Mick O'Dwyer fondly remembered 

By John Harrington

A morning on the phone talking to those who played for Mick O’Dwyer leaves you with the impression of a man who really left a mark.

So much so that some who answered the call could only offer apologies because they were still too upset about the news of his passing to formulate those emotions into words.

Those close to him have known for a while now that this day was coming, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

Typical of Micko, he battled hard for every ball and the final whistle came a bit later than might have been expected.

Mickey Ned O’Sullivan puts this down to O’Dwyer’s “inner strength and resolve”, and Mickey Ned would know because he was closer to him than most.

He was O’Dwyer’s first captain when a young Kerry team famously won the 1975 All-Ireland Final, and was influential in setting O’Dwyer on the path that saw him quickly transition from being a legendary footballer into an even more legendary manager.

“I was captain in 1975 and we'd no trainer and I asked him would he go to a coaching course with me in Gormanstown which was being given, ironically, by Kevin Heffernan and Joe Lennon,” recalls O’Sullivan.

“He wouldn't go when he heard they were doing it but I got around him eventually. He asked what was involved and I said, two days and then we have to do an exam. He says, I'll do no exam! So I said we'll go for the two days and we'll slip away once the exam starts and that's what we did.

“On our way back down I asked him would he train us and he said he wouldn't. But by the time we got to Kenmare I knew he would so I asked the Kerry County Board Chairman to go down to him the following day. The rest is history.”

O’Dwyer was always quick to say he was fortunate to manage such a talented generation of Kerry players, but the players themselves will tell you they wouldn’t have achieved nearly as much were it not for him.

His relentless will to win was infectious, and he extracted the absolute maximum from the Kerry team he managed for 15 years thanks to a mixture of ruthlessness and canny man-management.

“He had an enormous influence because his management style was from the top down,” says O’Sullivan. "He put great importance on discipline. You just had to conform, that was Mick.

“He hadn't a great interest in coaching but he had a great passion for what they now call strength and conditioning. He imposed that to the letter of the law.

“He was also ahead of his time in terms of psychology because it came naturally to him. He understood players' personalities and he knew how to get the best out of each player as an individual.

“He had this empathy so he knew if you were going through a bad patch or if you were lacking in confidence and he knew how to press the buttons when it was appropriate.

“His legacy is his achievement with that group of players to win eight All-Irelands over 12 years. His drive for success was enormous. He imparted that onto the players.

“He had tunnel vision and you got that from him because there were no half measures. Anyone who was half-measuring, you didn't last long.”

The Kerry and Dublin teams of 1975 will come together for a function in Kenmare next week to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of that seminal All-Ireland Final.

It’ll be a poignant occasion coming so soon after O’Dwyer’s passing, but it’ll also be a celebration of his life because everyone in attendance will have a story to tell about him.

“There'll be good yarns, definitely,” says O’Sullivan. “He was a rogue as well, you see. He'd hop balls to get a reaction.

“I was in the management team for four years from '84 to '87 and it was most enjoyable. He had another strong character with himself in Joe Keohane and there would be great fun with the two of them hopping balls with each other.

“We'll all miss him. I'd just like to express my condolences to his wife Geraldine and the boys John, Robbie, and Karl. I taught the three boys in boarding school for five years as well so I'd be very close to them as well.”

Had O’Dwyer only played for and managed Kerry he would still be one of the GAA’s most famous sons, but what made him a transcendental figure was the fact he also became a legend in Kildare, Laois and Wicklow.

Glenn Ryan captained the Kildare teams that O’Dwyer managed to Leinster Championship success in 1998 and 2000 and will forever be grateful the Kerry native came into his life.

“He had a huge influence and a huge impact on my life," says Ryan. "I can honestly say I wouldn't have the appreciation that I have for Gaelic football today only for Micko.

“He brought us on a great journey. Ultimately we never got to the Holy Grail but it was worth being involved in that journey and to suffer that heartache because we had great times and great fun and it was great honour to be involved with Mick O'Dwyer.

“When he came to Kildare he came to a county that was on its knees football wise. He came with a huge reputation. He was the most successful GAA manager of all time and for him to be coming to Kildare he obviously demanded a respect and honour that he deserved.

“Straight out of the bat you just wanted to impress him and be part of whatever was going to happen in the future. It was very easy for him to get you under his spell. Literally that's you were, certainly from a personal perspective, I was spellbound by him. You hung on every word that he said. You did every action that he asked. You always wanted to impress.

“Whether that was his personality or down to his legacy prior to coming here, I'm not sure. But he managed to maintain all of that for me.

“There was a side to his personality that just pulled you in and kept you there.”

The Kildare midfielder of that era, Willie McCreery, is a good example of O’Dwyer’s ability to extract the absolute maximum from the players he managed.

