Mick O'Dwyer: second coming of football guru

Mick O'Dwyer, the Kildare manager, achieved unrivalled success in managing Kerry football teams for the best part of 12 years. Incredibly, he is set to become a county guru for the second time in his career. In the short time he has managed Kildare, O'Dwyer has taken the team out of a forgotten planet and back on to the main road where championships and respect go hand in hand.

It was 1990 when Kildare, stuck in a miserable football rut, recruited the services of O'Dwyer in a desperate effort to restore county pride which, in the earliest years of the GAA, used to be second to none. Since then, he has taken their best bunch of players - but who had nothing to believe in - and converted them to his own self-proclaimed faith.

Their Leinster title last month was the first in 42 years and they followed it with a stirring victory over champions Kerry to set up their clash with Galway tomorrow. From the small village of Waterville, O'Dwyer has become the biggest name in Gaelic football, both as player and manager. For 18 years he wore the green-and-gold, helping Kerry to four All-Ireland titles over three decades, first in 1959 and later in 1970.

He was named Footballer of the Year in 1969 and brought to the game a sense of commitment and dedication that would remain his hallmark through the years. In the summer of 1964 he broke both legs and displayed unique determination to regain his place at the top of Kerry football.

Within a year of his retirement he was drafted in to the manager's position - and straight away the sceptics questioned his ability to coach as well as he played. He immediately proved them wrong by taking Kerry to the All-Ireland title in 1975, the beginning of what is now regarded as Kerry's golden years.

O'Dwyer always led by example, keeping himself inspiringly fit and demanding equal discipline from the team - including a no-smoking/drinking policy. The results were startling.

Eight All-Irelands returned to Kerry between 1975 and 1986 and there would have been a lot more had Dublin not risen to the Kingdom's challenge. His most spectacular success at winning the title on the first try was matched only by a spectacular failure at losing the five-in-a-row effort at the last hurdle following a late Offaly goal in the 1982 final. What would have broken most rejuvenated O'Dwyer and he brought Kerry back to three championships in succession, including the centenary title in 1984.

O'Dwyer's deliberate alignment with sponsorship deals during Kerry's peak affected his relationship with the heads of the GAA, and was most clearly illustrated by his omission from the coaching panel of the two Irish teams that played Australia in the compromise rules tours. "To expect players to reach professional standards in fitness and performance without deviating in the slightest from the GAA's conception of amateurism is unrealistic," he said. "A limited form of professionalism must come, and when it does the games will benefit."

If Gaelic was on professional terms similar to soccer, O'Dwyer could have named his price as the most successful manager in the game. Towards the end of the 1980s he tried to put the passage of time out of his mind, but eventually the success collapsed as the Kerry players aged and a new breed of rivals came on the scene in Cork. For a while he looked after his hotel business and played some golf in Waterville. Then the call from Kildare restored him to his place among the commanders of Gaelic football.

Few people in Kerry would begrudge his renewed success. Most of those in the south still argue over O'Dwyer the player versus O'Dwyer the manager. There is the added distraction of O'Dwyer's son Karl, whom Kerry let slip through their football net and now lines out as a scoring forward for Kildare. Just don't ask O'Dwyer which victory will taste the sweeter. His diplomatic and subtle nature often reveal verdicts inconsistent with his inmost thoughts.