Eoin Hand Inteview: Dundalk FC Magazine April 2005.
In dim and distant days when provincial clubs like Dundalk, Athlone Town and Limerick United reigned supreme in the league of Ireland, spirited performances against the likes of Celtic, Porto, Milan and Real Madrid – all recent European finalists – were commonplace and famous names in the domestic game abounded.
High on that list was one Eoin Hand, the-then player-manager of Limerick United, and the man at the helm when they won the 1979/80 League of Ireland title from defending double-winners Dundalk. Hand scored 12 times from midfield in 28 appearances that season, no mean feat for a man who built his reputation cross-channel at centre-half.
“It’s funny; I suppose that I earned most of my 21 caps for Ireland as a defensive midfielder for Johnny Giles when in England I played most of my football as centre-half,” Hand remembers. “But at Limerick I had two fantastic centre halves in Joe O’Mahony and Brendan Storan and I didn’t want to break that partership. This gave me the opportunity to move around the park a little bit and get among the goals.”
Defending champions Dundalk experienced that when Hand scored for Limerick in a 2-0 win when the two sides met for the first that season at the Market’s Field in front of 7,500 spectators. Though the whites later got revenge at Oriel Park when they secured a 1-0 success. Limerick collected the top prize by a point and with it recorded their highest points (47) and goal’s tally (67) in one season.
“I owe Limerick, the team and the people a lot,” Hand states. “I was coming to the end of my playing career at that time, and I became player-manager there in July 1979. And I now know that if I hadn’t accepted that position, I would never have had the chance to become Ireland manager subsequently. I have to thank Limerick and the player for that. The local talent there at that time was brilliant and forever I will keep that time close to my heart.”
Limerick would lose 7-2 on aggregate to Madrid, and although further European action followed in subsequent seasons against Southampton and AZ Alkmaar with Hand at the helm, the Shannonsiders have not tasted success domestically since, thus the route to European action has remained closed. While at Limerick, Hand also become involved in the international set-up, eventually having to make a decision regarding his destiny as a football manager.
“I was assistant to Alan Kelly initially following John Giles’ resignation,” he recalls. “Alan wanted someone based domestically and because we knew each other well he asked me to help out. Then he eventually resigned and I was then caretaker manager of an Irish team that beat the Netherlands 2-1 at Lansdowne Road in my first competitive match”.
Hand would remain in charge for 45 matches, and his time yielded some successes, especially as his side came within a point of qualifying for the 1982 FIFA World Cup Finals in Spain, no mean achievement considering Belgium, France and the Netherlands were in Ireland’s group. However, failure followed four years later as an emerging European force, Denmark, strolled to World Cup qualification while Ireland sat three places and eight points adrift. Jack Charlton was subsequently ushered in as manager and the outcome of his tenure is well documented providing Hand with some regret.
“My team was possibly a better team that Jack had,” he believes. “We played good football whereas Jack had a different style. My regret is the fact that Ireland had players like Mark Lawrenson, Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton who should have graced a World Cup Finals but it was not to be. Looking back, I would have changed some things, especially now with experience. When I was appointed Irish manager at 34 years of age, I was the youngest national team manager around and so I needed to be up front. And then after being in the job for 5 and a half years, I suppose you can be bitter at the end as you know this chance will never come again. Experience helps in that job, and though I was only employed on a part-time basis, I was working full-time as I felt that the job needed doing. Looking back, maybe now my attitude towards the players would be different. I may have respected them too much. And also you have to consider the media. I was clued in as you had to be and I thought that sometimes the reporting was unfair, but then you recognise that some of those people are only in it to sell newspapers. I new that entering my last match against Denmark that I would not be offered a new contract or that I would accept it either. I indulged myself by playing different tactics with Kevin Moran and David O’Leary marking Preben Elkjaer and Michael Laudrup. Mark Lawrenson then acted as a sweeper, but the whole thing backfired and they thrashed us 4-1. That was that.”
Hand moved on to become Saint Patrick’s Athletic’s manager for a period before accepting positions in Saudi Arabia and South Africa among other places, including three years at Huddersfield Town and a spell with Shelbourne.
Overall, in a playing and management career that spanned three decades, Hand is among the rare breed to have played for both Dundalk and Limerick. “My career actually started at Swindon Town even though I had grown up in Dublin,” he recalls. “I finished my Leaving Cert and went over there only to return to Ireland. I Joined Dundalk for the 1965/66 season and I recall the Oriel Park pitch running the opposite direction! Gerry Doyle was the manager at the time and I was playing on the wing which was my favoured role back then, but I had a hamstring injury for half of the season and then I was let go.”
Dundalk went on to win the championship the following season while Hand played for Drumcondra before taking his chance with Portsmouth. Late on his career, Hand played for Arcadia in South Africa, then for John Giles at Shamrock Rovers before returning to Portsmouth. It would be from there that ended up in Limerick.
In 1997, Hand’s health made him ultimately take stock of his life as a severe bout of pancreatitis left him in intensive care in the Mater hospital for weeks. “I had the time to think,” he states, “and I made my mind up there would be no more travelling. With that in mind, I approached the FAI to ask them if they would be interested in allowing me to use my experience to act in some way as a career guidance capacity for players who were seeking to make it in England or wherever. They accepted in a probationary capacity and it mushroomed from there.”
Maybe Hand does not command the headlines any more in the way an Irish manager or a League of Ireland championship-winning rookie would now do, but the role he plays as a Career Guidance Officer in nurturing Irish talent going abroad or helping those players to bounce back from rejection cross-channel is crucial in ensuring the survival and growth of top class talent on the island.
“There’s an awful lot of change happening in Ireland and the opportunity I feel is now there to improve things,” he states .”In terms of football, the regional development officers are doing a great job in securing the long-term prosperity in the game. My job has been slightly different to that. When I started, the whole situation around the transfer of players was murky. There were things that were wrong in the system and the rights of young players actually had been ignored. In the end, it’s the kids that suffer. I was being confronted with the situation where I knew that some kids had their hopes being blown out of proportion before they even went out on trial where I could see that they had no chance of succeeding. The standard of recruitment needed serious improvement and the kids were just pawns in a game until the FIFA Regulations of September 2001 began to clarify the situation.”
The FIFA regulations now state that cross-channel clubs have to pay compensation to Irish clubs involved in grassroots training and development of a player (from the age of 12 onwards) when that player’s status changes from amateur to non-amateur. And with Hand’s intervention, Irish clubs have benefitted to the tune of €1m following the transfer of their players to clubs in England. But the opportunities in Ireland should also expand, although Hand hopes the relationship between League of Ireland clubs and junior clubs can become equally businesslike in future.
“The idea is to ensure perpetual grassroots development,” Hand explains. “There are so many pitfalls beween the ages of 15-18, and the gap between a 15 year old and a 21 year old are enormous. Football in Ireland must open up to this reality and harness grassroots as these kids will not be lost overseas any more at an early age. The English clubs do not want to take a chance as there is a cost, and they can get a domestic player of a similar talent level for no cost. “