By his own admission McCreery was “a very mediocre player”, but under O’Dwyer he became a force of nature in the middle third of the field thanks to his athleticism and ability to carry out his orders to the exact letter.

McCreery has gone on to become a very successful horse trainer and credits O’Dwyer with teaching him some life as well as footballing lessons that have served him well.

“He was a ruthless rogue, you could say,” says McCreery. “He was ruthless in the way he would train people but you were happy to give him what he wanted.

“He wouldn’t delay with dropping you if you didn't. He knew when people weren't giving him 100 per cent.

“His psychology was to run the shit out of you and the fittest would survive and he'd make a team out of that. The lads who trained hard for him were the lads you'd want on a team, not the lads who'd blaggard and blame people. He didn't suffer those lads.

“He brought something to Kildare that hasn't been brought before or since in my lifetime. He had that air about him. When Micko walked into a room all the heads turned and followed him.

“He was like a peacock, and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. He just had that magnetic force that made people want to listen to him and talk to him and he gave his time to everyone.

“You learn a lot of things about life never mind football from being around Micko. He was a very practical man and a great character.

“I was way the better for knowing him and the GAA was way the better for having Mick O'Dwyer in our sport.”

The magnetism of O’Dwyer’s personality is what also stands out for former Laois footballer Padraig Clancy.

In his very first year in charge of the Midlanders in 2003, O’Dwyer led to them to their first Leinster Championship for 57 years.

“At my first meeting with him in what's now the Midlands Park Hotel he turned to me and said 'you're the red-head midfielder. I'll turn you into a good one.' Sure straight away I was drawn to someone like him saying something like that to me,” says Clancy.

“He told us he was going to have All-Stars in the Laois dressing-room and it turned out exactly that way. We ended up with three after his very first year with us in 2003.

“The previous year we’d been beaten by Meath by 11 points in the Championship and then in 2003 we reach a Division 1 League Final, win the Leinster Championship, and were only beaten by Armagh who were the reigning All-Ireland champions by two points in the All-Ireland Quarter-Final.

“What set him apart from a lot of other managers you would have worked with down through the years was the belief he would have instilled in you.

“Around the dressing-room he was great. He wasn’t just the manager, you could have a bit of craic with him as well.

“As a fella I just bounced off him. I have Kerry blood in me as well so I enjoyed the banter with him. As well as training your hard, he was always there to have a bit of craic as well.”

It’s Mick O’Dwyer the man rather than the manager that Kevin O’Brien will miss most too.

O’Brien worked as a team selector alongside O'Dwyer when he took charge of the Wicklow footballers, and he still remembers those halcyon days fondly.

“We're all a bit a saddened today because we loved him down here,” says O’Brien. “I can't get a thing done today because my concentration levels are gone because all I'm doing is thinking of all the good times I had with Micko.

“He was a great character and meant an awful lot to me. I was lucky to meet him in San Francisco on an All-Stars tour and he rang me six weeks before he took the Wicklow job to see if the players would be on board and fully committed.

“I was absolutely thrilled. He made me promise not to tell anybody, I had six weeks of hell, but I eventually told my older brother who was in Cork at the time and he went around Cork trying to bet on Mick O'Dwyer coming to Wicklow and they laughed him out the door wherever he went.

“That's the truth, I used to tell Micko that story! Six weeks of hell trying not to tell anyone about Mick O'Dwyer managing Wicklow but sure no-one would believe you anyway.

“He loved it in Wicklow and he made an instant impact. 127 players turned up for the first training session so we had to abandon it and go and do district trials.

“He just lit up a room everywhere he went and once he trusted you the stories were just brilliant.”

O’Dwyer led Wicklow to the Tommy Murphy Cup in his first year in charge in 2007. The following year they beat Kildare in Croke Park for the first time in the county’s history, and then in 2009 they reached the last 12 of the All-Ireland SFC when they famously beat Down in Aughrim.

O’Brien remembers all of those days fondly, but what he values most from O’Dwyer’s time with Wicklow is the memories they made away from the bright lights.

“He was a tremendous character,” says O’Brien. “We used to train around at different clubs and there's a little, tiny village called Knockananna up in the hills and we had a training session there once and went down to the local pub afterwards where the food would be put out for us.

“I remember one Monday night there was a trad night on there and all the players had left and I said to Micko, 'Are you able to play any instrument?' He said, 'I am', and got the lend of an accordion and played three tunes.

“It was Mick O'Dwyer Live in Knockananna on a Monday night! Where would you get it! He was absolutely brilliant and we were all so shocked we didn't even think to video him. There are so many stories about Micko throughout the country.

“He was so good to the old people in Wicklow, he was so good visiting people, he was so good to go to dinner dances and especially funerals.

“It's just very sad he's gone but we should celebrate his life because he loved life.”