Triumphant Reds boss opens up on how he motivated his squad to become champions of Ireland
And the Shelbourne boss also detailed how a powerful speech from his childhood team-mate Colin Hawkins about his battle with illness and a missive from former British and Irish Lions rugby coach Ian McGeechan also played a part in the final three weeks of their season.
Duff explained that his assistant Joey O’Brien urged him to seek outside help for the run-in as the Reds summoned up one last effort after a choppy patch to win their last three games to seal a first title since 2006.
The 45-year-old said that he called on his network for motivational reasons, with contacts in the club’s ownership also helping with that mission.
“I tell you guys a lot of stuff that I do with the guys but you don’t know the half of it,” said Duff, in the aftermath of his side’s 1-0 win.
“We were laughed at for showing Only Fools and Horses but, here, I know how to run a dressing room and take the sting out of things.
“Jose Mourinho helped us. Last week Colin Hawkins helped us, he came in and gave a speech and the week before that Sir Ian McGeechan, the ex-manager of the Lions.
“So I know when to tap into other people. I can tell from you guys and the players, it’s probably tiring listening to me over the season, so I know when to use other people. So the last three weeks you could say they gave us three assists.”
Duff duly elaborated on the story behind the input from famous friends, explaining that the players have an Instagram group where messages are filtered in.
“Any new player that comes in, they get a login to the page and there is gold on it, golden comedy, but golden learning as well,” he said, after going into detail about how he puts uplifting speeches and messages on the platform.
“Three weeks ago, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we posted Ian McGeechan, powerful, powerful speeches. It was either him or Jim Telfer, because we like Jim Telfer as well, we use him a lot.
“But I got a private message off Neil Doyle (Shels co-owner) from Ian McGeechan, so we just followed up on the day of the match, and we beat Waterford.
“Onto the next week, okay, Joe (Shels assistant Joey O’Brien) says, ‘Gaffer, what do you want to do?’. ‘I don’t know’. I met Colin Hawkins in the carpark, I found him utterly inspirational, his story, his wife’s story, what they’ve been through,” continued Duff, a team-mate of the League of Ireland legend with Brian Kerr’s Ireland Under-20 side.
Hawkins and his wife Elaine have both been diagnosed with cancer in recent years.
“He surprised the lads and spoke to the lads for half-an-hour,” continued Duff.
“We didn’t show anything on Drogheda. We let Colin speak and Boydy (Seán Boyd) came out, he said it was the best meeting he had in three years. It put everything in perspective and really hit home.”
This week, O’Brien asked Duff what he had up his sleeve.
“I threw in ‘what about Jose?’” said Duff.
“‘Why Jose?’ Because do I try and build, have we tried to build a siege mentality, us against the world like he did?
“Absolutely. It would be mad not to tap into him. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, there was posts on the Instagram page. Powerful lyrics, powerful words that would resonate and have a meaning to tie in for tonight.
“Then in the team meeting [today] there was a private message from Jose speaking about what it takes to win a title as a team, as an individual. It blew the guys away. A video that was shown in the Everglades two hours before the game.”
Duff added that he tried to Facetime Mourinho in the dressing room after the game with the promise that he would put €500 into the players’ celebration kitty if the Fenerbahce manager didn’t answer.
The call wasn’t picked up.
“I’ll put a monkey on the drinking tab tomorrow,” laughed Duff, before striking a more serious tone with a nod back to the two Premier League titles he won under the Portuguese boss.
“I died on the pitch for Jose, that’s what I’ve always done. Everyone hated Chelsea, everyone hates us, blah, blah, blah. Another chapter in the story.
“I told the lads beforehand that the last time I felt that mentality and feeling was with the Chelsea 2005 group. We’d sweat blood and tears for each other and I haven’t tasted it since but I’ve tasted it for the last few years with these guys.
“If we said at the start of the season that we would win the league, a lot of people would’ve laughed.
“We’ve been written off many, many times. So it is absolutely Hollywood. That’s why people four, five, six times in the last 18 months wanted to do a fly on the wall documentary with us, because it has been a Hollywood story.
“But it would be a bit close to the bone working with us so we always say no
“If you think we are crazy in front of people, behind closed doors we are even crazier,” continued Duff, who said he kept a diary with an entry pre-written on the day of the final game – November 1 – stating that Shels would be champions.
It seemed a long way away when he was appointed in the winter of 2021 after deliberating over whether he would take the leap into senior management.
“I think seven games in we had seven points,” he continued.
“We lost 3-0 to Finn Harps at home. I like a challenge. The minute I was in, I was in with two feet. There was no going back. So, I’ll know when my time is up, whether it’s sooner rather than later.
“One thing is for sure. Not me, (but) the players have created history today. I put it on them. They’ve got a chance of immortality because of what they’ve done and they’ve achieved it.”
