Finbar comes out firing on the past, present and future of Tyrone football

THE first time Finbar McConnell casually drops into the conversation that he’s thinking about writing a book, I suspect it’s a joke.

The second time I realise the Tyrone goalkeeping legend is deadly serious about his plans for an autobiography – and it’s fair to say that it would be a colourful, no-holds-barred affair (so nothing like the usual anodyne GAA autobiography then, thank the Lord above).

Because what was intended to be a simple journey through McConnell’s playing days in the form of a four-page interview– thanks for the memories and all that – morphed into something else entirely as the former All-Star used his position on the pulpit to sermonize on some of the big issues affecting Tyrone football; referees (he really doesn’t like them), the future of Mickey Harte as intercounty manager (he thinks it’s time for a change), and why the entire system of bringing through players needs a drastic overhaul.

But first, his own career. Most of us associate McConnell with the Tyrone team of the mid-90s, but he made his senior intercounty debut in 1987.

While he obviously had the physical stature – he’s 6’5” – he was by no means a ready-made goalkeeper and had to work hard on his kick-out while at minor level.

“The only thing I couldn’t do as a county minor at the trials was kick the ball out properly but I was advised everything else was in place.

“I went down and put the hours in with a good friend of mine, Liam Morris, and we got it right. It wasn’t a massive kick-out but it was a big improvement.”

McConnell was pretty much just happy to be there in 1987. Art McRory’s team had reached the All-Ireland final months previously, but they didn’t reach anywhere near the same heights that year, as they were thrashed in the Ulster Championship semi-final by Armagh on a scoreline of 5-9 to 1-9.

“I was more of a star-struck supporter than a player with any sort of future. I was a young sub looking at my idols who played in an All-Ireland final the year before.”

While McConnell has great time for McRory, he says that Tyrone’s manager at the tail-end of the eighties, Donal Donnelly, paved the way for him to become one of the best goalkeepers in Ireland.

“Art placed his trust in me and hopefully I rewarded him with the commitment I gave him and the performances on the field, but I’ve gotta go back to Donal Donnelly.

“I didn’t realise it at the time but he built a confidence in me that was rock solid for the rest of my career, and he gave the best bit of advice I ever got.

“He watched me playing in goals and he noticed a weakness in my game – that I fell back when I tried to save the ball. He told me to stand tall, go left or right but never fall back. From that point on I went left or right and a lot of stuff hit me when I wasn’t expecting it.”

Finbar had to sit out Tyrone’s Ulster Championship final victory in 1989 due to suspension after being red carded in a club game (apparently the first time he was ever so much as booked). The same fate befell him in 1994 as well, though he says he has no-one to blame but himself.

“I didn’t really play any part in 1994 apart from a ten-minute cameo against Donegal in the semi-final. On both occasions it came from a club suspension and there’s not a pile you can do about it. I’ve always said I tried every bit as hard for my club as my county and I don’t think anyone can question that commitment.”

Tyrone reached the All-Ireland final in 1995 after a string of miraculous performances from Peter Canavan. Peter the Great scored 11 points in the final against Dublin, but McConnell resented the perception that they were a one-man team.

“I found that kind of thing disappointing. Over the course of the year we played 21 or 22 players and without those guys we9 wouldn’t have got there – take Jody Gormley’s winning point against Derry. It took everyone to get to the final.”

McConnell doesn’t lie awake at night agonising over where it all went wrong in the final – but he does basically believe that they blew it in the second-half when Charlie Redmond was (eventually) sent off.

“It was one of our poorest performances all year. We had about 20 minutes with an extra man and for a good 12 or 13 of that we didn’t score.

“We started to click into gear near the end but we ran out of time. We should have won at a canter but time went against us. I blame that spell where we didn’t score, it wasn’t a one-man show during that 12-minute period.

“You get on with it, there’s more to life. When you’re away from football you see how disappointed fellas are going off the field at times, but in my case anyway I moved on and didn’t dwell on it.”

Finbar comes from a family of goalkeepers –his father Brian played in nets for Fintona, brother Brian won an All-Ireland u-21 medal with Tyrone in 1992, and another sibling, Declan, played for the county minors.

That leaves the most successful McConnell of them all – the youngest brother Pascal, who won three All-Ireland medals during an unprecedented period of success for the county during the halcyon days of the noughties.

Finbar says that Pascal’s ascent to greatness was by no means guaranteed, and that he was his greatest supporter in the years before he was somewhat belatedly called up to the Tyrone senior team. Nor is he jealous of his success.

“It’s great to see, the medals are there and my mother has them all. I had great faith in Pascal coming through. Maybe it’s because I’m a goalkeeper but I saw things I liked about him.

“Some managers took a lot longer to grasp what I saw, and I think Pascal proved himself as the best goalie in Tyrone over time.

