Feargal Logan and the Tyrone joint-management dynamic: Red Hands avoiding autocratic approach

Joint-management tickets are not the usual route in modern GAA.

Ultimately on the big day, many feel that the buck needs to stop with one person. One manager needs to bite the bullet and make the big calls. Indeed, up until the 1970s, county panels were usually run by selection committees consisting of several stake-holders.

One single voice has since been deemed a more modern approach.

Not for Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher, however.

"The fundamental is this, and I mean it sincerely; it is a collective," Logan explained.

"One, it is a fairly heavy shift and two, we do have fairly busy jobs, Brian and myself.

"Brian and myself are involved, but how do we divvy it up? You can ask him independently, but it is as close to a straight 50-50 on everything. Which has meant the phone, a Zoom every night. I have been in more contact with Brian than I have been with anybody in football.

"But it is a group. We are here tonight and there are guys sitting at home analysing videos, the medics who are 24/7. It's a collective.

"Management is overstated. You are as good as your players but you are also as good as the collective.

"Peter [Canavan], Brian and myself managed the U21s. I mean it sincerely when I say it didn't cost me one iota of thought, really. Because as a team and a panel, you rise together and you fall together. So it doesn't really matter.

"If Mickey Moynagh (Tyrone's kit-man) comes up with the best substitution, and I mean that with the greatest of respect, the longest and best servant of Tyrone football - if Mickey comes up with the winning formula, I am as happy as anybody."

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That dynamic was tested in the Ulster final, after Logan was forced to watch the action at Croke Park from home after getting caught up in the Covid-19 issues within the panel.

"My phone was here beside me, and then I had the TV screen. The phone, I could hear the crowd and it still hadn't happened on the TV," he recounted.

"Then I was going, 'has that ball gone down their end, or our end?'

"And Joe [McMahon], mainly was operating it with Brian.

"And listen, guys, they were in good hands. I would have been better just putting my feet up at home, 100 miles away and relaxing. He divvied up all the subs that day.

"But I was talking to them, I was talking to them at half-time. We had an open WhatsApp call. It seemed to work and kept the line of contact to the guys, but you don't know if you are doing right or wrong or adding benefit or not. But we got over the line, just about."

However, management is not all quite a walk in the park for Logan, who knows difficult decisions need to be made. Particularly when it comes to team selection.

"It's the one thing that would put me off management. It was the same at U21, it's the same at the club," he said.

"Whatever about the 15, the 26 is the real stinger. Nowadays it's such a fluid situation with subs, and often there's a feel that you finish stronger than your start.

"I don't know what's in the players' heads, but maybe sitting back, knowing that you're going to finish out the game more or less, you never give the players a guarantee that they'll come in.

"But some players know that they're needed down the stretch.

"It's an open slate now for everybody, [training] will determine it. I think our panels to date have all shown that we do make decisions where people are in and out. It's a cruel part of management. We hope that everybody gets fit enough to be considered to be put in. We'd love to include everybody but it's not like that in life."

Watch Mayo vs Tyrone in the All-Ireland SFC final live on Sky Sports Arena from 4pm Saturday.