The key to managing women, according to Armagh football manager James Daly, is earning their trust. “You can go into a men’s changing room and you can give out and curse and blind, but women won’t respond to that.”
Undoubtedly, he has earned that trust with his players, one of whom is his daughter Katie.
There is no finer example of that than last year, when he had two of them – Sinead McCleary and Caroline O’Hanlon – knocking on his door looking for him back.
Daly had left the management team at the end of the 2013 championship following a summer of heartache for him and his family.
He had lost his wife Ann to cancer in July, but stuck with his team until the end of the championship and did not leave until he got news that his son Ryan had a brain tumour which had a 90 per cent chance of being cancerous.
Thankfully, following surgery, the tumour on Ryan’s brain was discovered to be benign – and he was ready to go back.
“My girls, the footballers, they were great. They supported me all the way. When I came back I felt comfortable, because I wasn’t at home in an empty house.”
Daly is now organising a fundraising event called ALL in for ANN, a commemorative match which will see the Armagh ladies play against a combined team of All-Ireland players.
Proceeds will go to the Cancer Focus Northern Ireland and a breast cancer awareness charity which Ann raised money for each year. You can visit the Facebook page, ALL in for ANN, for details on how to donate.
Daly’s choice to make All in for Ann a ladies game is an important step in raising the profile of ladies GAA, one of the WGPA’s central goals since it was set up this year.
