One of Paul Dean’s first orders of business is not a straightforward one as he has been tasked with the unenviable assignment of chasing down Conor McGregor for a pep talk.
Former Ireland international Dean is set to take over as Ireland team manager once the November series comes to an end this weekend and one of his responsibilities will be drafting in motivational speakers to gee up Joe Schmidt’s side.
The Irish players have wanted ‘The Notorious’ to come speak to them for some time now and the outgoing team manager, Mick Kearney, has left his successor with a hell of an act to follow.
“I organised Usain Bolt, Rory McIlroy, Barry McGuigan, Niall Quinn, Sonia O’Sullivan, lots of good sportspeople, to talk to the lads but the one person they really want to get in now is Conor McGregor,” Kearney told the Daily Mail.
“They felt I might be able to pull that off before I left. I’ve a connection through someone I know to his coach John Kavanagh. If I can assist when I’m gone I will do that, but as I said to Paul I have to leave somebody for him to get because we have got a lot of the good ones in.
Dean, a Triple Crown winner, will take up his role after Ireland’s clash with Australia on Saturday and he has a wealth of experience that should see him flourish in his new position.
However, as UFC president Dana White will testify, McGregor can be a tough man to nail down but, as a proud Irishman, McGregor will likely will have no objections to speaking to the Ireland team.
And there’s no surprise that it’s the reigning UFC featherweight and lightweight champion who is atop the players’ wishlists in terms of motivational speakers.
“McGregor’s a superstar,” Kearney continued. “What he has achieved is quite incredible, to be a double world champion. He’s brave and the way he trains seemingly is second to none.
“There’s a lot of admiration. When it comes to the talk, at the end of the day Conor is trying to sell tickets and pay-per-views but beneath it all he’s a seriously good athlete.
“Our guys admire seriously good athletes from around the world and they would like to find out how he mentally prepares for his fights.”
Dick Clerkin makes his GAA Hour debut to talk about a wonderful career and argue passionately with Colm Parkinson over Sky Sports GAA. Subscribe here on iTunes.
