“THERE’S SO MUCH crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes.”

- Brian Clough

When Shane Keegan first approached us in the blissful freedom of our pre-isolation lives with an idea for a new podcast, we sat up and listened.

As former manager of both Wexford Youths and Galway United in the SSE Airtricity League, and an unashamed nerd when it comes to the art of coaching, Shane wanted to see what insights he could glean from the best in the business – and bring all of us along on the journey with him.

“This would include managers, coaches, talent developers, coach educators, physical conditioners, sports scientists, performance analysts and sports psychologists,” Shane wrote. With a guest list plucked from the top levels of Irish sport, it would be a masterclass.

Much to Cloughie’s disappointment, you might not learn much about how to win at dominoes, but you’ll definitely get a glimpse of the mindset and challenges of the men and women who help to make Ireland’s athletes elite.

In episode one, Shane speaks to the man who introduced the “high performance” mindset to Irish sport and helped usher in a golden age for Irish amateur boxing, Gary Keegan.

In the course of a fascinating conversation, Gary explains - among other things - how embracing vulnerability turned a potential weakness into a strength when it came to reinventing the Irish setup.

That uncomfortable space, as long as you’re facilitated to make mistakes, as long as you’re facilitated to find the answer but get it wrong a few times, as long as we know that you’re trying your best, you always had recognition and support for that. We were hard-edged in terms of what we were trying to achieve but we needed to nurture and support and pick people up when we hit the wall – and we hit the wall a lot. We made mistakes a lot.

How To Win At Dominoes is exclusively available to The42 Members, which costs €5 per month or €42 per year. Sign up here and get immediate access to this podcast and five others, all of our podcast archives, and lots more great membership benefits.