Seán Moran: ‘Functional specialisation’ and how GAA managers can learn from data

Tim Healy’s stated motivation in writing his 2011 book Can You Manage? was: “a concern that clubs and counties were appointing managers based entirely on people’s record, achievements and reputation as players.

“I found it alarming that so many of these appointments were proving disastrous. And expensive.”

The work is a primer of what to do and what not to do and the author drew on his experience as a player (intercounty minor with Cork), a manager with a variety of club, under-age intercounty and college teams as well as his career as a businessman both practical and academic — he has an MBA from UCD’s Smurfit Business School.

He has always combined the theoretical with the practical and was a member of the GAA’s semi-final Football Review Committee. Since writing the book, he has completed in 2020 with a PhD at DCU, based on his thesis, “Development of the Management Function in Association Football in England”.

Joe Canning: Calling out the Tipperary players in public wasn’t smartest move by Liam Cahill

---

Clare’s Shane O’Donnell finds trimmed-down season is just the right fit

---

Ciarán Murphy: Of course the Connacht final is worth winning - just to beat the other shower

---

Liam Cahill’s Waterford years back in focus ahead of crunch clash for Tipperary

---

He is currently involved with John Cleary’s football management in Cork as an opposition analyst and took time to talk about what has changed about requirements of management in the 11 years since he wrote the book.

His views are influenced by soccer and how management has evolved in the English game with specialist areas popping up, which often reduce the range of a manager’s functions.

“One of the changes is in functional specialisation,” he says. “Years ago, managers in England up as far as Alex Ferguson were all-powerful. They mightn’t have taken it to the extremes of Brian Clough, who when starting out at Hartlepool drove the bus and even painted the stand but they ran everything football-related.

“These days Klopp and Guardiola are primarily responsible for the preparation and performance of the first team. They may have some involvement in transfers but not as much as in the past and specialist coaches are commonplace — for example, Liverpool brought in a throw-in coach.”

Researching his doctorate was at times an entertainment for Healy and he pays particular tribute to John Giles for all of his assistance in learning about managers as well as making introductions to former players and Liam Brady for similar help.

Danny McGrain, the outstanding Celtic and Scotland full back, told him how “Mr Stein” — as he still referred to his former manager, the late Jock Stein — had tossed a contract at him as a youngster and how he had signed without reading it. Later, as he and McGrain are leaving they meet not one but two agents going in to represent a player Healy describes as “at best, mediocre — certainly when compared with someone who was at one stage the world’s best full back.”

The years since publication of the book have seen the rise of Dublin, which he ascribes to the quality of management, adding that it was a “great pity” that Pat Gilroy, who ended the All-Ireland football drought in 2011, couldn’t have remained as the county hurling manager after spending one year in charge in 2018.

“And Jim Gavin was criticised initially for having such a large management team. He appears to be the only GAA manager to have taken what is described as ‘functional specialisation’ to great lengths.

“He may have had a large management team but they each had a function and a responsibility ... It is no coincidence that Dublin were able to perform consistently on the big occasions.”

He believes that this ‘functional specialisation’ will spread through the GAA at intercounty level and to an extent, already is with the growing size of backroom teams.

Healy also acknowledges the growing role of technology and data analysis. “When I started looking at matches and breaking them down, it was taking around seven hours — you’d almost analyse the whole championship in that time now!”

When writing his book, the attention given to match analysis reflected the available technology and its costs.

“The book was originally directed at clubs rather intercounty teams and I was advising a very rudimentary approach, careful not to recommend things that cost a lot of money.

“Today, there are proprietary brands of software which are in use by all rugby clubs as well as county teams and many GAA clubs. I was fortunate to be put in touch with Brian Fitzgerald in Charleville, who enabled me to operate the Hudl system of analysis.

“The fact that everything can be done more quickly provides the possibility to do far more in-depth work on any aspect of the game one chooses. Every club should have access to a system like this.”

It’s not that technology does everything for modern managers.

“It’s important that people are analysing the right thing and reaching the right conclusions. Technology hasn’t removed the need for people like Mick O’Dwyer who have intuitive understanding.”

He holds to his original view that managers should be firstly coaches and worries about the standard of coaching and the money spent on it.

“As I analyse games now, I am frequently looking at intercounty players failing to perform the basic skills.

“The GAA needs to discuss and decide whether to introduce rule changes or to ensure money spent on coaching is achieving certain preordained objectives. Right now, it is difficult to see what coaches have been doing on the ground, when the very best players don’t all have the range of skills that they ought to have.”