‘Brilliant. The best researched and best compiled book on the subject that’s ever been printed. Fans, players and would-be managers will devour it.’
Seán Kelly, former President of the GAA
In The Managers, journalist Daire Whelan looks at how the most successful and innovative managers of the past fifty years have influenced the development of Gaelic football.
Beginning with the modernisation of the sport by Down in the 1960s, Whelan examines the tactics and training used through the decades and, with interviews and insights from some of the game’s greatest minds, including Mick O’Dwyer, Kevin Heffernan, Seán Boylan, Eugene McGee, Mickey Ned O’Sullivan, Brian McEniff, John O’Mahony and Joe Kernan, brings readers on a journey right up to the rise of ‘The System’ under Jim McGuinness. What is it that made some managers so successful? What was different about their philosophies and approaches? And how did they influence and change the game?
Asking players and coaches about the future of the game, The Managers provides us with a valuable account of the evolution of Gaelic football, and the men who changed it forever.