'Mick O'Dwyer was working miracles in Wicklow at 73 - Mickey Harte can do the same in Offaly'
The new Offaly joint manager will go into a 23rd successive season as a senior inter-county manager in 2025.
THe barbs have been quick enough to fly, following Mickey Harte’s appointment as Offaly joint-manager, alongside Declan Kelly.
‘Past his sell by date.’ ‘Defensive football.’ And on they go.
It’s difficult to understand. Rather than negative, reactionary throwaway remarks, why not look at the facts?
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Offaly need only cast a cursory glance at where Louth have come from and moved on to, and they’ll see Mickey Harte’s fingerprints all over it.
The two counties are certainly comparable. Harte and Gavin Devlin brought Louth from Division 4 to Division 2 in their three seasons in charge.
They led them to a Leinster final and into the All-Ireland series.
At inter-county level, Louth were an irrelevance to most until Harte’s arrival upped the ante. Now, they're the first credible Leinster rival for Dublin in almost a decade, something which has to be good for the game.
Results in Louth, bar those two five goal hammerings by Dublin and Kerry in 2023, were impressive. But Dublin and Kerry are on a different level when it comes to the pain they can inflict on smaller sides who are off it.
Louth weren’t too defensive in those games. The opposite in fact - and look what happened them.
Harte’s work was carried on by Ger Brennan this year, as Louth recorded a first Championship win over Meath since 1975 and drew with Monaghan.
Then they turned over Cork on a memorable afternoon at Inniskeen to make their first ever All-Ireland quarter-final in the 22nd incarnation of the last eight round, which began in 2001, but wasn’t in place for the covid championships (2020/21).
Louth also gave Dublin a serious game in the Leinster final, conceding all the kick outs and playing 15 men behind the ball.
It was as defensive as anything Harte has ever come up with - but shiny, new, modern young managers in their first year don’t elicit the same level of scrutiny as someone with a back catalogue like the Errigal Ciaran man.
There’s every chance Craig Lennon or Donal McKenny could win an All Star.
That’s what Harte built in the Wee County and is exactly the type of bounce Offaly need right now.
The Tailteann Cup was an embarrassment as Offaly hit rock bottom. They lost their games against Down, London and Limerick by an average of just over nine points apiece.
Harte looks like the ideal man for what is a salvage job, and despite their storied history Offaly can hardly afford to turn their noses up at him.
The shelves aren’t exactly stacked with All-Ireland winning managers to peruse through and appoint - let alone someone who has won three of them at senior level, two at under-21 level and one at minor.
It’s three years now since Offaly landed the All-Ireland under-20 title in thrilling fashion, fronted by the superb Cormac Egan, who is back from injury and turning into a serious footballer.
Declan Kelly managed that side and was in charge of the seniors this year, but will now act as joint manager alongside Harte.
This dynamic will be the trickiest part of the equation, and it will be interesting to see if Harte joins up again with his erstwhile number two, Gavin Devlin, now in a full-time underage role with Louth GAA.
Either way, Offaly need to harness the full potential of that under-20 group now, or it could slip away from them.
The draw of a high profile name like Harte will help in that regard.
Some will point to his time in Derry as proof that the modern game has passed him by.
It didn’t work out but he still managed the Oak Leaf men to the Division 1 League title, defeating Dublin after extra-time and penalties at Croke Park.
The Championship was a disaster, relative to the League and the previous year, but at that altitude the air is thinner.
Offaly don’t need those final few tweaks to get across the line in big All-Ireland games.
They need someone to instill belief in them and get them pulling hard in the same direction.
Someone to help them win games and build momentum. Someone to get them out of Division 4, and take them on into Division 2.
Louth look like a Division 2 mainstay side and could challenge for promotion to Division 1 next year.
When Harte and Devlin first went to Louth they went at strength and conditioning hard and Louth GAA upped the ante in the schools.
St. Mary’s Ardee are now competing hard at post-primary level and will enter the Senior A competition next year. The local Ardee club almost toppled Kilmacud Crokes in the Leinster Championship last winter.
This year the Louth under-20s defeated Dublin in the Leinster semi-final, denying the favourites an 11th consecutive provincial decider appearance.
The Louth minors were one win away from a provincial final. If they’d got there it would have been the first time ever the county would have had senior, under-20 and minor sides in Leinster finals in the same year.
A rising tide lifts all boats. Harte’s appointment kickstarted all that and others took up the mantle. Offaly will be looking for a similar bounce.
As for the age thing, Harte turns 70 this year but Mick O’Dwyer was working miracles in Wicklow at 73, guiding them to the last 12 of the All-Ireland race back in 2009.
These men live for football and that undiluted passion for the game is what sets them apart.
Why would Offaly not want to harness all that and see where it takes them?
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