Style Exclusive: Brian Barry-Murphy

Rochdale AFC's new first team manager initally joined the Club as a player in 2010, and has been an integral part of the coaching staff since 2013.

After being appointed first team manager in April of this year, Chairman Andrew Kilpatrick commented: "Brian is, without doubt, the right person to take Rochdale forward. He is young, hungry for success and extremely talented."

The 40-year-old has created a palpable excitement amongst Dale fans, as he leads the club in a fresh, new direction.

Style: Is management everything you expected?

Brian: I hadn’t planned for it so I didn’t really have any expectations. It was a last minute thing but it’s humbling to be given this opportunity; it’s going really well and it’s fun every day.

What are your aims for next season?

Since we came together, our only aim has been to give our all in every game and give the sort of performances that excite the fans. As a group of people, we tend to get fixated on reaching targets and when we didn’t reach them over the past couple of years we were disappointed. So just to keep it really simple, our aim is to continually improve on a daily basis and have fun doing it, making it enjoyable for the players. What you find with footballers is that, within the group, the guys are insanely competitive anyway and are fixated on winning. You’ve almost got to take away that obsession and make them remember how to enjoy it and then the wins will happen naturally.

You seem a really positive person, how do you ensure the players share your positive mindset?

I’ve admitted to the players that over my career I’ve had to get used to losing quite a lot. It’s not a great thing to admit but if you’re humble when you lose, you value the moments of success even more. With our lads, initially we’ve been used to unbelievable success and then the last couple of years have been a struggle. One of the most rewarding things for me, in the last couple of months of the season, was that everytime we lost a game we bounced straight back and won the next.

How’s team morale at the moment?

The morale has been exceptional really. Obviously, the players are really ambitious and keen to test themselves, so there’s a great sense of excitement within the dressing room of what we can achieve as a group and as a club. That only comes from a very simple foundation – they’re just trying to be the best they can be within the group, then as a team we get stronger and as a club we move forward. Even though we’ve always been viewed as the underdog, in the dressing room there’s a real ambitious group of guys who believe that they can surprise people with their tenacious and aggressive behaviour on the pitch.

Rochdale’s got one of the most productive academies for its level, how important is the academy to you?

As a club, we’re immensely proud of the Academy and Youth Team. Professional contracts have been offered to four second-year scholars, (Florent Hoti, Harrison Hopper, Lewis Bradley and Fabio Tavares). These four are, in my opinion, exceptionally talented players. But at what stage of the season the supporters will see these players in a first team environment is difficult to say. From my experience, because I was in their shoes, I know it’s very important that they’re allowed to grow and develop at their own speed without any expectations or pressure on them. What you get from that situation is players that will surprise you with their rate of development.

What advice would you give to young, aspiring footballers?

Try as many sports as you can and find the one you really love. Keep having fun and don’t be too obsessed with career goals. Some of the young footballers I’ve met have 5 or 10 year plans. I’m 40 and I don’t even have a plan!

Who are your greatest role models?

David Moyes was a huge role model at the start of my career. When I came over from Ireland he was like a father figure. He was tough, he used to work us into the ground. But he taught us everything. I learnt a lot from Craig Dawson too, even though he’s 12 years behind me. The perception is that the people you learn from are always older but I’ve found you can get new ideas and energy from younger people. There’s a great range of different ages in our dressing room. Our younger players will be inspired by the older players and the older players motivated by the younger guys. There’s that chemistry between the different age brackets and it’s a great group of players. You wouldn’t believe some of the scenes we have in our changing rooms… they couldn’t be broadcast to the outside world!

Has Keith Hill shared any advice?

Yes, even though my role at the club has changed now, Keith advised me that it was imperative that I retained the energy and connection with the players and the supporters. I live for the club and the daily interaction with the players. We don’t earn money like they do in the Premier League so there has to be that love for the game. There’s players like Craig Dawson and Scott Hogan who have gone on to earn vast amounts of money – they were just loving every day at the club and that has led to the rewards they’ve received, and rightly so. But even now, those guys will tell you they miss huge parts of the club, so that should give the people of Rochdale a great sense of who we are really.

Who would be in your dream 5-a-side team?

David Flitcroft (the speed), Nicky Adams (the guile), Stephen Dawson (the power), Tom Kennedy (the sophistication) and Chris O’Grady (the chest)!

What do you get up to when you’re not coaching?

I have a 7-year-old daughter so I spend as much time as I can with her. I’m lucky in that my daughter has become a big Rochdale fan too so she gets involved. She’s got an opinion on everything, she’s advising me on things already!

And I love going back to Ireland as much as I can to see family. I’ve got a lot of friends in Rochdale so I’m there a lot too.

Do you have a message for the supporters for the season ahead?

The relationship between the supporters and the players is a two-way thing. They probably don’t realise the influence they have on the players; it’s very noticeable at times, more so when games are really tough and the opposition are doing well. I just think we’ve gone back to what we were as a club and there has been patience on both sides.

Even when results weren’t going well, there was a great understanding from the supporters that the lads were doing their best, and they’ve stuck with them through thick and thin. The players have rewarded that with excellent technical performances. The beautiful performances come from having that understanding between the supporters and players. And that bond is very important – going into next season there’s going to be spells where we lose games and we might lose a few games in a row, which is inevitable when playing such high quality league. But as long as we retain our sense of unity, I think we’ll have a very exciting season.

Ruth Parkinson