HORAN VERSUS HORAN Former Mayo manager James Horan (left) is interviewed by MC Liam Horan during last week’s ‘Success In Sport’ Seminar in Westport.Pic: Michael McLaughlin
Daniel Carey
ASKED about the changes in Gaelic football since his playing days, James Horan paints a memorable picture. The Ballintubber man remembers being in the back of a car with Ronan Golding and a few other team-mates, eating pizzas on the way to Mayo training in Tourmakeady.
“Crazy, crazy stuff,” he says with a rueful shake of the head. “It’s a completely different world [now].”
Speaking at last Thursday’s ‘Success In Sport – What Does It Take?’ seminar in Westport, Horan contrasted that experience with his four years as Mayo manager, when he ‘never had to mention’ alcohol.
“I remember, actually, a camp we were on in Portugal between a league semi-final and final. We trained twice every day and … we went out for a meal on the Thursday night before we came home, and not one player drank.
“We were trying to get them to have a glass of wine or a beer, but not one of them drank, because there was a National League final on the Sunday week [after] we came back. So that’s how serious some of these guys take it. They’re the guys that are really driving on the improvement; we were just trying to help them along the way.”
Answering questions from Master of Ceremonies Liam Horan at the event organised by the Western Region Drugs Task Force and Mayo Sports Partnership, the former Mayo boss said that talent was ‘only one component’ of a successful sportsperson. Character (including attitude, motivation, ambition and desire) was ‘a huge part’ of what created the conditions for success.
“There’s guys in Westport and … in Castlebar on street corners, 14 and 15 years of age, that could be brilliant soccer players,” he explained. “They could be more talented that Gary Neville or Phil Neville that played for Man United. They have talent, but that’s only one component. There’s so many other things that need to go with that.”
Asked about the way the GAA season is structured, Horan said the National League ‘gets a bad press’ but had been the making of the current Mayo team. Every single Division 1 match had had overseen as manager had been ‘an absolute dogfight’, he continued. Mayo had ‘relegation battles’ every year even when they ended up contesting league semi-finals.
“They’re brilliant games to be in, because they’re all tight,” Horan added. “I remember in Cork, we were two points down with two minutes to go, and we had to win that game to stay up, and we won it. You find out who [are] the guys that stay steady; who was composed on the ball when they needed to be; who [are] the guys that their technique held up strong when the pressure was really on. And ... as a management team, you really form your ideas and you see who’s who and what’s what in situations like that. So the National League is a huge eye-opener and a huge window into what needs to change or happen or improve before you get to the summer.”
The New Zealand-born Horan said that Gaelic football could learn ‘much’ from rugby, which he described as a ‘fascinating’ game with its tactics, set-pieces and plays. Coaching in Gaelic football was ‘not as high as it could be’, while rugby coaches ‘have brought analysis’ to a very high level.
“I think rugby is a great example in how the players and the ref interact,” he added. “If you go to a Gaelic [football] under-10 or under-12 game ... some of the abuse – from some people, from some parents – that you hear on the sideline towards other players, but particularly the ref, is outrageous.
“If there’s some parents or people on the sideline behaving like that, it’s making it okay for those ten- or 12-year-olds to be disrespectful to the ref when they come up through the ranks. So I think that’s where it needs to be targeted.”
