Micko would want Laois to win before he would have wanted Kerry to win

Glowing tributes have been paid to Mick O'Dwyer to some of the Laois players privileged to play under the Kerry man who was arguably the best ever Gaelic football coach.

Mick O'Dwyer arrived on the Laois GAA landscape to great fanfare in 2002 after glory years with Kerry and two successful spells in neighbouring Kildare.

The buzz created among Laios sports fans also extended to the county's Gaelic footballers who were immediately energised by the arrival of the Waterville man in the Midlands.

Goalkeeper Fergal Byron was one of the established players in the group Micko took over at a low ebb after a torrid end to the 2002 championship.

"We were beaten by Meath in Portlaoise and it was a bit of an annihilation. I was even questioning myself staying on board but we heard rumours that Micko was coming on board. Once his name was mentioned there was no way I was leaving," he said.  

The Courtwood GAA goalkeeper told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that Micko realised that there was talent in Laois.

"He saw that Laois had enjoyed success at underage level in the previous few years and those lads were maturing and he realised it was a good time to get involved," he said.

Fergal said players appreciated how Micko coached individuals as well as the team and that he wanted them to play.

"He was very much a man manager. He liked footballers to express themselves. For him, it was always about getting players to believe in themselves. He was getting 30% more out of players because of the belief he was instilling in themselves.

"He would put his arm about the payer who was number 30 on the panel as much as one of the main panellists. There is a lot to be said for keeping 30 lads satisfied particularly when you are successful and everyone wants to play," he said.

Fergal identified passion as a key ingredient in Micko's character. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

"He had a great presence in a dressing room and could always get his point across because he was genuinely passionate. Sometimes there might be managers who are not from the county they are coaching and you would wonder if they have they same passion for your county as you have. What was clearly evident about Micko from the start in Laois was that he was passionate about what he was doing in Laois.

"It wouldn't matter to him if we had played Kerry in an All-Ireland Final, he would want Laois to win before he would have wanted Kerry to win. He was invested in Laois," he said.

The Courtwood man, who retired as Laios keeper in 2007, believed Micko's other key attribute was his competitiveness.

"You just needed to be in his presence to see it. Competitiveness oozed out of every vein in his body," he said.

He also complimented Micko on the attention he brought with him. He recalled a dressing room full of media when the Kerry man coached Laois for the first time in the 2003 O'Byrne Cup. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

"He was able to manage the circus. Micko embraced it and used it to his advantage," he said.

Byron, who won an All-Star, also commented on O'Dwyer's connection with people around Laois outside of football. Unlike many county managers, the Kerry man made Portlaoise his home away from home as he had a house in Kilminchy.

"Micko was all about community and getting everybody on board. After training Micko was very popular and would be there to the last man to leave signing autographs. He would be the type to walk away," he said.

Fergal describes Micko's passing after an illness that he fought with resilience as a "massive" loss for the GAA. He also believes that his former mentor would be impressed with the new rules in Gaelic football and a return to the type of football Micko wanted his teams to play.

Arles Kilcruise man Chris Conway was another lynchpin in the Micko years with Laois. He extended his condolences to Micko's family and many friends in the GAA.

Chris described Micko as a "special man" who was a "wonderful manager and player" in all the counties he was involved with. 

Conway said there was a very good group of players in Laois when Micko took over and all willingly "answered the call" when the Kerry man signed up in 2002. He said Micko's reign was peppered with success and near misses.

"We had great days and maybe should have had some more but he had us playing at the height of our game. We were supremely fit," he said.

IN PICTURES: Micko in PICTURES

He recalls the training sessions that Micko said were partly inspired by one of the great Manchester Utd managers.

"He was known for legendary hard training and it certainly was the case. He spoke of going to see Matt Busby training and seeing how hard soccer players trained in pre-season. But once the Gaelic football season started it was all about the ball," said Chris.

He recalled Micko changing training tactics in his final year after a loss to Dublin in 2006. Chris says Micko put the Laois players through some tough sessions ahead of their next game that year agains then All-Ireland champions Tyrone.

It paid off as Laois beat Tyrone in Portlaoise before an agonisingly close loss to Mayo in an All-Ireland quarter-final. While Chris recalls the 2003 Leinster Final victory as historic, he remembers other days like the loss to Mayo as one of a number of nearly days.

But the losses have not coloured Conway's respect for, and memories of what Micko achieved with Laois and the players he managed. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

"He was a great manager but when harsh realities had to be told he had no problem doing so...when you'd come back to training after maybe putting on a few pounds his turn of phrase was 'you've gone a bit strong'. Other times he might look for his 'little fatties'. It mightn't be very PC in the current climate but he always did it with a smile," he said.

Laois was flush with young talent when Micko arrived and the Kerry man didn't hesitate in playing them. Chris, who captained Laois, identifies this as another O'Dwyer strength.

READ ALSO: Widespread sadness in Laois at death of Micko

"A hallmark of his game was giving youth a chance. In his first year with Laois he sprung a young Ross Munnelly," he said.

Like Fergal Byron, Chris believes the new rules in Gaelic football would have impressed Micko.

"It would have brought a great smile to his face. The forward-thinking attacking play with pace, rather than the defensive play we have had to endure and look at for the last number of years, was his style of football," he said. 

Chris concluded by recalling how appropriate 'Blessed and obsessed' was as a title for Micko's autobiography. 

"I wish him the light of heaven", said Conway.

Of the thousands who have played Gaelic football just a few hundred have played for Micko Dwyer. Of those there are an elite few who have climbed the steps of Croke Park to lift silverware as he gazed up at them with pride from the hallowed turf.

Portlaoise man Ian Fitzgerald is in that select club of captains. But he stands alone among these captains given the speed at which a trophy arrived under Micko. 

"At the time it was a great honour but also a great responsibility. The first year he came in we were down and out after Meath had humiliated us in O'Moore Park in (2002). To think that we would be in a Division One League Final in 2003 and to win Leinster was incredible.

"Before Micko came we would have felt that to win Leinster would have been an amazing achievement but that felt so far away. He just changed the mentality immediately with positivity," he said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Ian recalls one of Micko's techniques to make players believe that they could win trophies.

"I always remember him saying that if you did something good he would remind him of Jack O'Shea or Mikey Sheehy. It really inspired everybody," he said.

While Micko deployed methods such as these to inspire players, Ian believes he had the personality to do so.

"His enthusiasm was just an innate personality trait," he said.

Another factor was his encouraging his Laois team to develop football skills at training.

"Come early spring we would just play football. We would play a match at every training where he would just stand in the middle of the pitch as the referee," he said.

This approach was designed for winning matches.

"His approach was to let you express yourself. In our Leinster Final against Kildare every score was from play. We kicked everything and that came from being constantly being allowed to express yourself at training and in matches. You'd never be in trouble with Micko for a misplaced pass," he said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

As to his role as captain, Ian says the job was made easy by Micko creating a culture of leadership in the group.

"In the end, it was not a burden or overwhelming it was an honour and there could have been two dozen captains," he said.

The link with Micko and Kerry continued long after he stopped playing. Ian was captain of a Rest of Ireland team that played the Kerry Legends when Micko celebrated his 80th birthday. He ended up on a panel discussion with Pat Spillane talking about his Micko memories at another event in the Kingdom which he confesses felt like "imposter syndrome".

A lasting memory for Ian was Micko's had for Laois football and the mindset he instilled in the Laois players that they were "good enough to win". 

He felt the funeral would be a "celebration" of a full life.