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John Morrison's legacy will live long

John Morrison pictured in 2014 while manager of the Monaghan Ladies Football team. 

John Morrison pictured in 2014 while manager of the Monaghan Ladies Football team. 

By John Harrington

Despite his deep shock and sadness at the death of John Morrison, Eugene Young can’t help but chuckle when you ask him to describe the sort of personality his friend was.

Morrison was such an energetic, glass half-full sort of person, that when those who knew him best get to talking about him, they can’t help but feel the positive vibes all over again despite the sobering reality of his passing.

Ulster GAA’s offices on Market Street in Armagh will certainly be a quieter place without their daily visits from Morrison, who lived just around the corner on Cathedral Road.

“He would have come in here around coffee time most days and he would engage the staff and get the craic going talking about games,” said Young, who is Director of Coaching and Games Development with Ulster GAA and a long-time coaching colleague of Morrison’s.

“He was generally just a big character, he always had a smile on his face and a generosity of spirit.

“He was also someone who was always prepared to share whereas other coaches would be having their arms around their homework.

“John was very open and very honest and would have looked for your opinion on things. 'What do you think of this? What do you think of that?'"

Morrison wasn’t shy of offering his own opinion either, and was a good man to instigate some robust debate with his fellow coaches during those coffee-breaks at the Ulster GAA offices.

John Morrisson receiving his Tutor Trainer Certificate in 2008 from Michael McGeehan, left, Director Coaching Ireland and Nickey Brennan, former President of the GAA. 

John Morrisson receiving his Tutor Trainer Certificate in 2008 from Michael McGeehan, left, Director Coaching Ireland and Nickey Brennan, former President of the GAA. 

The experimental rules currently being trialled in Gaelic Football provided fertile ground in that regard, and were grist to the mill for an innovator like Morrison.

“He wouldn't have been critical of the rules, he would have been looking for ways to use them to his advantage,” said Young.

“Other people would be saying those three hand-passes are a total disaster. But he would have been thinking about how you could best get more kicking into your game and how you could best utilise the mark inside.”

It’s no surprise to hear Morrison was already trying to think one or two steps ahead as far as the experimental rules are concerned, because that was always his calling card as coach.

Over the course of an eventful career he managed the Antrim footballers and coached the Armagh, Donegal, Derry, Mayo, and Leitrim footballers, the Monaghan Ladies football team, and a long list of club teams.

And wherever he went, he challenged his players both with his innovative coaching drills and ability to push the right emotional buttons.

“He was introducing things like ladders to training way back when he was involved with Armagh and he was setting targets for players and how they could achieve those targets and other certain goals,” said Young.

“He was doing all that years before other coaches would have implemented those methods. He also looked to other sports to see what he could learn.

“He was pushing the door open in terms of how you approach coaching and games development. He was someone who very much thought that players mentally had to be right for games. He spent a lot of time working on that mental preparation.”

Paul McGrane was one of many inter-county footballers who sought out John Morrison for specialist one-on-one coaching. 

Paul McGrane was one of many inter-county footballers who sought out John Morrison for specialist one-on-one coaching. 

Morrison’s mindset was that every day was a learning day, but even early on in his coaching career he had a flair for the innovative.

Former Armagh footballer Paul McGrane first crossed paths with him when Morrison coached underage development squads in the Orchard County, and was immediately impressed man who would remain an important influence throughout his playing career.

“Even back then he had a different outlook on things,” McGrane told GAA.ie. “He was just hugely passionate about coaching and helping out people on a one to one basis.

“I would have worked with him then again when he was part of Jim McCorry’s management team with Armagh.

“And then in 2001, myself Ger Houlahan and Cathal O’Rourke would have went to him for one on one individual coaching that would have been additional to the other training we were doing with Armagh at that time.

“It would have been specific coaching about catching and movement. He was very good in a one on one situation because he’d have all sorts of thoughts and the stuff would just flow out of him.

“After matches he would phone you up and give you very individual feedback on your own performance.

“He was just a very attentive coach who wanted to help and looked at things in a different light.

“He had a hugely positive energy about him and after meeting with John you’d always leave in a better mood.”

It’s often a human reflex to mock something or someone you don’t understand, and Morrison’s methods, especially when it came to sports psychology, were often ridiculed by those looking in from the outside.

If you weren’t within the bubble, then it was easy to scoff when you heard he’d brought a skip to training one night and asked his players to dump all their negative thoughts in it, sent other players motivational St. Valentines Day cards, or encouraged his midfielders to practice their high-catching with children’s balloons.

John Morrison (l) and Mickey Moran (r) formed a highly effective double-act when coaching and managing Donegal, Derry, Mayo, and Leitrim. 

John Morrison (l) and Mickey Moran (r) formed a highly effective double-act when coaching and managing Donegal, Derry, Mayo, and Leitrim. 

But for those who worked with him and were open-minded enough to embrace his sometimes unconventional approach, the benefits soon became apparent.

“I loved the man,” said former Donegal footballer, Brendan Devenney. “He landed down to Donegal and in my job I'd be all over the north and I had heard things about him. I suppose people had a funny attitude to him.

“He was a free spirit and had a different attitude to coaching to most and some guys would have mocked him for that because he's a different sort of character and some of his methods would be a bit strange.

