Positive outside influences assisting Mayo

By Cian O'Connell

Two decades later, David Clarke smiles and laughs about the memories of 2006.

Different perspectives and approaches have been brought by coaches to Mayo set-ups throughout the years.

The stint with Mickey Moran and John Morrison was packed with fun and football. "Mickey Moran and John Morrison were very different than anything we ever had," Clarke explains. "They changed the way a lot of us thought."

On the spins to Mayo, Moran and Morrison often collected Andy Moran. Clarke maintains it left a lasting mark. "Andy actually would've spent an awful lot of time with Mickey Moran and John Morrison," Clarke recalls.

"He was in Sligo at the time and they used to travel through Sligo and pick up 'the young cub' as they used to call him, Andy. So, Andy was probably just in the back, like a sponge, asking questions, learning off these two guys. Real innovators of the game.

"Really great people. John Morrison was one of these people that gave you energy, Mickey Moran was like a wily old cat, he was really calm.

"He was a real manager, he'd put the hand around you like a grandfather or a father - an unbelievable man. John Morrison was the energy, the bit of madness with it. They were great guys."

The outside influences were significant during Clarke's senior inter-county playing career. "As we went on we'd Donie Buckley, he'd something different," Clarke adds.

"We'd Cian O'Neill just before that, he probably changed us as a whole team - the way we trained and the way we thought about things.

"We'd him for a year. We'd Ed Coughlan, real top class, who were probably branching out, taking a step forward from where they'd been before. We were their blank canvas.

"We were lapping everything up. We wanted to get better. We weren't a team that thought we knew everything. We were open to getting better and doing new things. You've to give credit to the managers bringing in these people. James Horan was open. He was giving them an opportunity."

Valuable lessons were learned along the way. "Donie Buckley came in, everybody loved Donie - his honesty, he was there for the right reasons. The way he controlled the training pitch, the way he thought about the training pitch. He was ahead of himself.

"He had some version of a VEO before there was even a VEO. He'd have two or three cameras in Croke Park that were covering, you could see both sides of the pitch. He was way ahead. He'd have plans for three games ahead, he mightn't want to use it for some games, he'd hold back and he'd eventually put it up on a board.

"It'd open your mind, this is what we are going to do, and it'd work. Everyone bought into it."

Others left an impression, too. "Tony McEntee was involved in the management team, he was really calm," Clarke says.

"He knew his role with us, but had an edge about him. It was something different. We were very lucky.

"Maybe because we haven't been winning All-Ireland titles, we're open to someone that can come into help us. We don't think we know it all. We want help. We want the best people around us.

"Like anything, it doesn't really matter where you're from. When you come in, the group will either decide this person is good or this person is not or this person knows what they're doing or don't. We've been lucky the people that came in have been like that."

Clarke enjoyed a brief coaching stint with Mayo early in the current campaign, while Paul Durcan was away, but continues to be impressed by Paddy Tally's shrewd contribution. "I only spent a small bit of time around the squad at the start of this year," Clarke explains.

"Paddy Tally seems a real quiet guy that demands respect, but doesn't necessarily demand the limelight. Andy, from what I could see, was the main man on the training pitch, but Paddy is obviously doing his parts and in the background.

"Even on the sideline you don't see him having a major presence in that Andy is the manager, but there is that support around him. It's balance with these people that come in, that there isn't clashes.

"My time, I was very lucky. Obviously, we didn't get over the line, they were great people, there for the right reasons. They really helped us and Mayo football. I'm sure it's the same with the backroom team at the moment."

The person steering the ship, Andy Moran, is a former colleague of Clarke's. "I've known Andy since we were U15 together, we were the same age pretty much, we'd have gone up through Mayo U15, U16, all the way up," Clarke says.

"I definitely noticed a big shift in him at a stage around 2015 or 2016, he changed jobs. He was repping, he decided he was going into his gym business. It was a major change for him.

"Definitely, in the back of his head number one was to become the best player he possibly could be, to be off the road, to allow him focus fully on the football years he had left.

"You see what happened in the latter years of his career, he got his body right, got good people around him, became his own boss, and was a bit more free to do what he needed to do."

Moran thought deeply about the game according to Clarke. "When you're a player, you've enough to be doing focusing on yourself, but he was always having small conversations about details, about how can we do this a bit better," Clarke says.

"Straightaway, when he finished playing he went into various levels of coaching. He was with Mayo U20s for a while, his own club for a while, then took the step into Leitrim and Monaghan, so he was developing.

"It was a very natural progression for him."

Clarke is adamant that Moran was eager to pursue a coaching and managerial journey. "I definitely think it was something he had thought about from quite a bit out," Clarke says.

"He put his life and affairs in order, he has a very supportive wife and a strong business with that. He's the type of a guy that does have huge energy, that does have energy to burn and energy to share.

"With that, he does have an ability to give people energy. I'm not surprised at all. From the first minute he went into coaching, this was his goal.

"Did it come a bit earlier than he may have thought - possibly - but he has done it at different levels to get into this position and he's doing great at the moment which is excellent for all of us in Mayo."