|
Eddie the ego looks to leave critics egg-faced Nearly
two decades ago Eddie O’Sullivan was the masseuse of the Irish Rugby
team. It’s a long time ago now but he’s come a long way. It’s
been a journey driven by self-belief and ego.
Now, though, all the signs point to this being his final year. He’d
deny that assertion, believing he can turn the torrid World Cup days around
and there’s something to admire in that certainty?
The coach defines himself as a winner, that’s why he’s still
in the job after six years. Ultimate victory will bring self-validation.
Sometimes, however, qualities found in winners can be found in bluffers?
You’ve got to convince yourself before convincing everybody else.
Eddie O’Sullivan has failed to convince because ultimately he’s
failed to deliver the top prize. It’s to his credit we’ve
been trying to figure him out this long. It’s to his ego’s
credit that he’s bigger than the team he now leads.
Because Eddie O’Sullivan will be the story of Ireland’s Six
Nations. A competition no longer about the team, rather one man and his
ego.
The anticipated voyerism of his expected failure. The media are lining
him up, waiting for him to fall and to fail.
On the eve of this great competition we just can’t ignore the elephant
in the corner of the room.
The coach and his team are one and the same.
Eddie’s making lots of noise again; trumpeting out the same old
sound bites — blowing out the same old team selections.
He is always setting the agenda too. Eddie makes the rules and fences
off the boundaries.
The manipulator, the evader. Not unlike a dictator. Possessing that uncanny
ability to hold on to power using the aforementioned virtues.
That’s if you can call them that? The most worrying precedent being
the enforced ‘omerta.’ The code of silence created by our
rugby dictator.
One story above all others caused alarm during the World Cup: An
off-the-record complaint by an Irish player, opining the need to go through
the captain in order to talk to the coach.
Camp Ireland were experiencing almost Ceaser-like bureaucracy. The players
have been tight-lipped ever since. Dictators and subjects, eh.
He’s had time to think about it though and true to that ego, the
shambles of the World Cup has been explained away in three easy words:
Loss of form.
Now, the return to form of some of his top players may just save him.
And boy would the media have egg on their face if O’Sullivan were
to capture this year’s championship. But even if he does, it doesn’t
excuse the precedents been set — player/ manager relations; a policy
of ignoring certain players and an insular vision.
The team should always be the No.1 story. Not the career of the coach.
Public interest should be fuelled by the fortunes of the former. At the
moment the opposite is true.
Our coach’s fortunes are now worthy of more newspaper comment than
the playing unit. That’s fine if you’re a Vince Lombardi or
an Alex Ferguson. O’Sullivan though has achieved his notoriety without
those same levels of success.
He hasn’t come close. By his own admission he takes criticism badly.
He believes in himself first and in the players that brought him success
second.
Self-belief is something to be admired. Stubborn arrogance though? Definitely
not. And so the Irish media’s preview of this Six Nations falls
somewhere between a witch-hunt and a psychological evaluation.
He knows and we know, that only the championship can save him now. Ultimate
victory would salvage his coaching career.
That would just about make him a winner. And I hope it happens for both
him and us.
God knows what would happen to his ego then. |
