Mickey Graham jumping ship from Leitrim to Galway reflects a changing culture in inter-county management

Outside managers were once the exception to the rule, but there are few management teams across the country now that are drawn exclusively from within.

And so, it’s been common for some years now that managers and coaches have moved between counties. Invariably, it happens without rancour. They’ve done their stint in a particular county and would like to stay involved at the highest level, so they take the next opportunity that comes up.

That was very much the case when Mickey Graham finished as Cavan manager after the 2023 season having completed five years in the job. When Leitrim manager Andy Moran came looking for a coach shortly afterwards, he came on board.

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And when Moran stepped down earlier this year, the county board was always going to knock on Graham’s door first. He duly welcomed them in and took the job, only to swiftly step down without having even taken a single training session, with “unforeseen circumstances” cited in a county board statement.

The fact that he has now been confirmed as part of Galway’s coaching team under manager Padraic Joyce puts a different slant on things and leaves a sour taste in the mouth of rank and file GAA members, and not just those in Leitrim.

Albeit a manager leaving another county for another without even having started in the job is a new departure, appearing to ditch one in favour of another has become increasingly common in recent years and reflects a changing culture in inter-county management - and not for the better.

Mickey Harte

Mickey Harte’s departure from Louth to take over Derry was arguably the most jaw-dropping managerial appointment in GAA history given his status and achievements in Tyrone and the rivalry between the counties.

Although he had bolstered his reputation in Louth after Tyrone had drifted in his latter years, it was difficult to imagine Harte being accepted in a Derry dressingroom, though he appeared to have cleared that hurdle when taking them to the League title.

It unravelled spectacularly for them in the Championship, however, leading to Harte’s inevitable departure, while Louth enjoyed a fine year under Ger Brennan.

Cian O’Neill

The vacancy for Graham to step into was effectively created by O’Neill’s departure from Galway as he takes up a coaching role with Kerry, closer to his Cork base, having been part of the Kingdom management team when they won the 2014 All-Ireland.

“I had a conversation with him [O’Neill] last year about coming back for ‘24 and he did say to me that it was highly unlikely that he was coming back this year but obviously the manner he left in took us all by surprise, so quickly, but look, that’s the nature of the game,” Galway manager Padraic Joyce told Off The Ball recently.

There’s hardly a more travelled coach than O’Neill at this stage. He has had stints with Tipperary hurlers and the Mayo, Kerry, Cork and Galway footballers, as well as managing Kildare, leaving Eamonn Fizmaurice’s Kerry set up in 2015 to take charge of his native county.

Pat Flanagan

Having had a decent innings as Westmeath manager, taking them from Division Three to Division One, Flanagan took charge of Sligo for the 2014 season and guided them to the last 12 of the Championship.

However, his head was turned when a vacancy arose in his native Offaly and, tired of waiting to see how things would play out, Sligo decided to look for a new boss, citing “continued uncertainty regarding Pat Flanagan’s availability to remain in the role”.

He subsequently landed the Offaly job and had limited success in his three years there.

More recently, Flanagan was appointed to manage Meath club Ballinabrackey in the 2022 close season only to jump ship to Sarsfields in Kildare days later.

Mark Fitzgerald

The Tralee man did a very solid job in his first year in charge of Clare this year as they contended for promotion from Division Three and reached another Munster final despite a string of defections.

He was all set to go for 2025 but when Kerry under-20 boss Tomas O Se asked him to join his management team, Fitzgerald couldn’t resist, saying that “the opportunity to work with my own county was something I couldn’t turn down”.

It’s left Clare in the lurch, however, as they scramble for a manager. The fact that the vacancy was created because the outgoing manager preferred a backroom role with an underage team in another county, albeit his own, is somewhat embarrassing for them.

Micheál Donoghue

Once Donoghue resigned as Dublin manager, you didn’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that he was going to wind up back in charge of his native Galway, where there was a vacancy following Henry Shefflin’s departure.

Within a month, his return was confirmed, five years after he had left the job.

When asked if he would remain with Dublin in 2025 after their All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Cork, Donoghue replied: “That’s the plan anyway.”

But within two weeks, Shefflin was gone from Galway - and Donoghue was on his way back.

Jack O’Connor

O’Connor has always insisted that his decision to leave Kildare was purely down to the drain of the commute from his Kerry base, rather than the prospect of the job closest to home opening up for him once again.

But the sequence of events makes drawing a line between his Kildare departure and Kerry return utterly irresistible.

O’Connor was still in situ with Kildare when, speaking on an Irish Examiner podcast after Kerry’s All-Ireland semi-final loss to Tyrone, he said: “The Kerry gig is a fantastic job. It’s a very challenging job, but would you want to be anywhere else in many ways because the tradition is here, everything is built towards the Kerry senior football team, the players are coming through. If you want an easy life, you go coach somewhere else.”

The following week he resigned his Kildare role, a decision he said had been made long before, and Peter Keane’s position as Kerry manager began to look even more vulnerable.

In the heel of the hunt, Keane was moved aside, O’Connor was appointed Kerry manager for a third time and he is now heading into his fourth season having delivered an All-Ireland in 2022.

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