INTERVIEW: Declan Kelly's great managerial adventure ends with him in Offaly football's hottest seat

WITH no lofty ambitions guiding him into any position ahead of his time, Declan Kelly's patient, step by step approached has seen him elevated into Offaly football's hottest seat – the county senior football manager, a role that will lead to a new level of scrutiny with all the accompanying commitment and pressure that goes with it.

It has been a remarkable progression for the Kilclonfert man. Now in his mid forties, he has been handed the distinction of managing his own county – a cherished role that many very highly regarded fellow county men sought but didn't achieve over the years.

How did Kelly get there? There are a myriad and reasons and factors that have led him to this moment in time.

Firstly and most obviously, his achievement in leading Offaly to a sensational All-Ireland U-20 Football Championship title in 2021 brought this job into his orbit. That squad came from nowhere to win and signposted Kelly's qualities as an outstanding manager. It meant that he was an obvious candidate for the top job and that he was always likely to get the chance at some stage.

It goes way deeper than that, however. During his own playing career, Kelly was a solid, steady goalkeeper. He played minor and U-21 football for Offaly but didn't make it at senior level, featuring as understudy for a couple of seasons around the turn of the 2000s but making only a couple of competitive league appearances.

He was still playing for his club, Kilclonfert when he dipped his toes into team managemen in 2011. His first experience was with his own parish underage U-21 football amalgamation, St Vincent's, whom he managed for five seasons and led to three titles in a row from 2014 to 2016. He led a neighbouring club, St Brigid's to the Intermediate Football Championship in 2012 and fellow parishioners Cappincur to intermediate and senior “B” in 2015 and 2016.

Even at this early stage, it was clear that Kelly had something special going for him. It was not long before his county came knocking and he resisted initially, first of all not going for the minor football job and then bidding his time before eventually taking on the Offaly U-21, later U-20, football job, whom he managed from 2018 to 2022. He also managed a marquee club side, enjoying considerable success with St Loman's in Mullingar.

Every step of the way, he pondered deeply and choose wisely before accepting any job. Any hint that things were not right, either with the players, or the backing he would receive from officers when he laid his cards on the tables, ended with an inevitable refusal. He accepted that standards would not always be where they needed to be when he took on a role but he needed to know that he would get buy in from the majority of players as he raised the bar and that the people who appointed him would back him when players were discarded and the fallout from this erupted.

He learned in every job but all the time, his demands for on and off field standards and commitment, never wavered, becoming more pronounced over time. His managerial career has represented the classic natural progression – underage into adult intermediate, senior B and then senior, county U-20 onto senior. Everything was in the right order as he adapted to the different levels he operated in – Cappincur intermediate footballers could not be expected to do what St Loman's seniors did and the Offaly U-20 footballers he managed to such stunning success in 2021 will be asked to do a whole lot more now that they are at senior level.

When John Maughan went at the end of 2022, Kelly was an obvious candidate but work commitments meant that he didn't bite. It was also possible that the timing was not quite right for him but it was a different story when Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan initially sounded him out and then entered formal discussions this year.

The timing was unfortunate and had Liam Kearns not passed away during the year, the opportunity would not have arisen.

“I didn't expect it to come up this year but with Liam passing away and Martin not putting himself forward, it came up relatively quick. I am delighted and honoured that I have been offered the job.”

He also knew that the opportunity just might not come again and turning it down would have bneen a bigger call than accepting it.

“That is the reality. Normally when a manager comes in with club or county, you are looking at a three year window. It may not have come around again. The opportunity was there and lucky enough my package was accepted.”

His package so far includes former Offaly and Shannonbridge footballer, Vinny Mooney as a coach and Mullingar's Ciaran Kilmurray as a selector – Mooney has won praise for his work with Kilmacud Crokes in his adopted Dublin home while Kelly worked with Kilmurray in St Loman's and they struck up a mutual relationship.

He hopes to finalise his backroom team in the coming weeks but an important member of his U-20 management, Ger Rafferty (St Rynagh's) will not be part of it.

“We would have spoke but it is the commitment levels required and at the moment, he is tied up with Ferbane and couldn't commit.”

When he took over St Vincent's U-21 footballers all those years ago, his ambitions were very simple and any grand plan such as managing Offaly simply didn't come into his thinking.

