Limerick football captain Iain Corbett has revealed how efforts from the players to keep manager Billy Lee on board fell short.
Lee stepped down last week after serving six seasons in the job, leaving him third only to Clare’s Colm Collins (nine seasons) and Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney (eight seasons) in terms of longevity in inter-county football management.
Indeed, Lee had just completed his most successful year yet having guided the team to promotion from Division Three and a first Munster final appearance in 12 years, where they were well beaten by eventual All-Ireland champions Kerry.
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Although Lee’s departure was largely greeted with surprise, Corbett admitted “it was and it wasn’t” from a player’s perspective when speaking to The GAA Show Podcast, with the Newcastlewest man having indicated that matters away from football may force his hand.
“It wasn’t that we woke up in the morning and got a message that Billy had left,” said Corbett.
“It was something he had thought about during the season. It was just with the pressure at work, finding that balance between with the hours that go into managerial work with an inter-county team and obviously working on top of it full-time so he just put it out there that he was under pressure, said it to the players, said it to the county board.
“Between us we tried to persuade him to say but ultimately he found that he couldn’t make time I suppose, so he couldn’t balance both and unfortunately he did decide to step away.”
Lee inherited a side that was rooted in Division Four when appointed in late 2016 and, indeed, only took on the job after initially being part of the selection committee to find a new manager at the time - but he made significant progress in his last three seasons in particular.
Corbett added: “Billy got lads to buy in who wanted to be involved and he was very good at gelling people together and making sure they enjoyed their football.
“It has probably been a struggle for Limerick football having lads there, year in, year out and we just got a good group with a good age profile and I suppose Billy was the glue that held it all together.”
Next to Collins, McGeeney and Lee in terms of longevity had been Jack Cooney in Westmeath but he stepped aside last weekend ahead of taking up a full-time post with the GAA and Anthony Cunningham, who has just vacated the Roscommon hotseat and enjoyed plenty of success in Westmeath with Garrycastle, has emerged as a candidate to succeed Cooney.
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