The appointment of Gabriel Bannigan's Monaghan football coaching ticket on Thursday continued an increasingly prevalent trend of late in GAA spheres.
One of the more notable aspects of Bannigan's appointment was the simultaneous arrival of Mayo legend Andy Moran to the backroom team.
The 2016 Footballer of the Year recently vacated his post as Leitrim manager and has joined Bannigan's setup alongside John McElhone and Damien Freeman.
His appointment follows the announcement that Tyrone's Joe McMahon will make up part of the new Meath coaching ticket for 2025.
The arrivals of Moran in Monaghan and McMahon in Meath continue an intriguing recent trend in the GAA of outside men in the backroom teams of major counties, rather than outright appointing an outside manager.
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The rise of outside coaches in the GAA
1 June 2024; Leitrim manager Andy Moran during the Tailteann Cup Group 1 Round 3 match between Kildare and Leitrim at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park in Longford. Photo by Tom Beary/Sportsfile
Andy Moran joining the Monaghan coaching team was announced on Thursday, just one day after the new Meath management team was announced.
The Royals, too, have turned to outside the county to support incoming manager Robbie Brennan. Dunboyne man Brennan will have Joe McMahon to call upon, with the Omagh St. Enda's man vacating his role with his native Tyrone.
McMahon was part of the coaching ticket when Tyrone won the All-Ireland in 2021, having won two Sam Maguires during his playing career with the county.
Tyrone's influence spreads wider than just Meath.
There is, of course, the divisive movement of Mickey Harte around the country to contend with, with the 68-year-old taking joint charge of Offaly this season.
However, sticking to the backroom teams up and down the country, one doesn't need to journey too far from Omagh to find another Tyrone coach working outside the county - Stephen O'Neill.
The 2005 Footballer of the Year is part of the Cavan backroom team, having previously worked alongside ex-teammate Enda McGinley at Antrim.
When Harte was appointed manager of Derry last year (to much acrimony from both sides of the Tyrone-Derry divide), his former star Sean Cavanagh suggested that Harte had never been keen on Tyrone men coaching outside of the county. It does not seem as though that message stuck particularly well with his former disciples.
There does seem to have been a move in recent years towards pulling in elite figures from outside counties to bring their expertise and insight to coaching teams. The reasoning behind it is perhaps made clear by the most famous example of the past decade.
28 July 2024; Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney is lifted by his selectors Kieran Donaghy, Ciarán McKeever and Conleth Gilligan after their side's victory in the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Armagh and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Kieran Donaghy spent a brief spell with the Galway hurlers after calling time on his career as a Kerry footballer but it is with the Armagh footballers that he has captured the imagination of late.
Donaghy has been a crucial part of Kieran McGeeney's coaching ticket since the 2021 season and it is no coincidence that their attacking play has appeared completely revitalised with the Kerryman's influence.
The 2006 Footballer of the Year has been credited with completely changing the mindsets of Armagh's forwards, and bringing that winning formula into the changing room since his arrival in the winter of 2020.
The balance between the immense character of Armagh hero Kieran McGeeney as manager and the passion and winning insight brought by Donaghy to the attacking setup is an example of why teams are increasingly looking to bring in influences from across county borders.
The addition of another outside man, Derry's Conleth Gilligan, ahead of the 2024 season was arguably a major turning point for Armagh in this year's All-Ireland success.
It can be seen in Kieran Donaghy's native Kerry too, with Clare hurling legend Tony Griffin part of Jack O'Connor's All-Ireland winning setup in 2022 (a role he remains in to this day).
Tyrone's Paddy Tally also arrived ahead of that 2022 triumph, coaching the Kerry team to victory in the final over Galway. After eight years without Sam Maguire staying in the Kingdom, it may be no coincidence that the arrival of two outside men helped them finally get over the line.
Kerryman Donie Buckley may not have ever played for his county at senior level but his work with Galway, Mayo, Limerick and Monaghan over the years makes him one of the first examples of this trend.
Though it has been more prevalent in football than in hurling of late, there are still examples in the opposite code, with Eoin Kelly (the Tipperary one, not the Waterford one) hopping across the border (to Waterford, not Tipperary) in recent years.
Kelly will remain part of the Déise setup in 2025 under Peter Queally, having linked up with Waterford when Davy Fitzgerald (again, an outside manager) returned to the top job in 2022.
This is not necessarily anything new and, though it may be somewhat trivial, it is nonetheless a growing trend in the GAA.
Monaghan will hope that the influence of Andy Moran can have a similar effect on their fortunes in the years ahead as Kieran Donaghy has had with their Ulster rivals of late.
The decisions of Meath and Monaghan to both follow this trend in a matter of days show just how valued outside coaches have become in the modern GAA world.
