“I tell guys I’m here to win for myself, not for the club” – Pat Flanagan on being honest

Pat Flanagan’s LinkedIn profile reveals that he is a “neuro-linguistic programming life coach” by profession.

The first item listed under “Professional Experience” reads: “County Gaelic Football Management”.

Qualification and vocation are not unrelated.

“You’re still learning,” said Flanagan, now manager of Roscommon champions Pádraig Pearses who meet Mountbellew Moylough in today’s re-fixed Connacht club semi-final.

“I am 27 years old leading football teams. For me, it’s about taking on challenges and trying to do things that haven’t been done in the past.

As a relevant example, Pádraig Pearses was founded in 1962.

Merging two rural clubs, Moore and Taughmaconnell with Creagh, they had made seven Roscommon senior finals when Flanagan came in as manager in 2017 and lost them all.

Flanagan, a native of Offaly, harnessed himself, paced the field and immediately declared his intention to win a county title. No acclimatization required.

“Personally, I believe the majority provide individuals with the tools they need to recognize that they have come to a different level themselves,” he explains.

“I can’t take a team anywhere. I can just give them the tools they need. This is probably my strong point. I can identify and provide the tools individuals need to thrive.

“Some players fail to do it,” Flanagan adds. “They are not up to what they are capable of. But if you can get a number of players to do that and combine them in the right way, it makes all the difference with a team.

“Then you develop a feeling of enthusiasm, of desire – all the things that go with it. Suddenly, he adds, the collective begins to believe that it can move forward or succeed.

Obviously, there is at least some of the science behind it. And Flanagan would know.

But also, some managers seem to have a knack for winning county titles.

Micheál McDermott, whose side Wolfe Tones lost to Kilmacud Crokes in the Leinster semi-final last Sunday, is an obvious contemporary example.

The absence of precise or official records makes any verification impossible. But the native of Cavan now holds an exceptional record, probably unique.

When Wolfe Tones beat St Peter’s Dunboyne in SFC Meath a month ago, it was the fourth different Senior County Championship McDermott won as manager. His fifth overall.

After leading Ramor United to a Cavan title in 2006, he brought back-to-back Clare Championships back to Kilmurray-Ibrickane before guiding Monaleen to Limerick honors in 2011. Flanagan is quite likely to hold a comparable honor.

He is – surely – the only manager to have won three different senior county titles on multiple occasions.

He took his hometown club Clara to two Offaly Championships as a manager in 2003 and 2009, Tyrrellspass to Westmeath honors in ’06 and ’07 and now, Pádraig Pearses, to their own promised land in 2019 and ’21.

“The only thing I say to players when I first meet them is, ‘I’m here to win for myself. I am not here to win for the club.

“The reason I say this is that I have to maintain my standards and I have to be hungry and passionate. When I’m under pressure, I have to look at myself.

“I can’t look at the jersey or the patch or whatever. I’m 27 years old. The last final was special because we were part of a group that beat a local rival and gave Pádraig Pearses great joy.

“There is always something different to be won in every championship. And they’re so, so hard to win.

Pearses was even on the verge of winning back-to-back titles last year before being beaten in the final by St Brigid’s. After a period of great famine, they very quickly began to feast.

Always watch, always evaluate. Flanagan says he noticed a slight but important difference in the collective behavior of his players last season.

“Because they crossed the line in ’19,” he explains, “there was tremendous pressure on them in ’20. Instead of trying to achieve something, it was like they were trying to defend something.

It is, he insists, a different discipline. The one who kept Pádraig Pearses from giving a full and proper account of themselves.

“These are two very different mentalities,” says Flanagan. “And I think maybe they suffered a bit for that. So our goal this year was to get back to the mindset where we were trying to achieve something new.

“It takes experience to deal with this situation. They didn’t have it then, but they have it now.