Ages of intercounty managers

Derry: John Brennan: 74
Tyrone: Mickey Harte: 60
Cork: Conor Counihan: 52
Armagh: Paddy O'Rourke: 52
Antrim: Liam Bradley: 52
Roscommon: Des Newton: 52
Kerry: Jack O'Connor: 51
Louth: Peter Fitzpatrick: 49
Meath: Seamus McEnaney: 45
Galway: Alan Mulholland: 44
Leitrim: George Dugdale: 44
Offaly: Tom Coffey: 43
Sligo: Kevin Walsh: 42
Down: James McCartan: 41
Mayo: James Horan: 40
Dublin: Pat Gilroy: 40
Kildare: Kieran McGeeney: 40
Fermanagh: Peter Canavan: 40
Longford: Glenn Ryan: 39
Donegal: Jim McGuinness: 39
Laois: Justin McNulty: 37
Wexford: Jason Ryan: 36
Limerick Maurice Horan: 36

Cavan: Terry Hyland: ??
Monaghan: Eamon McEnaney: ??
Leitrim: Barry Breen: ??
Westmeath: Pat Flanagan: ??
Kilkenny: John McGrath: ??
Kilkenny: Jim O'Connor: ??
Carlow: Luke Dempsey: ??
Wicklow: Harry Murphy: ??
Clare: Michael McDermott: ??
Tipperary: Peter Creedon: ??
Waterford: John Owens: ??

So what can we deduce from this? Well there's obviously a strong bias towards the 39-45 year old manager or to look at it another way, former players who hit their peak around the mid-to-late nineties, e.g: Canavan, McCartan, Horan, McGuinness, Gilroy, Ryan, McGeeney, Walsh. Another point worth observing is that despite this trend , the most successful team of this era, i.e. Meath still have to go outside the county for a manager.

Having noted all of this, we still can't ignore the fact the top trio of Cork, Kerry and Tyrone are all towards the upper end of the scale. Although negating this is the fact that both Harte and Counihan have been involved with their counties for around 20 years in some form of management/selection capacity. Jack O'Connor for around ten. There'll be no shortage of home-grown managers when this trio retires, whom I think can't have too many years left anyway.

Lastly, what were Derry doing appointing a man who has lived through Pearl Harbour, the Manahattan Project and the invention of the Polaroid camera?