“Within St Vincent's at the time, there wasn't much of an effort being put in among that age group and it was just to put in a bit of a structure on it. It took a couple of years, we were five years involved.”

Success didn't come easy or automatically and they endured bad defeats by the Rhode parish outfit, St Michael's in the first couple of years, firstly in the semi-final and then the first round but gradually, the wheel turned – and that is the way his career has developed.

“It was all about getting a bit of a structure behind it. We got to the final and won one and then the next two but if you ask me had I an ambition to manage Offaly, it was never on the radar and that is being straight. The way I looked on it was if someone came to you in the morning and asked to manage a club team, number one, if you had passion for the team and liked the club you were going into, and if you felt you could improve it, then you would consider it.

“That was the way, even with the U-20s. I had done a couple of years with Cappincur and was asked would I consider giving the U-20 job a go for a year. That is how that developed. I ended up there five years. The natural thing then was with the way that tenure went, the senior was something that was going to come up in some shape or form and it was probably the natural progression to step in if you were in a position to do it.

“It was never something on the horizon when I started out. It just happened to come with the teams I happened to manage and luckily got a bit of success with. I go back to the 20s, that was a year on year thing. The All-Ireland has put that into focus and you were probably always going to get an opportunity to go for it with that but that being said, you may or may not be in a position to take it up at the time and if you get offered it once and you don't take it, will you get offered it again? That is where it is but it probably came on the basis that we had a good bit of success with the under 20s and at the moment we are in a position to take it on.”

He has received a lot of phone calls, approaches over the years, particularly in the wake of 2021 and far more have been rejected than accepted. Apart from the unnegotiable ones of his lifestyle and family/work commitments allowing him, his first criteria for every job remained steadfast – would the players respond and would the club or county officers back him.

“That is key. No matter whether a club or county job, I always maintained that you do need a very very strong top table. If you are trying to put structures and standards in place, there is no doubt, it is not going to sit well with all the players. There are going to be hard decisions to be made. On that, I have been very lucky, definitely in the club jobs I started out with, that I had very good people around me and good people at the top who were prepared to stand by decisions that were made. That to me is the big thing you need and definitely at County Board people for the last number of years, we are lucky to have those good people there too. Everything does need to work in tandem and you cvan't have one coming against the other.”

The presence of Michael Duignan as Offaly GAA chairman, the knowledge that he can only do one more year before he must step down, was a factor – they may have different roles and ways of doing things but their passion and ambitions for Offaly are identical.

“Ah yeah, I am lucky the last number of years to be involved with Michael as chairman and pushing up standards. You can see there is no stone being left unturned across the county, whether hurling or football to get the required standards up and get the right people into the various jobs, whether development squad level or minor and that. There is no doubt having Michael as chairman is very positive for the county and across the board and in accepting the job, it had a big bearing without a doubt.”

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His work with Offaly U-20 footballers earmarked him for this job but he also impressed people with the way he raised things, his willingness to make the tough, unpopular calls, to call players out who weren't doing what was needed.

How did Offaly manage to win that All-Ireland?

“I go back to the previous three years with that. When we came into that U-20 job, I felt at that time, we weren't giving ourselves a chance and by that I mean, the standards that were being applied by players, you hadn't a hope of making any progress. I always say, if you won the All-Ireland or Leinster, great but the remit at the time was fairly simple and straightforward. Get standards in at Under 20 level so that whoever the senior manager was, every year, he could look at pulling in four or five U-20 players. That to me hasn't changed. The one thing, we started to win a few games and Kildare took us out early on in the semi-final in Tullamore. They had 2-6 scored and subsequently went on and won the All-Ireland but you could sort of say, we are getting to a level.

“I found out that the players coming in that year didn't know what was required but by year two, there probably was an understanding with lads coming in of what they needed to do to keep themelves in there. It built from that and you were getting very competitive over the years.”

In 2021, Offaly rode their luck early on. Wexford and Westmeath could both have taken them out in the early rounds but it all ignited in the Leinster final and took off.

