Tony McEntee: From Armagh to Mayo (via Croke Park)

A chat with a Ballintubber man played a part in Tony McEntee’s move to Mayo

Interview
Edwin McGreal

AT the end of 2014 Tony McEntee turned down a chance to manage Down, stating he had ‘fallen out of love with county football’.
But it seemed Mayo pulled at him in a way others could not.
McEntee walked out of Croke Park with a heavy heart last September after Mayo lost their All-Ireland semi-final replay to Dublin and fell into conversation with a Ballintubber footballer.
“I remember leaving the Dublin match last year and, at that stage, I was pretty much not going into inter-county football at that point. As it happens actually, I met with Cillian O’Connor’s brother PΡdraic. I met him afterwards randomly just coming out of Croke Park.
“He was disappointed but I was actually equally disappointed with just how the game went and the outcome of the match, as many people would have been leaving that day.
“I thought maybe that if I was going to do anything that might come up again, I might take up the Mayo role.
“That was it, there was no more conversation about it really until Stephen [Rochford] contacted me one day and asked me would I be interested,” McEntee explains.
The Armagh All-Ireland winner clearly had a liking for Mayo football before the new manager made contact.
“I certainly had a fondness of Mayo and the way they play football, the passion they have for the game, so I probably would have more of a liking for them than I would for a lot of county teams. I would be critical of some teams for one reason or another [in his Irish Examiner columns], I tended to be less so of Mayo,” he admits.
So Stephen Rochford was pushing an open door when he asked to meet McEntee in Galway late last year?
“There was an openness, I suppose. I had to be realistic and see if this was something I could feasibly do on a number of fronts. The travel front being one, time with work being another aspect, and third, if it was something that I could actually add value to.”
He had not met Rochford before, and while he knew ‘of him’ – both men share the distinction of winning All-Ireland club titles as a player and a manager – the call came out of the blue. The Crossmolina man asked him would be come in as a coach/selector.
“We discussed it,” says McEntee. “It’s not simply a case of somebody asks you can you join a panel and you do it. You need to be happy that that person is (a) the right person for that job, whatever that job is; (b) that you are able to work with him; (c) that you can argue with him and get on with the thing in some kind of constructive way.
“That all cannot be identified in one single meeting. Some of that is still not identified yet, we don’t argue at this point. But nonetheless the initial thing was, ‘Would you be interested in it?’ I said, ‘Well, listen, let me talk about it, I’m open’. And that’s where we started.”

The long and winding road
ON the day we met, McEntee had to leave his home in Crossmaglen at dawn to be in Ballina for 10.30am for the FBD League game against IT Sligo.
He’s settled on the Kells-Mullingar route west, but no matter what road he takes, he’s facing at least a six hour round trip from South Armagh to Mayo.
It’s a serious commitment for a man who’s married with three children. But it’s clear from talking to him that he’s a guy who is very serious about his football.
He’s been centrally involved in every one of Crossmaglen’s six All-Ireland club titles (four as a player and two as manager). And, crucially, he was part of a breakthrough team at inter-county level, the Armagh side who won their only All-Ireland in 2002.
He hopes he can use this experience positively in the Mayo set-up.
“I’m not saying that’s why I’m here. I’m here to coach but I think that experience will certainly help, hopefully when we get to that stage and hopefully I’ll be able to draw on that experience and even if it just gives players confidence that I might be able to help at that point, well then it’s useful.”
Professionally, McEntee worked as a cardiac physiologist in the Royal Victoria Hotel in Belfast for ten years before moving into the healthcare industry in 2008.
He currently works as a cardiac manager with healthcare company PEI, who were selected as one of the ‘Great Place to Work’ business award winners in 2015.
Working in such an environment clearly aides McEntee’s role in football. The role of GAA management has evolved over the years but he is certain about what the most important aspect is.
“Clarity. It’s clarity in their roles and positions, clarity around the off-the-field football stuff, what’s happening, and that clarity will help with communications.”
PEI work in patient services and product distribution and support. McEntee’s brief involves going to hospitals in Galway, Dublin, Belfast and Cork. He’s hoping to plan calls to Galway for Fridays, where possible, to be that bit closer to Castlebar for that night’s training.
“The most difficult day is going to be Fridays because you work all day Friday, you travel down Friday night and travel home after that,” he concedes.
He’s also planning to take midweek training in Dublin with Mayo’s capital-based players.
It will be a hectic year for the Crossmaglen man, but there’s little doubt after talking to him for 40 minutes that he’s relishing the prospect.