“I did have fall outs with certain managers because they didn’t rate him well enough, but thankfully he came through and proved me very right. He was probably about two years too late coming into the set-up.”

Mickey Harte brought Packie into the team in 2003, and Finbar says his brother is well-aware that he was backed to the hilt before All-Ireland winning medals became a thing in Tyrone.

“He came in under Mickey, and believe you me I was harping about him for years before that, and Packie knows that because I was chipping away at him and giving him advice. He was getting well-prepped behind the scenes and maybe others didn’t see that.”

Tyrone arrived in the All-Ireland semi-final in 1996 as hot favourites to beat Meath, but they were beaten off the park by Sean Boylan’s uncompromising team. That match has passed into notoriety, but McConnell says that Tyrone paid the price for an over-reliance on Peter Canavan, whose influence waned after a badly timed challenge from John McDermott in the first-half.

“Meath were absolutely spot on on the day. They did their homework and tactically destroyed us.

“I never paid any attention to the complaints in the media – we were beaten very easily because we were too small and weren’t able to compete on a physical level.

“Even our preparation was wrong, and I recognise I didn’t always have a good day when I managed my club. I think we focused too much on Peter, he got injured and nobody had a Plan B and the management has to take the blame for that.

“We all created that monster, as players and as spectators. We didn’t have a player of Peter’s quality, so when he came along we thought, this is it. Unfortunately while Peter was unbelievable, we still needed the rest of the cogs going too and I don’t think there was enough care or attention given to the rest of the team. We had a damn good side and a damn poor Dublin team beat us in ’95.”

He also thinks that the county prioritised small, skillful players and that they paid the price against teams with a powerful midfield section.

“It wasn’t easy when we were playing the Tohills and McGilligans. Football was different, it’s played through the middle now but everyone had to fight for the ball and there were times when you were being overpowered in the air. We hadn’t got it and that’s no disrespect to the guys who were asked to do it, it wasn’t their fault.”

McConnell won a prestigious All-Star award in 1996, and he was delighted to get it, but he says he was probably in better form the year previous.

“It was great to get one in 1996, but not getting one in ’95 was an absolute disappointment to be honest. John Leary was sitting across me at the table and he told me he was embarrassed picking it up. I felt I had a better year in ’95 so missing out was very disappointing.”

Then came the lost years. Maybe it was the impact of that defeat to Meath, but Tyrone were dire at senior level between 1997 and 2000. New manager Danny Ball shipped a lot of the blame, but McConnell, who captained the team in the Millennium year, says the attitude of the players was all wrong.

“Danny took on a team that was in transition, and a team that was feeling sorry for itself.

“He took a lot of the flak but by no means was it Danny’s fault. He inherited a team that was big in name, but the talent wasn’t there anymore. It was a team in decline.

“It was absolutely shocking really. We were getting beaten by teams we never normally lost to – Cavan were turning up and beating us on our back doorstep every turn round.

“It was a period of time that I feel was wasted by the players, myself included. We spent a lot of time feeling sorry for ourselves and there was no backdoor or chance to regroup.

“We were discontented, self-pitying, and looking for excuses left, right and centre and unfortunately Danny was left to carry the can.”

At this point in the conversation, it was put to McConnell that one of the things about Tyrone under Mickey Harte is that the players’ commitment is never in question. Yet Finbar believes that a change would do the county no harm, and thinks that in an ideal world Harte would have at least stepped back temporarily to prep the county’s underage teams.

“I can see why Mickey takes flak because we do the same thing year-after-year and there’s no real change in approach, if you’re there that period of time, things should’ve been corrected by now.

“I’ve a lot of respect for Mickey, he’s taken us to the promised land but when you stand on a pedestal you’re there to be knocked and I think the learning stage is over.

“He’s done well but I think we need a change at the top, and I think there’s good candidates there, and to be honest any guy can do it if they have the right backroom team.

“Personally I think Mickey should’ve stepped down six or eight years ago and then come back in at a later date ,it would’ve been a big boost to the county but I think that opportunity is gone now. I think he should’ve gone back to the minors and helped bring those lads through.”

McConnell doesn’t give Tyrone much hope of beating Donegal in the Ulster Championship first-round in Ballybofey unless there’s a change in venue, and he thinks the underage structures in the county need a radical overhaul.

Dublin are obviously the barometer, and he admires their foresight in prioritising senior success above all else.

“We have to look at the coaches as well – are they developing players who’ll excel when they’re in their mid-20s or are they being selfish and looking a quick fix?

“If a fella is big and athletic, even if he isn’t as naturally gifted, he needs to be worked at, because it’s those type of players who are doing the business against us in Croke Park. We’re not seeing the bigger picture.

“No-one can predict the future but you have some idea if a lad is going to be a physical power at 24, you can carry one or two small lads but you can’t carry a bunch of them.”

