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Best 5 GAA County Managers In Your Time

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Mick O Dwyer Jim Gavin Billy Morgan Sean Boylan Jack O Connor tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1706 - 27/02/2026 16:46:39 2658927 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Mick O Dwyer Jim Gavin Billy Morgan Sean Boylan Jack O Connor" You can't not have Brian Cody in the list. Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4302 - 27/02/2026 23:06:52 2658959 Link
Replying To Doylerwex: "You can't not have Brian Cody in the list." He can have whoever he wants. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8467 - 28/02/2026 10:40:26 2658991 Link
Replying To Doylerwex: "You can't not have Brian Cody in the list." All football managers so no need for mr cody mickcunningham (Westmeath) - Posts: 1937 - 28/02/2026 11:35:40 2659002 Link
Replying To GreenandRed: "He can have whoever he wants." Of course he can. Your own opinions are no good if they are actually someone else's. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18694 - 28/02/2026 13:02:20 2659021 Link
Replying To mickcunningham: "All football managers so no need for mr cody" The thread is about best GAA managers. The OP even included a hurling manager himself. Bigger ball doesn't mean better manager neccessarily! Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18694 - 28/02/2026 13:03:47 2659022 Link
Replying To Doylerwex: "You can't not have Brian Cody in the list." Brian Cody......brilliant. John Kiely........brilliant. Kevin Heffernan....not only for what he did for Dublin but the whole GAA scene. Jim Gavin......his record speaks for itself. Sean Boylan P. Rooney (USA) - Posts: 67 - 28/02/2026 17:07:20 2659067 Link
On the point of Cody On the face of it - he won 11 all Irelands in 25 years as Kilkenny Manager. They won 18 in the 75 years before that. So his record is excellent. But dig a bit deeper..... He took over in 1998 when Clare, Offaly, Wexford and Limerick were all past their golden generations. He only had Cork, Galway and Tipp to worry about. Kilkenny had won minor All Irelands in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1993 - those players were between 22 and 28 when he took over - so he had a lot to work with. Kilkenny then won more minors in 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010 and 2014, giving him a constant feed of new players to regenerate the team. His All Ireland wins were 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015. His senior All Ireland wins drying up as the minor talent dried up. In his last 7 years as manager, when the minor players from 2008, 2010 and 2014 were at their peak - Kilkenny stopped winning All Irelands. When he took over Kilkenny han won either minor or senior for 5 years, when he left, they handn't won a minor or senior for 7 years. Since Codys last win in 2015, Kilkenny are now on a historic drought of All Irelands (10 years without either a senior or minor title). So he was very successful for 15 years when handed a lot of talent, but he has left the County in a much worse position than he found it. The reality is he stayed on at least 5 years too long. So while he was very successful in what was essentially a 4 team competition, he was the beneficiary of being in the only all hurling county in a time when their underage was producing. However, by the end they were overtaken at underage and he wasn't able to sustain success without that production line. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1706 - 05/03/2026 09:58:32 2660053 Link
Hurling Managers Cody Kiely Sheedy Cyril Farrell Loughnane Farrell and Loughnane won multiple All Irelands with counties who had no recent underage success and with counties who don't win many All Irelands. Like winning formula one for Jordan Grand Prix, rather than Ferrari. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1706 - 05/03/2026 10:12:12 2660055 Link
Mick o Dwyer Kevin Heffernan Brian Cody Mickey Harte Ger Loughnane countyman2022 (Wexford) - Posts: 945 - 05/03/2026 10:29:30 2660058 Link
Davy Fitz Jim Gavin Micko Cody Kiely Honorable Mention: Cyril Farrell. SouthGalway (Galway) - Posts: 230 - 05/03/2026 14:42:06 2660126 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Hurling Managers Cody Kiely Sheedy Cyril Farrell Loughnane Farrell and Loughnane won multiple All Irelands with counties who had no recent underage success and with counties who don't win many All Irelands. Like winning formula one for Jordan Grand Prix, rather than Ferrari." That's a good point. Cody has 11 All Irelands as a Manager but it's easier to manage Kilkenny to an All Ireland than it is Galway. endgame (Roscommon) - Posts: 2613 - 05/03/2026 16:21:50 2660159 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Hurling Managers Cody Kiely Sheedy Cyril Farrell Loughnane Farrell and Loughnane won multiple All Irelands with counties who had no recent underage success and with counties who don't win many All Irelands. Like winning formula one for Jordan Grand Prix, rather than Ferrari." That was the reasoning behind my picking Liam Griffin. Aside from local bias ;-) Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18694 - 05/03/2026 17:32:53 2660176 Link
Eugene McGee deserves a mention. A gentleman and a scholar. Very knowledgeable, charismatic man who slowly improved Offaly to the point where they caused a mighty upset. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8467 - 05/03/2026 20:13:46 2660203 Link
Cant believe that nobody has mentioned John O Mahony anotheralias (Galway) - Posts: 1043 - 05/03/2026 22:52:13 2660217 Link
Replying To endgame: "That's a good point. Cody has 11 All Irelands as a Manager but it's easier to manage Kilkenny to an All Ireland than it is Galway." Cody is obviously an all time great, but he had an incredible collection of players. Some of the best to ever play the game. When that team eventually broke up, he didn't win an All-Ireland for the last 7 years of his reign. That's not a slight on him, just stating that it's difficult to win All-Irelands unless you have an excellent group of players. Would Kilkenny have won 11 All-Irelands in Cody's era without him at the helm? Probably not, I'd say, but they would have still won plenty. He had the ability to keep them hungry and coming back for more every year. WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2738 - 05/03/2026 23:17:25 2660219 Link
1. Mick O'Dwyer (Kerry) 2. Jim Gavin (Dublin) 3. Jack O'Connor (Kerry) 4. Sean Boylan (Meath) 5. Kevin Heffernan (Dublin) /Mickey Harte (Tyrone) GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3042 - 06/03/2026 21:31:11 2660372 Link
Replying To WanPintWin: "Cody is obviously an all time great, but he had an incredible collection of players. Some of the best to ever play the game. When that team eventually broke up, he didn't win an All-Ireland for the last 7 years of his reign. That's not a slight on him, just stating that it's difficult to win All-Irelands unless you have an excellent group of players. Would Kilkenny have won 11 All-Irelands in Cody's era without him at the helm? Probably not, I'd say, but they would have still won plenty. He had the ability to keep them hungry and coming back for more every year." Yes I agree with all of that. Hard to think that as we look forward to championship 2026, two of hurling's superpowers Cork and Kilkenny have gone 21 years and 11 years respectively without winning an All Ireland title. endgame (Roscommon) - Posts: 2613 - 07/03/2026 11:21:12 2660398 Link
Replying To GreenandRed: "Eugene McGee deserves a mention. A gentleman and a scholar. Very knowledgeable, charismatic man who slowly improved Offaly to the point where they caused a mighty upset." Yes. A Longford man so an outside Manager. He built up that Offaly team. All Ireland semi final 1980, All Ireland Final 1981 and All Ireland title 1982. Offaly in 1982 remains the last county with a population under 100,000 to win the All Ireland football championship. endgame (Roscommon) - Posts: 2613 - 07/03/2026 11:57:26 2660405 Link
Replying To endgame: "Yes. A Longford man so an outside Manager. He built up that Offaly team. All Ireland semi final 1980, All Ireland Final 1981 and All Ireland title 1982. Offaly in 1982 remains the last county with a population under 100,000 to win the All Ireland football championship." In fairness to Armagh and Tyrone they wouldn't have much more of a potential GAA population Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18694 - 07/03/2026 12:12:52 2660408 Link