and famous for that post-Saipan Roy Keane interview. Watching clips of yourself performing with Gorman's familiar voiceover was a cool thing. It made the occasion feel truly significant and really focused the minds. There is a sad and poignant irony that the two close friends would go to their eternal rest within a week of one another.

I can still recall how he addressed the squad in the days after the 2008 Connacht Final when Conor Mortimer performed his Michael Jackson t-shirt tribute. “Now, Conor, I have nothing against Michael Jackson personally, but was what you did in the best interest of Mayo football? Would Michael Jackson have done the same for you?” he wondered half-serious, half-jesting. With Johno, he had total control of the dressing room. You were never in doubt who was the boss.

But there was always the gentler side too. If you ever had a problem, you could pick up the phone and he would move heaven and earth to help you. When applying for jobs around Galway at the start of my career, I asked him if I could use him as a referee on my CV. As I told him then, I wasn’t sure of my credentials for the jobs but there was no name that would hold more sway on an application form in and around Galway than John O’Mahony.

That he was equally loved and respected by people on either side of the Mayo-Galway divide tells you everything you need to know about the great man. Rest in Peace, Johno.