A family man, a former teacher and politician, John O'Mahony’s life in football takes another adventurous turn on the road on Sunday.
Under the astute and watchful eye of O’Mahony, Salthill-Knocknacarra look like a formidable outfit this season. A side that didn’t progress beyond the group stages and subsequently bowed out early last year now stands on the verge of a landmark achievement.
This weekend they will look to win their first Galway SFC title since 2012 when they face up to Moycullen - champions of just two seasons ago.
On O’Mahony’s watch they have been very hard to beat, losing just once this season - to Mountbellew-Moylough - late in a group game.
His backroom team, Seán Armstrong, Finian Hanley, Norman Costello and Des Sherin, are well versed in Galway football and know the club and its players inside out.
But having someone of the manager's standing involved has clearly given everyone at the club a massive boost.
It is over 50 years since O’Mahony took his first coaching role - managing St Nathy’s College in his native Ballaghaderreen.
He is no stranger to tackling sporting famines, doing so by leading Mayo to an All-Ireland final for the first time in almost four decades and then ending a 67-year wait for Leitrim to claim a Connacht title when he took charge.
"John said to us once in the middle of it all that there's one thing that would unite us forever, and that was a medal in the back pocket."
Before he took on Galway in '98 it had been over three decades when Galway last won an All-Ireland senior title. The essence of O’Mahony’s outstanding man-management was recounted in former Leitrim goalkeeper, Martin McHugh’s autobiography ‘Born to Save’.
It was telling that, at the launch of his book, McHugh asked his old manager to be guest of honour.
O'Mahony still holds a great relationship with that group of players who remain a band of brothers to this day.
"John said to us once in the middle of it all that there's one thing that would unite us forever, and that was a medal in the back pocket," says McHugh.
"And every time you'd come across a former team-mate, you'd know you were part of a band of brothers because you'd be reminded of what you'd been through as a team and as a unit.
"You start off a season and you're just a bunch of players just trying to play for Leitrim. But with the training we did on and off the field, I don't think any county player would do it nowadays.
"Laps upon laps together just really turned us into a band of brothers because nothing could break the unity that we have now. The training we were doing at the time was very physical and demanding on the body. But John brought a real family feel to it and we all had to do the same."
After they won the Connacht title against the odds, it emerged that O’Mahony had quietly planned for it.
"John was a great man for making plans behind the scenes and he would tell nobody," McHugh adds.
"There was an open-top bus for us in Carrick.
"We stopped outside Clancy’s pub and John O’ came out with crates of beer. I told him to go back and get me some Club Orange, because I don’t drink."
O’Mahony’s management is tactically sound, his man-management top class, and his attention to detail second to none.
When he managed Mayo to the 1983 All-Ireland Under-21 title, he left nothing to chance.
His brother Stephen brought a video camera to all Mayo’s games at that time. Years later, when he took the senior job in the county, his wife Gerardine, a home economics teacher, compiled the nutritional plans for the players.
His first foray into senior management came when GAA coaches were trying new things: ice baths, more rigorous physical training, dabbling more in technology and having outside voices.
O’Mahony never once took his eye off where it really counted - the field and the players - but he supplemented the ranks as well as anyone around.
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Former RTÉ correspondent Tommie Gorman later helped him as video analyst, ex-Irish rugby head coach Eddie O’Sullivan designed a conditioning programme and he used every resource possible to make his teams a success.
Now 68, and having successfully battled cancer in recent years, O’Mahony is still relishing managing class talent like inter-county players Rob Finnerty, Tomo Culhane, Cathal Sweeney and Daniel O’Flaherty.
In 2020, the two-time All-Ireland winning boss stepped away from a working life that saw two careers - one as teacher and also as a politician, where he had nine years as TD and four as a senator.
But his appetite to get back in the game was huge.
On Sunday he must devise a plan that stop’s Moycullen’s non-stop style of football. Players like Seán Kelly, Paul Kelly and Peter Cooke will need to be watched closely. The running game that has served Moycullen well will need to be stymied also.
O’Mahony will relish the challenge of it all. Just like he always has.
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