Bailey rejects reports

GAELIC GAMES: Ian O'Riordan talks to county board chairman John Bailey who gives his interpretation of the managerial appointment saga.

Dublin County Board chairman John Bailey yesterday rejected what he termed the "misleading" and "distorted" reporting of their decision not to appoint Brian Mullins as senior football manager.

Although somewhat inconsistent with what Mullins himself indicated, Bailey said the Dublin management committee had voted unanimously to withdraw the offer from their chosen candidate once it was realised no compromise could be reached on his desired management package, and firmly denied any personality conflict.

In his first in-depth response to the dramatic weekend turnabout of Mullins' appointment, Bailey also rejected the suggestion that money was ever an issue and instead put the crisis down to the overall management package being deemed "unacceptable".

When Mullins failed to agree to any compromise, said Bailey, the offer was withdrawn by the county board - and not vice versa.

Bailey was particularly dismissive of the suggestion he in fact never wanted Mullins for the job because of some sort of personality conflict. He said all negotiations with Mullins from the day he was interviewed were carried out by the Dublin county secretary John Costello, specially to ensure the operation remained solely at a professional level.

When Mullins came back to the county board last Friday with the management package he wanted put in place should he take up the appointment, Bailey called a special meeting of Dublin's seven-man management committee. They met at 7.0 that evening and having being briefed by Costello, agreed unanimously that the package Mullins wanted was not acceptable.

With apparently no room for negotiation, Costello then informed Mullins by telephone on Saturday morning that the offer of senior football manager was being withdrawn.

After going into some detail, it now seems the demand for control over public relations and a personal assistant, plus Mullins' failure to have a complete set of selectors on board, were the main sticking points.

Despite the wave of criticism that followed, Bailey said he never once even contemplated resignation and instead set about finding a resolution as swiftly as possible.

The management committee met again on Monday and a number of different candidates have now been approached.

While he was still confident a new management team could be in place within 10 days - over 11 weeks after Tommy Lyons stepped down - Bailey was also critical of the total lack of nominations from clubs in Dublin. But he admitted part of the issue there was that Dublin "don't pay their managers".

Significantly, however, Bailey also hinted they were looking to maintain some sort of continuity between the previous management team, suggesting that one of the previous selectors - Paul Caffrey, Dave Billings or Paddy Canning - was likely to get some role in the new set-up. In the current situation that could be the main role.