Colm McGee in action for Sligo against Roscommon in the 2010 Connacht SFC Final. Photo by: Ray Ryan/Sportsfile
By Cian O'Connell
Colm McGee is ideally placed to assess the rise, fall, and rebirth of Sligo football.
The former Sligo forward is now a selector in Tony McEntee's management set-up. As a teacher in St Attracta's, Tubbercurry, McGee has assisted players and teams to develop.
Significant work has been carried out at underage level in the county and that is now being reflected on the provincial and national stages. So, Sunday's game against Mayo in the Connacht SFC at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park should be monitored.
The past decade has brought plenty of encouragement. Sligo football is in a good place again. "Compared to 10 years ago it is, yeah," McGee responds. "Absolutely. There's always been a good smattering of school football predominantly through St. Attracta’s or Summerhill.
"Back then, it was kind of sporadic whereas it has been a little bit more consistent the last three, four, five years. I suppose people may be taking a little bit more heed of that because there has been silverware on the table and moral victories were kind of always what we were a victim of and accepting whereas now it's coming in winning games and winning finals.
"A few of the lads winning Sigerons, you look at the Coolera-Strandhill lads winning Connacht and going on to an All-Ireland Semi-Final. I think the dial has shifted a little bit, but saying that we have to back it up and keep backing it up.
"It's no good doing it for a brief period. But look, we'll focus on what we can focus on between now and Mayo and you know, it's pitches hardening up and get a few of our speedsters hitting for hard surfaces and kicking good scores and we'll hope to replicate what we did last summer and create a buzz in Sligo."
Do players from the county enter the senior ranks now with increasing belief and confidence? "I think so, yeah," McGee says. "It just took one group to kind of break that ceiling and show the rest that it is possible. Then you had the minors in 21 and the following two years was under 20 success.
Sligo senior football team manager Tony McEntee. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile
"To a certain extent we can't keep talking about that either because we haven't won one since. But it's about blooding them young fellas, bringing them through which is starting to trickle through now. You know the likes of Ross Doherty is coming through this year, Canice Mulligan, they're the last two captains actually the last two years.
"Jack Lavin the year before, they're all kind of in that set up now with Sligo and establishing themselves. It's about feeding that through consistently, but also at the end of the day it's about results. So, we'll be hoping to kind of take a few scalps this summer."
McGee references the environment, learning from McEntee, Aaron Kernan, Kevin McLoughlin, Joe Keane, and Seán Boyle, who are all involved in the Sligo set-up. Different ideas and perspectives. "Yeah, absolutely and like their interpretation of the new rules as well like there are certain things that they were trying to implement and I was like, why?," McGee says.
"And I didn't get it. Then when it was explained to me I was like, I understand the logic of that. So, from a selfish point of view it was me learning from them, but also now that I see it in other games as in other divisions, I'm watching other games back and I'm like, that's exactly what we're trying to implement as well.
"So, it's just given me a completely fresh way of looking at things and I suppose we all have to be on the same page if we're trying to put the point across to the players and in fairness they're brilliant, like it would have been very easy for that group of players after the first three league games to kind of down tools and put the heads down and concede, okay relegation, but they didn't, like they bounced back every single time and that actually gave us, well gave me a bit of energy anyway.
"Tony, I suppose, he's year five now, he's kind of a level, he wouldn't get too high, wouldn't get too low, he's steady, and even that, in itself, is something I can learn from as well."
The coolness is that something a manager develops or is McEntee simply cool? "That's the way he is I think, yeah," McGee laughs.
"That's funny because that question you're asking me, I often wondered, was he that way in reality? He's just the way he is, he's a cool customer, like you know he's. I suppose there's an element of confidence considering his footballing background too and the club he came from and the county he came from."
As an educator everyday is a school day for McGee. It has been an eventful, but rewarding start to 2025.
