Search Results for 'manager of a team'

The greatest challenge for the manager of any team is to ensure that your squad maximises its potential and hits the sweet spot on the biggest day. That might mean at some stage in a season recognising that the team’s best performance just wasn’t good enough, and as a manager you have to accept that too. But as any sports person recognises there is no better feeling in the world than the winning feeling experienced at the conclusion of a performance where everything has gone brilliantly to plan.

I know what it feels like to lose, having been there on several occasions throughout my sporting career. It never gets any easier and you just cannot prepare for it. I was in the losers’ enclosure with the Crossmolina football team again last Sunday, having come up short against Knockmore for the second year running. It is standard practice that the manager of a team would say a few words on such occasions and it is not an easy thing to do. I tell them that the hurt they are feeling can help to push them on for next season. The ugly feeling can propel them to greater heights if channelled in the right direction, and there is no point in apportioning blame on anyone or anything just now. It is not a time to be feeling sorry for themselves, but I can and do fully understand why they look so weary and broken-hearted. I tell them how proud I am of their efforts and in my eyes they are not losers. These lads prepared as professionally as any inter-county team. They are ordinary lads with ordinary jobs who made an extraordinary effort over the past eight months. Many postponed holidays, left building sites hours ahead of schedule to train with the club. I acknowledge that enormous effort, but at the same time I tell them that there are no guarantees in sport. Winning a county title does not come easy, irrespective of what people might think. I mention the enormous effort and sacrifices men made decades earlier just to get to see a football match never mind play in them. There is no point lamenting what might have been, but the preparation for next year must start now. It is important that young footballers continue to grow and develop and equally important that they do not give up after a defeat. Crossmolina are top of the league table with four games left and we will be doing our best to win that title. It is important that we do not throw away the opportunity to continue to progress.