McConnell also believes that some of the fringe players on the intercounty panel should move on and focus on their clubs.

“A lot of it is to do with status, and a fine status it is.

“I might’ve been guilty of that myself – I played until I was 34 and I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite, maybe I should’ve given someone else a chance.

“But I do think some players hang on unnecessarily, there’s a luxury element to it, but by god I gave a commitment to my club and I’d never have missed so much as a friendly.

“I played a lot of football in the Junior ranks but it was my parish, my team. They made me, they backed me in the bad times and supported me in the good times.”

McConnell is a big fan of Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan. He plays outfield for Edendork, and does one hell of a job – so why not try the same for Tyrone?

“I’d the pleasure of seeing Niall out the field here in Newtown’, they gave us a lesson that day. Honestly, if I had his ability, I wouldn’t have been a goalkeeper. He’s definitely one of the best 14 outfield players in Tyrone. If I were him I’d reassess the whole thing and I think we’d manage to find another goalkeeper.”

His strongest words, however, are saved for poor old referees. McConnell had a successful stint as manager of Newtownstewart, guiding the team to a Junior championship in 2009, but says he won’t manage again unless the standard of refereeing improves considerably. Any refs out there will probably want to look away now…

“I loved management but referees put me out of management. We have so many referees in this county who aren’t worthy of the title – they cause ructions, suffer from a lack of competence and integrity, and it’s the players and managers who suffer.

“You can’t play the game without them so I’d like to put a massive focus on helping referees. I’m willing to talk to them if needs be. When certain refs walk onto the field you can hear both sets of supporters cringing because ‘my god, what’s going to happen today.’

“The power these guys have is ridiculous and is bringing young fellas to a point where they’ll wonder whether it’s all worth it.

“We have a serious issue coming down the line if we don’t put more effort into coaching them at a younger age.

“There’s no professional element at all outside of the top five refs in Tyrone. It’s not like I dislike them simply because they’re referees, it’s because they’re incapable of managing a match, they’re hopping balls for no reason and causing rows.

“We were in a game where we had two players yellow carded as mistaken identity. You have to question what they’re actually seeing. The abuse these guys take is colossal as well but you have to say they bring a lot of it on themselves

“I’ve been asked back to manage and I said I would not, not with the standard of referee will I manage again in Tyrone.”

McConnell retired from intercounty duty in 2001 after a horrible defeat to Derry in the All-Ireland qualifiers. Tyrone had a serious rivalry with Derry back in the day, and it’s a source of pride that they generally fared well against their neighbours over the Sperrins.

“Probably the only thing I have to gloat on is that I was part of a Tyrone team that stopped a damn good Derry team from winning more than one All-Ireland. I didn’t get one myself but that’s about the only thing I have to gloat on at the minute.

“It was crazy at the time, they try to build it up now but that rivalry is dead and gone. The players had the greatest respect for each other, and if Derry had been in any other province they’d probably have two or three All-Irelands. We were able to edge them so we took them off their perch for a few years.”

McConnell has particular time for Mickey Moran. They crossed paths when McConnell played for Ireland in the International Rules series in 1998,.

“His training was absolutely top-class. It was so modern and I have nothing but admiration for the man. He brought everything to a new level. There was a Kerry coach as well and his training was every bit as bad as Mickey’s was good – I came up the road questioning how in under god are Kerry winning All-Irelands.”

His career ended on a downer as he blames himself for conceding a goal to Paddy Bradley in the aforementioned qualifier defeat. He says that the days after a defeat were agonising, and that more in general needs to be done to help players in their everyday lives.

“I didn’t lead with the knee, I messed up. It’s one thing I still have in my head. I’m not saying we’d have won the game, but I’d have cleared the ball. It was my own stupidity at the time.

“Every every day you were beaten it was Wednesday before you came round, and the Monday was the worst day of your life if the result didn’t go right.

“Then there were days where you won but you weren’t happy with your own game. I know what players are going through and they don’t get much out of it,

“I think the association has to look at itself and the GPA has to offer a lot more, even to retired players who are going around begging for tickets and there’s a lot of men running about with bad injuries,

“There’s an elephant in the room and it’s not being addressed. You’re not looking anything special, but the sheer work just to get a ticket is absurd and there’s a lot of knowledge in past-players that isn’t being sought.”

McConnell retired two years before Tyrone won their first All-Ireland, but he doesn’t believe he hung up the boots too early. An All-Ireland medal is missing from his collection, but he’ll be remembered as one of the finest goalies Tyrone has ever produced.

“I’d have been about 37, but no, if I’d won the All-Ireland, I’d have wanted to have won it with the team I played with. That was a new team, it’s not worth it being a sub, if you’re not making matches, you’re wasting your time.”

By Niall Gartland