In December 2004 Uíbhfhailí.com conducted the following interview with Eugene McGee; former Offaly football manager and more recently the intermediary in the players' strike.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     You’ve been very active in your journalistic work, and obviously we’ve all seen lately how you were very busy in negotiations between the county board and the players, but you’ve been conspicuous by your absence from management. Is there any reason why you haven’t looked to get back involved, or is there any job out there that would tempt you back?

Eugene:    I doubt if I will get involved with county team management again. For many years now I have been working for the Irish Independent on Sundays in order to write my column on the Monday and I enjoy that too much to give it up, which I would have to do if managing a county team. Also, I feel a lot of the fun is gone out of the county team scene compared to when I was with Offaly. Expectations in every county are too high and then when defeat inevitably comes along the manager gets dogs abuse. Most important of all it takes up too much time - managing a county team is actually a second job. And since I was never in football for the money I could not see myself getting involved again.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     Before coming on board with Offaly, you had a very successful spell in charge of with UCD, in a time when only a fraction of county players played Sigerson Cup, due to college attendance etc. Equally, it was in an era when intercounty training started after college competitions were completed. Do you see it as a vital step for potential stars nowadays, or is it just one competition extra in a busy schedule?

Eugene:    Footballers who have the chance of playing for third-level colleges should certainly avail of it. The experience of playing with and against players from several other counties is a vital part of a footballer’s education. When I was with UCD not many country lads got that chance but those who did certainly benefited from it. There is also a strict discipline involved with third level teams  and that may be the first time that many young lads learn about the sacrifices a players has to make to be successful.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     The participation of UCD in the Dublin Championships is currently a bone of contention, due to the hurlers’ success, almost replicated on the Leinster stage. You yourself won two All Ireland titles with the college in the 1970’s. Seeing as these teams nowadays tend to be largely comprised of county stars, do you feel that they should/shouldn’t be allowed compete in club championships, or possibly like divisional teams in Cork and Kerry, should be allowed compete if the county board sees fit, but shouldn’t be allowed advance any further?

Eugene:    The controversy about UCD playing in the Dublin and All-Ireland championship only arises on the rare occasions that they actually win out in Dublin. The UCD footballers have only won seven Dublin championships in 100 years. If the Dublin County Board wants to exclude UCD from their championship they have the power to do so but in fact that has never happened and most GAA people accept that having the student team there does raise the standard . As far as I know Dublin have pleaded with UCD to take part in their championships in recent years because UCD have enough competition within the third - level structures anyway. Nobody seems to complain when other Dublin clubs who might be picking from catchment areas of 50,000-100,000 win the championship. But if the GAA decides to ban UCD from the All-Ireland championship  so be it. The GAA would lose far more from that decision than UCD would.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     Colm O’Rourke has made clear his advocacy for abolishing minor and U-21, and believes it should be replaced by one U-19 grade. The lower age profiles of modern teams suggest that he could have a point. Where do you stand on this?

Eugene:    I firmly believe that young players aged 17-21 are being seriously abused in the GAA by being asked to play with too many teams and being ordered about by too many different managers. This is happening because of the overlap between minor, under -21 and Third level competitions particularly in the months of January, February and March when students are trying to study for important exams. It would certainly help if Minor and Under-21 were scrapped and replaced by Under-19. Any player who is good enough is already on the county senior panel by the age of 20 or 21 and the U-21 has outlived its usefulness. It made sense when it was brought in in the sixties but not any longer.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     In terms of team preparation, you won an All Ireland and three Leinster titles with Offaly in a time without the extensive backroom staff (psychologists/masseurs/specialist fitness coaches etc.) that is the norm nowadays. Do you consider this evolution a step forward for players and supporters benefit, or a needless cost incurred due to a need to “keep up with the joneses”?

Eugene:    There is a huge number of people involved with running county teams nowadays compared with my time in Offaly around 20 years ago. Then we had the Manager, selectors, team trainer and a masseur and doctor. I accept that sport has moved on a lot since then but i wonder of all these “specialists” are really needed. In my view every such person who is added to the backroom team takes away from the power and influence of the manager. A good manager should be a bit of a trainer, sports psychologist, communicator, and public relations man. Having to bring in more and more help seems to me to be a sign of weakness.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     It’s safe to say that the levels of fitness in modern gaelic football tend to be higher due to the longer and more intense training regimes expected of players, plus the extra focus on fitness from younger ages. How do you feel modern players compare in terms of skill in comparison with the Dublin/Offaly/Kerry sides of your time in charge?

