Are those who look outside missing a trick?

Last week’s appointment of Paul Shankey as Waterford’s new senior football manager was probably one that went under the radar, but it was significant in that it was the last open position over a county team in the National League to be filled.

The Waterford football job is close to bottom of the list when it comes to the glamour roles in Gaelic games, yet Shankey, a former Meath All-Ireland winner, will try to mould a team into shape to become competitive in Division Four.

With all 32 teams across the four divisions now set up and ready to go, what can we glean from the off-season managerial appointments?

Well, for a start, there is a glaring discrepancy when it comes to the managers in charge of teams in the top two divisions and the bottom two.

Across the 16 counties in Divisions One and Two, 13 of them have ‘natives’ in charge of the team. Derry (Mickey Harte), Roscommon (Davy Burke) and Louth (Ger Brennan) are the three outliers, by my count.

Then when you consider the number of ‘native’ managers in Divisions Three and Four, the percentage drops significantly – of the 16 counties in the bottom two tiers, only six have managers from their own county.

We know there is a gap between the tiers when it comes to the quality of the teams, but why is there such a discrepancy when it comes to the appointment of a senior football manager?

The trend of bringing in an outsider is now well established in the GAA.

Take our local counties here in the west. Mayo have tended to stick with the tried and tested method of homegrown talent when it comes to picking their bainisteoir, as have Galway, yet both have also dabbled with bringing in someone from elsewhere at various stages over the years.

Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim all have men from outside their county over the teams at present and both Mayo (Donie Buckley) and Galway (Cian O’Neill) have looked outside county boundaries for coaches to fill important positions in their backroom teams.

There’s little doubt that the arrival of someone from another county brings with it a sense of intrigue and it has worked to good effect for several counties who, you could say, are swimming in the more shallow water each summer.

Consider the impact Kerry’s Mick O’Dwyer had on the likes of Kildare, Laois and Wicklow. Sligo enjoyed productive spells under the likes of Mickey Moran and Kevin Walsh, while Leitrim achieved league promotion in 2019 under the guidance of Cavan’s Terry Hyland.

You can see the logic of a county board in a so-called weaker county wanting someone with a stature in the game, a medal or two in their pocket, to lift a dressing room and try to improve the fortunes of a county.

And, you can also see the logic from the manager’s point of view – if they are keen to cut their teeth at inter-county level, the prospect of a job outside of one’s own county surely has its attractions. You can break free of the shackles of local club rivalries and potential pitfalls with people you know and grew up with when it comes to team selection, dealing with county boards and so on. A clean break can be the best thing.

But why do so many of the top counties opt for one of their own?

The obvious answer is that, because they are successful, Kerry and Dublin in football, or Kilkenny in hurling, and others close to the top of the tree don’t have to look too far for someone who carries weight in the game, given they are winning All-Irelands on a regular basis.

So those people, be it Jim Gavin, Dessie Farrell or Brian Cody are able to move into the job in their own county without any major competition from managers outside the county because it’s highly unlikely the county boards there will go that route. They haven’t yet – and it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon.

Would the counties further down the food chain also benefit from a similar approach?

Sure, they may not have All-Ireland winners to call on, but the level of coaching around the country is improving all the time and counties and provinces are putting the necessary structures in place to improve coaches, as well as players.

Given the costs being bandied about with regard to management teams, it would also be a far more sustainable expense for county boards to appoint managers, and management teams, from within their county boundaries.

In many cases in the smaller counties, is it a case that outside managers are preventing coaches within the county of getting an opportunity to manage the team?

We just need to look at some of the game’s most successful managers to see how they seized the opportunity when it was afforded to them.

Jim McGuinness tried and failed to get the Donegal job on a couple of occasions before eventually being appointed. Look what happened next.

John Kiely’s appointment as Limerick’s hurling boss barely raised a murmur when it happened – now he's one of the best the game has seen. Kiely and McGuinness both had the benefit of enjoying success at underage level before assuming the senior role.

Liam Sheedy took over the Tipperary hurlers in late 2007 for the first time to little fanfare, yet he was the man to take down Brian Cody’s five-in-a-row chasing Kilkenny team in 2010.

Mickey Harte is another who didn’t enjoy a massively successful inter-county playing career, but helped Tyrone climb the steps of the Hogan Stand in 2003 for the first time and repeated the trick in 2005 and 2008.

The last outside manager to win a football All-Ireland is John O’Mahony in 2001 with Galway, and in hurling you’ve to go back to 1998 and Michael Bond’s success with Offaly.

Are we all missing a trick?

Sometimes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.