Need to curb backroom teams as club mimics inter-county

There were a few quips in the aftermath of Cavan's fine win over Monaghan last week regarding Raymond Galligan’s backroom team.

Releasing the full list may seems an obvious thing to do when announcing a new management team but actually it's very rarely done nowadays and will nearly always raise eyebrows.

In Cavan’s case they were probably thinking that giving their ex-keeper the job may have looked like they were taking an inexperienced and cheap option. Lining out a 20-strong management and backroom team is a declaration this is anything but the case.

It was a similar eye-opening moment when Dublin’s backroom team were photographed back in 2016. That amounted to 23 in total, matched by the Tipperary’s hurlers photographed the same year. They are not common photos to see as they do leave us on the outside, scratching our heads at the sheer number now involved. The 'hangers-on’ as my dad used to call them.

If we go through the essentials, it isn’t long before the number involved reaches surprising proportions. Manager and coach plus one additional in the assistant manager/coach/selector type place, S&C, team doctor, team physio, video analysis/stats, kitman, logistics/county board liaison.

It gets to 10 before you are outside what you would need for a decent club setup and before the workload involved in some of those roles is considered. For example, from an area I know something about, one physio between a team of 35 just won’t cut it come training or game days. Realistically you are looking at 15 of a backroom team at inter-county level as a starting point.

A team’s needs and priorities might be expected to change over time. A team in a rebuild with lots coming through from Under-20 might need additional S&C support; a team