A tale of the brother Grimley
December 31, 2009
Will Armagh's loss be Monaghan's gain? Is Paul Grimley the piece in the jigsaw Banty's regime has hitherto been missing?
In the spring of 2001, Paul Grimley first met with Joe Kernan's Armagh panel and the rest is history.
Just under six years later, he underpinned Cavan's revivalist zeal at the shoulder of team-manager Donal Keogan.
In late 2007, the former Armagh ace linked up with Kildare and their supremo Kieran McGeeney and the by-product of his imput in the short grass county is still a work-in-progress.
After being spurned by the powers-that-be in his native Armagh after the incumbent Peter McDonnell resigned, Grimley watched Monaghan's wannabes last October strutting their stuff alongside Seamus McEnaney and got the same tingle in his bones as he did at his other postings.
Now after years of experience - and varying degrees of success with his native and adopted counties - at the top level, Grimley has been touted by some of his admirers as a second-in-command with the Midas touch.
So how does he turn paupers into royalty?
"There's no magic formula in terms of achieving success," the 50-year old predictably declares.
"You have to work hard to get the type of performances that wins things and most of that work comes on the training pitch and the various programmes that players are asked to follow.
"There's a collective responsiblity on the players in any squad to row in behind achieving the same goal.
"Ability alone will not win anything for a team. Success is about 99% perspiration, one percent inspiration and there'll be no passengers carried on the panel when we get up and running.
"No team with genuine aspirations on winning silverware can afford to carry 'luxury' players; Johnny Doyle in Kildare has been their best forward for years now but he's also been their hardest-working player too.
"We want everyone to muck in, know their own individual jobs on the field and be singing from the same hymn sheet when they have the ball and when they don't."
Banty's newest selectorial recruit is a self-professed devotee of the mantra that hard work is the quality which defines successful teams.
And ahead of a new season of hope and adventure for the Oriel County, the has warned that any player bereft of a 'sleeves-rolled-up' mentality will not cut it in 2010.
Ulster is the most testing and unnerving province but Grimley believes that his adopted county can emerge from the cloying mass of runners and riders with the Anglo-Celt Cup in tow next July.
To lift the Holy Grail though, the incoming Monaghan squad, first and foremost, needs to show their opponents a clean pair of heels in the workrate department, the Pearse Og (Armagh city) clubman insists.
Grimley is full-sure of the qualities he seeks in a player and hence the importance of the trials last October/November which fairly briefed him.
"The trials involved mostly players who hadn't tasted either league or championship action with Monaghan in the past.
"Hopefully two or three players will be good enough to make our first fifteen next year along with another couple of new fellas on the panel as well.
"Looking at the stats, Monaghan have consistently had one of the highest scoring ratios in the country but we always have to be aware that the team concedes quite a bit too.
"All the players have to be more disciplined in the tackle. If you look at the top teams, they have a degree of confidence in their own ability that makes them stand out among the others.
"We want to have fellas on the team who are confident on the ball; good ball players who are good decision-makers and react well under pressure.
He considers himself "pleasantly surprised" by what the 40/50 triallists in the past couple of months brought to the table.
Grimley espouses a refreshingly bold and honest attitude regarding the old chestnut about finding a balance between blooding players in the national league and eeking out victories at the same time.
His solution is to embrace both aspirations head-on and considers such a goal with Monaghan as "very much achievable."
"Nothing will come easy for any of the new players but we have to identify which of them possesses the confidence that is needed come the white heat of championship battle.
"Gaining experience from the national league and hopefully helping the team retain division one status will bring on any new players a tonne and will strengthen the panel as a whole.
"We also have to establish a style of play which will put it up to the best teams around.
"By that I mean, for instance, players at the back being versatile and being able to play in anyone of the six positions.
"In Kildare we played Hugh McGrillen and Emmet Bolton, both midfielders with their clubs, in the corner-back berths and had another natural midfielder Micheal Foley playing full-back."
A member of the Armagh senior panel - invariably employed as a midfielder 'cum full forward - during the years 1979-89, Grimley maintains that "self-belief is priceless" and is the DNA of confidence.
Should a heavy defeat visit Monaghan, he believes that the character of the squad will be seen to its most illuminating effect.
"In some cases during the past year, the character of the team showed up well while in other cases, it didn't show up just as well," he says in reference to the team's championship(s) sojourn in 2009."
For a short period in the past autumn, Grimley's own character came under the media spotlight.
Having been smothered by bouquets cast his way by a disgruntled group of Armagh senior players not enamoured by their county board's decision not to inveigle him into becoming Peter McDonnell's successor, Grimley might have been tempted to do a volte face and say 'thanks, but no thanks' to Seamus McEnaney's overtures.
"I had originally put it to the people pulling the strings in Armagh that I was interested in the county job but it was only after the players kicked up that they approached me.
"By then I had shook hands with the banty and agreed to link up with Monaghan. I wasn't going to renege on my commitment to him and Monaghan at that stage."
Winner of three SFC medals with Pearse Og and team-manager of his home club when they annexed the Armagh blue riband title in '92, Grimley saya he will have absolutely no conflict of interest or emotion should Monaghan meet Armagh in next year's Ulster SFC first round.
"I've no preference in terms of who we meet in the first round but if it's Armagh it won't bother me in the slightest.
"There'll be no sentiment on my part, one way or the other and I will be friends with the Armagh players before and after the match if we should meet them in the championship, win, lose or draw."
While ensconced in the Kildare camp, Grimley found the thrice weekly 320 miles round trip down south tiresome and, ultimately, a chore.
His journey to Athy, Moorefield etc for training then entailed a good five hours on the road.
In contrast, as a Monaghan mentor, a one hour round trip to Cloghan lies ahead of him for training sessions.
His safari in 2010 will be a lot less taxing, energy-wise, than that which endlessly took him to Kildare over the past couple of years.
He is upbeat about the prospect of Monaghan hitting the ground running in the New Year.
He takes heart from the fine form shown by Clontibret, Monaghan Harps and Emyvale in their respective Ulster club campaigns.
"I don't think any other county in Ulster can say that their county champions did as well as Monaghan's did this year in Ulster," Grimley opines.
"Their performances send out a signal that Monaghan club football is very strong and highly competitive.
"Clontibret's victory over Dromore, in particularly, didn't go unnoticed across the province and that can only be good from a county point of view.
"There's a good well of talent in Monaghan as the club champions have shown and it's up to us now to reflect those results in the county's performances in the coming year."
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