“Then you were playing Dublin who were red hot favourites but at some stage, you have to take a scalp of a big one if you are thinking you are on the right road. The one thing you would be very proud of the lads that day is we spoke about Dublin getting goals and that they will get goals against you and it is how you react to that. They banged in three goals but the reaction of the lads each time the goal went in was to go and get the next score. It probably just wore Dublin down but there would have been a general belief leading up to that year over the previous couple of years that we were competitive, that we weren't going to be blown out of the water any more at this level.

“Obviously you got over the Dublin game, you had a couple of weeks to the semi-final and it built from that. There is no doubt that win gave them massive confidence and belief. You can talk about psychologists and all that goes with it but there is nothing like winning matches to give confidence to a set of players.”

He set out his stall in his first year over the U-21s – players who were there the previous year were dropped and there was no shortage of comment about their absence but he knew it had to be done.

“It goes back to what I said earlier, the standards. We had to get the standards up to a level and that to me was key. You had to get players who wanted to be there but who also applied themselves to the best of their ability to give themselves the best chance going forward. The remit was fairly simple, get as many fellows through as you can to senior level. It had to be done. You just had to get standards up.

“Did it overall help the long term plan? It probably did. Some came back in, some didn't and that is the way things worked out. I go back to, we were backed by the County Board in relation to that which is what I mean about both working together. That was key to the overall plan, that they backed what we were doing.”

He knows that he will experience a new level of scrutiny and questions when he begins to make tough decisions in the coming weeks and months. How will you cope with that downside of your job?

“You have that, it is just the way society is gone. As regards making decisions, it is just part of the job. At the end of the day, any decisions made about teams or panels will be within the management group and it will be very much a case of what we feel is best about the personnel we put out. Yes, you are going to get a backlash, whether decisions are good, bad or indifferent. I am locally based but I don't be around workwise. I am around the country or out of the country so I won't be bumping into too many people on a daily basis. You may just prepare for it.”

Apart from his above mentioned jobs, he has also taken on a lead role with the Offaly underage development squad system, trying to make sure the right work is put in here with strength and conditioning (s and c). He knows it is too late for that work to begin at minor or u-20 level.

“There is a good bit of work going on at development squad level over the last couple of years. It is key. Looking at a panel of players over the next while and trying to get a quick fix of 25 who can play at this level, there is no quick fix to s and c any more. You just can't turn up at 20 years of age and decide I am going to work really hard at my s and c now. It starts at a young age and unfortunately, you need to have a core of work done. You are seeing that now at development squad level. There is a core of lads in system for last two years and you can see from test results, they are beginning to get to a level that needs to be. That is a continuation, you need to get to that level and every year you are improving.”

The tide is turning but there can be bad days that make you question everything. One was a big defeat to Dublin in the Leinster minor football semi-final this year and the leakage of half a dozen goals. How do you explain those type of results?

“I saw the work that went in at that level this year and they maxed themselves in terms of what they got out of it. It can happen at that level that all of a sudden against some of the so called big teans, they rattle in a couple of early goals and heads drop. They probably know themselves they weren't that bad and I think a core of them will make it onto an U-20 squad this year and if you can probably identify five or six straight away. There is probably no answer you can give for that. It is one of those things and it happens.”

It is probably not a simple answer, but what is required to play senior county football?

“U-20 level is one thing and this is a push on again in terms of how you need to apply yourself, on and off the field. It is a different level again. That is the conversation I am having with some of the U-20s that have gone through the system over the last couple of years. Where they currently are, if they have ambition of really giving themselves a chance of playing for Offaly seniors and what they need to do. It is a big, big step up and the way it is gone at senior intercountylevel if you want to compete at that level, it is really all year around. There is no off season any more and that is what we are looking at.”

The formation of a sub squad of players U25 but not on his 30 strong senior panel, putting in the hard yards, lifting the big weights, is an important part of his plans. Kelly knows that the day of late developers emerging from outside the system is effectively gone but he wants to give a few players in this classification the opportunity to see if they can get to the level.

“They are few and far between to be honest. I read an article recently about guys who didn't play minor or U-20 with their county and there is very few out there. In Offaly, we all have a fair handle on what is out there. At the end of the day, it is not for everyone. I have always said that but what I would be saying is, if it is for you, you need to apply yourself. It is no longer a case of just turning up. There is a core of work you need to have done to get to a level to play hurling and football. That is where it is.”

