Ray Silke: John O'Mahony's premature passing casts huge shadow ...

We won the final on the Sunday and after county training the following Tuesday, I waited back to let Johno know that my girlfriend (now wife) and I were heading to Houston in Texas and on down to New Orleans for 12 days on a holiday to see her brother, who worked in the oil business.

Johno was not at all impressed with our plans and proceeded to unleash a proper roasting in a one-on-one outside the dressing rooms in Monivea well after 9pm.

The conversation ran along these lines: “It is not a great start for us Ray, is it?  You have missed five or six sessions already with your club commitments and now you are going to miss another four or five training sessions with your trip and probably more if Corofin go well. I am trying to pick a panel of committed men here to have a tilt at winning an All-Ireland and this is not a good start. Unless you are committed to this panel…” 

The rest did not need to be said.

I was not happy either with John and responded by pointing out that when I had a booked the holiday trip, John was not even Galway manager (that quip landed well) and that I had meticulously booked the dates to fit in with the Galway county championship and Connacht club fixtures and that Corofin were going to go all the way to the All-Ireland final.

We ended our conversation with Johno telling me, in very simple terms, that if there was any lack of commitment on my side, that our relationship would be a very short one. And me responding that he had no worries on that score.

On reflection I believe that Johno was just laying down the law. He wanted to start with a firm hand and leave no player in any doubt of what he expected of them. Another example was a few months later when our All-Star midfielder Kevin Walsh could not make our 8pm training as he was on Garda duty.

Johno told Kevin: “No problem. What time are you finished at? And I will meet you in Monivea."

So Johno met Kevin about 11pm and trained him in a one-on-one session until well after midnight under lights.

It was very rare that someone missed training after that episode.

Johno won an All-Ireland U21 medal with Mayo at corner back in 1974 and as a school teacher at St Nathy’s College in Ballaghdereen, he was introduced to team management from a young age.

He took up senior inter-county management very young and replaced Liam O’Neill as Mayo senior manager in 1987, when he was only 34, leading them to their first All-Ireland final in 1989 since 1951.

Billy Morgan and Dinny Allen put a halt to Mayo’s gallop in that final and it was a definite regret for John that he did not get to lead Mayo to an All-Ireland senior success.

I joked with him on a few occasions on holidays whether he would swap our two All-Ireland successes in 1998 and 2001 for one victory with Mayo. 

He never gave a definitive answer, but I know that winning the Sam Maguire with Mayo was something that he would dearly have loved to have achieved.

Johno was a meticulous planner and he believed that the small things were the big things. If I was meeting Johno for a chat as team captain and he said 6.30pm, he would be there 20 minutes early.

For training at 7pm in Tuam or Monivea, John would be on site by 6.15pm and this was in the 1997–2002 era when the manager arrived at training with a boot full of O’Neills footballs, cones, bibs, tape, stopwatches, flip charts, writing pads, and 20 water bottles.

And of course a measuring wheel to clock our distance runs.

Johno had the immediate respect of every Galway player when he strode into our lives in 1997 especially for his managerial brilliance in taking Leitrim from the doldrums of Connacht to provincial champions in 1994, beating the three big guns, Roscommon, Galway, and Mayo, in that campaign.

Johno was a believer. And he believed in the players at his disposal, regardless of what county they were from.

We were having some banter on our team holiday in Cape Town after the 2001 All-Ireland and John got very serious and told a few of us that if Leitrim had beaten Galway in 1995 (we fell over the line with a last minute point), that they would have won the 1995 All-Ireland.

I asked him was he being serious. And he looked me straight in the eye and told me that was their plan. “We intended on winning Connacht and going the whole way.” 

I remember thinking he was delusional, but he was correct to have that conviction.

If there are not believers at the top table, if the leaders of the tribe don’t believe, then how can the followers be expected to believe?

Johno’s mantra for us in the 1998 season was to “Take the opportunity of a lifetime, in the lifetime of the opportunity”. 

He used to drive that point home consistently and John also used his very close friendship with Tommie Gorman (RIP) to ensure that we had some terrific video footage of family and friends and clips from games to keep us on the right track.

When I think about the passing of John O’Mahony, it bring a well of sadness not only around me but in this entire region. However, I am proud to have known him and worked with him. When I think of his football legacy, it is a splendid one.

Rather than mourn John’s death, football people in Mayo, Leitrim, and Galway should rejoice in a life lived to the full. Eight senior provincial titles (four with Galway, three with Mayo, and Leitrim in 1994).

All-Ireland finals with Mayo in 1989, Galway ’98, ’00, and ’01.

How many footballing lives, and footballers’ family lives, has John influenced in a genuinely positive way over the past 35 years? If John O’Mahony had not arrived in Galway in August 1997, we would not have been All-Ireland champions twelve months later.

That is a fact.

Wherever Johno was as a football manager or coach, he strived to help that team to take the opportunity of its lifetime, in the lifetime of their opportunity.

To Gerardine, who was John’s closest confidante, and his five daughters, we offer our sincere sympathy on your huge loss. Your dad was one of the very best.

*The author was captain of Galway's 1998 All-Ireland SFC winning team, under manager John O'Mahony.