Damian Stack: Damien Duff's account still in surplus despite sudden departure

Irish Independent

3 days ago

Against the FAI. Against rival managers (did somebody say Stephen Bradley?). And, eventually, against his own players. He gave them both barrels on Friday evening, by inference questioning both their commitment and professionalism.
Those comments went almost beyond the point of no return for a manager in a dressing room. Given all he'd done for them, the heights to which they'd climbed under his leadership, it may have been just about possible for Duff to win the players back round.
Evidently, though, the former Chelsea winger was no longer interested in any of that, preferring instead to burn bridges behind him in a manner reminiscent of that meme from The Simpsons.
There's always been a certain spikiness to Duff since he's come into the league, nevertheless it's been a bizarre heel-turn. To go from the guy who said literally just a couple of months ago that he'd die for his players, to this.
It's less even what he said, and more what he's done. Walking out on his squad mere weeks from the biggest game in their careers, a Champions League play-off tie with Irish League side Linfield. Truly, it's hard to fathom how he could do that.
We'll grant you it's a tough gig, and Duff has given body and soul to it for the last three and-a-half years. Probably it was always unsustainable the intensity Duff brought to the role, a relentless emotional rollercoaster.
Burn-out is real and it may be simply the case that Duff, as he's reported to have said, brought this bunch of Shels players are far as he could. There's a real sense that he's overachieved in time at Tolka Park.
Even if you consider this sudden departure something of a blot on his copybook (assuming, as we must at this juncture, that it's purely a sporting decision), Duff's ledger is still very much in surplus.
What he's done for that club and those players, for the League itself is incalculable and invaluable. He raised Shels to heights not seen in decades. He helped put the League on the map.
There's part of us that wants to say he owes them nothing, but we really do think he owed it to these players to stick around at least for this forthcoming European campaign. What's more we think he owed it to himself and to his career.
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A European campaign – one that stood a good chance of progressing to a group phase – would have provided invaluable experience, and money. That money wouldn't have motivated Duff on a personal level, but for the club (and squad) it could be transformative.
Duff, though, has walked away from it all and not for the first time. That pattern of sudden exits from roles, probably won't stop him getting another, and another after that again, but it will raise questions.
If the 'when the going gets tough the Duff gets going' line stings it's became it contains a grain of truth. More than anything else, though, it's just a shame that such a brilliant story, such a brilliant collaboration should end on such a bum note.
This Limerick team have been a real joy to behold
Limerick aren't the story. They're not. This was Dublin's day. Their greatest day after carrying off the greatest coup in, perhaps, the history of the All-Ireland hurling championship.
The Sky Blues deserve all the credit, all the attention. We get that, we do, we really do. Our thoughts, though, keep drifting back to Limerick. The single greatest hurling side we've ever seen in our life-time and arguably the best the game as ever seen.
Few sides have given us greater pleasure and satisfaction to watch in full flow. The power, the pace, the precision, the iconoclasm, the refusal to be bound by convention, by tradition, by the established order.
They never looked to us a side burdened by what had gone before, forging instead their own path. Only on very rare occasions did they betray any semblance of self-doubt.
John Kiely's declaration after winning the 2018 All-Ireland semi-final that he would 'shut down the whole thing' in relation to media coverage if any outlet sought to directly contact a player, about the only evidence for insecurity we can think of.
Besides that was early days, relatively speaking. Kiely learned better how to handle the press since then – even by then the chances of a reporter directly contacting a footballer or hurler in the lead up to an All-Ireland final were pretty much nil – as he and his team grew in confidence.
Kiely's role in the whole thing has been fairly fascinating. Sure, he happened upon the most gifted generation of hurlers any county has ever produced, but he's kept the show on the road.
He's seems to have an almost old-school disposition, a man not to be trifled with. At the same time, though, he's very much a man of his time. As much delegator as disciplinarian, building one of the most formidable back-room teams the game has ever seen.
Kiely's partnership with Paul Kinnerk is up there with Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in its effectiveness as Limerick stormed to five All-Ireland titles in a six-year spell.
That level of success – nay dominance – hasn't always endeared them to the rest of the hurling community. Coming from Kerry, though, maybe we were better able to look past that (dare we say?) jealousy than people from hurling counties?
Or maybe it's that we live in a village that sees an influx of Limerick folk in the summer months? Limerick-on-sea, with oftentimes more green and white flags on view than green and gold. A form of Stockholm syndrome, perhaps? We don't rule it out.
More likely, though, is simply that they were a joy to watch in their pomp, epitomised by the finesse of Cian Lynch, the defiance of Seán Finn, the brilliance of Gearóid Hegarty, the Rolls Royce engine possessed of Kyle Hayes. They had it all, they really did.
Whether we should be talking about them in the past tense, though, is another question and, on balance, we think it's fair enough. Not all those players are done (Hayes is just 26, Lynch 29, Hegarty 30), but that iteration of Limerick is done.
What follows is going to be fascinating to watch. Can Kiely and Kinnerk go again? Can they regenerate the squad? Can they rethink their project? Do they have the desire? The energy? The will?
Whether they do or don't, what's already been achieved will stand the test of time.
Siege mentality driving Donegal
This time, Donegal have a point. A good one. A very good one. It's hardly fair that the last team in action last weekend, should be the first team out this weekend.
It means that Donegal will have just a six-day turnaround from their victory over Louth last weekend to prepare for their last-eight clash with Monaghan in Croke Park this Saturday evening, while Kerry will have eight days to prepare for their game with Armagh.
Something doesn't add up there. Okay there are other considerations – a balanced TV package, what blend of teams provides the best chance of selling out the stadium – but surely the primary one should be competitive fairness.
Instead of eight days for Kerry and six for Donegal, why not seven each? Little wonder the Donegal county board have felt compelled to speak out. They have right to feel aggrieved.
We do wonder, though, if it provides at least a certain amount of grist to Jim McGuinness' mill. It's twice in a week Donegal have expressed their displeasure with fixture arrangements.
Donegal and McGuinness must know what speaking out will have little effect on the mandarins in Croke Park, which isn't to say it doesn't serve a purpose all of its own: to create a siege mentality.