Kelly's appointment is important to getting that 2021 U-20 squad to emerge but he knows he can't build his team around them.

“It is about looking at that cohort of players from 23 down, some of the lads currently on the panel in their mid to late 20s and then a few lads around the 30 plus mark. It is about trying to amalgamate all of those individuals and to get a system of play and buy in from the cohort. You are going to need the spread of players. If you think you are going to come in and use a group of lads who are just out of U-20 to play senior football, it is not going to happen.”

So far only the Edenderry duo of Rory Egan and Lee Pearson have established themselves on the team. He is a bit surprised that it is this low but there are extenuating circumstances.

“There were a couple of lads starting just out of minor and they have just finished u20 this year. There were a couple who you would have identified as key players going forward. Cathal Donoghue has been ruled out with a knee injury. A couple like that who you would have said would have featured more prominently by now but due to injury, it hasn't happened.

“The remit over the next number of weeks is just to talk to fellows and see, number 1, if they want to try out and that is where I am at the moment. Obviously there is a core you would like to get in but it is down to if they are in a position to come in.I know there are one or two who are out of country due to third year in college and that is the nature of it. There is a core we are looking at and you would be hoping to get them to commit, to get buy in from.”

Football is a young man's game now and he agrees that the window is much shorter than it was. After the Covid disruption, more young lads are travelling and and he has no issue with this.

“I would say fair enough, if that is what you want to do, get it out of your system and let them off. There is no point in lads staying against their will.”

This year, Rory Egan and Jack Bryant opted out after the Leinster championship to go to the USA and missed the Tailteann Cup. Players won't be given that leeway this year and will be asked to sign up for the entire season or not come in at all.

“What we are saying to lads is we would like to have you in, we want to have you in. We can't give any guarantees but the one thing we ask of you if you come in is that you see the year out with Offaly.”

Can we expect a shake up in personnel on the panel?

“To be honest, I don't know. I am not sure what shake up will be there. We are looking at bringing in a core of bodies. The official start date is November and when we get back, there will be a block of work done and come January, we will have a look then. I am not 100% sure who is available. A couple are going travelling.”

What is expects may come as a surprise to some of the existing players.

“There is no doubt, we will have standards to meet and that is something we are telling players. The requirement if you come in and what you need to do. I think anyone that is going to playsenior county hurling or football, if you are serious, you will be meeting those standards anyway. That is where I am with it and if you are not able to meet those standards, it is not for you, it is not for you.”

How do young players let off steam and have down time with the level of commitment and intensity, county football entails.

“It is a good question. I was only chatting someone today about it. Ten fifteen, years ago and with the split season now, there was a bigger gap between games. There was more of a social life and culture with life after games. Even with the league going back years ago, you had three games before Christmas and another four after it.

“It is a lot more intensenow .You are playing week in week out and after the league, you are into the Leinster championship within a couple of weeks and then possibily the Tailteann Cup. All you are trying to do is make the thing as enjoyable as you can. If you are training hard, putting work in and have a group of lads all buying in, to me that is enjoyment. We need to be mindful, you are trying to build a squad of players. You need 25 plus at a level and there is no guarantee that if a lad starts today, he will start the next day. We will also be looking at how fellows react to not starting and whether they can buy into that culture too.”

It is a three year project for the new manager.

“You never know what will happen but you would be looking at that time frame. I spent five years with the U-20s and it is a three year project.”

He agreed that a short term hit could have to be swallowed and knows that the Division 3 National Football League campaign could swing either way next season.

“Looking at Division 3 this year, the games Offaly won, we were a point the right side of them. It is very very competitive. Wicklow and Sligo are coming up and Sligo won the last two Connacht U20s. Coming down you have Clare, who were six, seven years in Division 2 and took Cork out this year in Munster. Limerick as well and you throw in Westmeath, Down and Antrim into the mix, it is a very competitive Division 3. You are hoping to get into the hunt for promotion with a couple of games to go and that is what you are trying to do but we are under no illusions.

“I am really looking forward to it and getting into it. From general conversations at the moment and the players we are hoping to get in there, we seem to be getting good buy in and that is positive. Just looking forward to getting out on the field and see where it goes.”