Eugene:    Present day players are certainly fitter than 20 years ago, as is the case in all branches of sport. Skill wise it is debatable and one wonders what percentage of the greatly increased training time is actually devoted to skill training. To my mind the big test of any manager is how much better he can make each player under his control. You cannot buy players in the GAA (not yet anyway) therefore the only way a manager can make a team better is to improve the skill-level of every player on his panel. How many of the present day managers are actually doing that?

Uíbhfhailí.com:     The fairy story of this year’s championship was the progress of Fermanagh, taking the huge scalps of Cork, Meath and Armagh with a panel shorn of several of their best players. This is in a county with arguably the smallest pick in the country outside of Leitrim, due to obvious factors. Do you see this as a testament to the unheralded abilities of the players that were put out there, or a reflection of how the game has evolved to the point where reasonable but not exceptional footballers can thrive if extremely fit and capable of executing a straightforward game plan?

Eugene:    The main reason why Fermanagh were so successful in 2004 can be traced back to the successes in recent years of St. Michael’s secondary school in Enniskillen. They are fortunate to have on their staff two outstanding coaches in Peter McGinnitty and Dominic Corrigan, and they have been a conveyor belt of excellent young players in recent years. With the Fermanagh county team these lads had a youthful, devil-may-care attitude and they obviously enjoyed their football. One of the big flaws in the Offaly GAA scene has always been the lack of a major secondary school capable of contesting the premier colleges All-Ireland title on a regular basis. The Offaly schools do very well in the subsidiary competitions of course but a top class secondary school like St. Pat’s, Navan is a great help to any county.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     In terms of Offaly football, the strike has been resolved, and as of this week a management team is in place. Based on the players we have available, what level of achievement would you consider a successful championship for Offaly football in 2005?

Eugene:    It is hard to know how the Offaly senior football team can do in 2005 but Leinster was never as open as it is now with the last four titles going to different counties. Offaly are fortunate in having a few excellent forwards and that always puts you in with a chance. A revival of the old never-say-die attitude which was always the trademark of Offaly football is an absolute necessity so that other Leinster counties will once again not be looking forward to playing them in the championship.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     Since beating Meath in 2000, our footballers haven’t really hit the high notes too often. Our underage sides have not matched the achievements of our Northern or Southern neighbours. For the foreseeable future, say five years, do you see Offaly football improving, or will we be doing very well just to hold our own and not find ourselves struggling against the minnows of the game?

Eugene:    As Laois, Westmeath, Limerick and Fermanagh and especially Tyrone have shown, the basis for senior success is a strong underage system. In Offaly the county underage teams have under performed for many years now and urgent attention is needed in this area if Offaly is to have a solid base for future success.  Serious investment is needed in underage GAA activity to safeguard the future of Offaly football and hurling and that is why one of the recommendations in the recent settlement was that at least 20% of all money raised by the new Supporters Club should go to underage promotion.

Uíbhfhailí.com:     On a slightly more trivial note, but no doubt of great interest to the readers of the site – of the current Offaly panel, changes in the nature of the game not withstanding, are there any players you feel would have got a place on the 1982 side if they were available for selection then? If so, who?

Eugene:    The answer is yes. I am not all that familiar with the present players but certainly  Niall McNamee, Ciaran McManus, Pascal Kellaghan, Barry Mooney and Karl Slattery  would have been in the shake-up then,  provided of course they were able to respond to the team manager of that period !

Uíbhfhailí.com:     Finally, the story about the player who explained his lateness for training by saying that “the wheel fell off my mobile home” is by now legendary. Has enough time passed that the Uíbhfhailí.com readers can be enlightened as to who the player was?

Eugene:    They say the true stories are the best ones. I see an Offaly excuse from my time has become part of GAA folklore by now - that was the excuse given to me one Saturday afternoon by a player who was not at training. He said the wheel had fallen off his mobile home! I knew it was true because on my way to that particular session I had passed a mobile home in trouble on the side of the road as it was being transported but I did not know who owned it. I honestly cannot remember which player it was but I must do some research now that the incident has become so famous!