“But when he landed in Donegal most of us would probably be a wee bit out there as well and we just loved him. Others might have though he was a bit mad, but they just didn't get him. We absolutely loved him and were all ready to do whatever he asked.

“John's pre-match talks were first-class. He'd start a pre-match talk before a Championship game and he'd be way off on a completely different subject and you'd be thinking what is this boy on about, but then he'd pull it in to something to do with the game. They were just brilliant pre-match talks.

“I remember a few times Mickey Moran just saying, 'Well, how do you follow that? Let's just go boys!'”

It’s no surprise to hear that Devenney loved Morrison, because he had a knack for quickly forging a bond with players who, like him, had a streak of the maverick about them.

Devenney fitted that profile and in Morrison found a kindred spirit who was able to draw the best from him because he understood him better than any other coach he’d previously worked with.

“Everything he said there was something interesting to it or there was some thought behind it,” said Devenney. “If you asked him a question on something you could immediately see the wheels turning.

“He always did it with a smile too. He had that lovely attitude. You see some coaches out there now barking at people but that was never his style.

“He was competitive, but it always had the right footballing philosophy behind it and he was a great people person too. He had a good awareness of what makes different people tick and that's why we had such a good bond.

“I was out kicking frees on the pitch one week and it was after a match in the club championship where I got a lot of abuse.

“I remember him saying to me to stick to who I am. That I was a different type of character. He threw out this line, 'they'll laugh at you because you're different, you just laugh at them because they're all the same'.

I had never heard that statement before and I’ll always remember him delivering that it to me out on the pitch in Ballybofey.”

Former Donegal footballer, Brendan Devenney. 

Former Donegal footballer, Brendan Devenney. 

The outpouring of tributes on Twitter from players all over the country after news broke of Morrison’s death on Tuesday was a testament to the strong bonds he’d formed.

And as the stories spooled out it became clear that he maintained friendships with so many of them long after they'd shared a dressing-room.

Some say you’ve been mentored by a truly special coach if you can still remember how they made you feel 10 years later. Morrison clearly made that sort of impact with a small army of footballers.

“You'd always remember different little things he said or did,” Leitrim footballer Emlyn Mulligan told GAA.ie “Enjoyment was the biggest thing he brought to Leitrim at the time.

“It would have been great if we had won something under him, but, regardless of winning, he always left something there for you to bring something forward with you.

“He gave us all massive confidence as players. He used to ring me nearly every day and he wouldn't introduce himself on the phone, he'd just go straight into it, and it could be 7am in the morning when he'd be ringing you.

“There was one scenario where he came on the phone and just said, 'Emlyn, I'm going to make you into an All-Star. I made Paddy Bradley into an All-Star and now I'm going to make you into one!’ This was the sort of stuff he'd be ringing up to tell you.

“He'd give you massive confidence in yourself and he was definitely a step ahead in terms of the mental side of the game.

“There's stuff that coaches are doing now in terms of mental preparation and dealing with negative thoughts that John was at 10 or 15 years ago. He was ahead of the game, definitely.”

Maybe he was too far ahead of it sometimes for his own good. He made a very positive impression in his time as Mayo coach when he and manager Mickey Moran brought the Westerners to the All-Ireland Final in 2006.

John Morrison and Mickey Moran pictured before their Mayo team were defeated by Kerry in the 2006 All-Ireland SFC Final. 

John Morrison and Mickey Moran pictured before their Mayo team were defeated by Kerry in the 2006 All-Ireland SFC Final. 

But when he looks back on that time now, former Mayo footballer David Brady believes the players could have blossomed even more than they did under Morrison’s watch if they’d opened their minds more to his way of doing things.

“There was an absolute genius to his drills and thought processes, but unfortunately we weren't always the intelligent bunch to really appreciate it at the time,” Brady told GAA.ie

“It seems to be that his genius is only being understood now. People always knew he was a rare gem, but it's only now his methods are being really understood.

“In football you can spend years with different coaches and managers. John Morrison came in and did 11 months with Mayo but there are still things I see now being done in the GAA that I can relate to what he was trying to teach us.

“It was only in the years that followed and still now that I'm really understanding what he was trying to get across to us back then, but at the time we still loved the experience because it was so liberating.

“That man touched clubs and counties around the country but he wasn't a mercenary. He was a genuine missionary who preached the Gospel according to John.”

Morrison’s funeral will draw mourners from all over the country, a testament to that missionary work, but he’ll be missed most of all in his own home club of Armagh Harps.

He left the most indelible mark of all there when, while still a player himself, he had the drive and foresight as club chairman to purchase the land they now call home and which will serve generations of Harps footballers to come.

The place won’t be the same without him, but that’s the sad reality that those who knew him have no option now but to accept.

“He's a loss to everyone who knew him and to the GAA as a whole,” said Brady. “For all of us who worked with John and learned from him, it's important we don't lose what he gave us.”

The best thing they could do is pass his knowledge and enthusiasm on. That’s what John Morrison would have wanted.

***

GAA President, John Horan, today paid his respects to the late John Morrison when he said: “As innovative as he was inspirational, it’s very clear that John Morrison left a big impression on the countless players he worked with at club and county level.

“The depth of the feeling expressed since his sad passing and the breadth of the sentiment expressed by people throughout the GAA speaks volumes about the man and the esteem in which he was held. Our thoughts are with his family and many friends.”