Philips Sports Manager of the Year
The Philips Sports Manager of the Year is an award for the person considered the most outstanding Irish sports manager or coach of a particular year.
The award is contested by the twelve winners of the year's Philips Sports Manager of the Month Awards, which are open to Irish sports managers, trainers or coaches, or overseas-born managers of Irish teams.
Because the annual ceremony is traditionally held in early December each year, the December winner from the previous year is eligible to compete.
Unusually, the award was instigated not by a sporting body or journalists' association, but by the event sponsors themselves, Philips in 1982.
There have been joint-winners twice. First in 1990 as the achievement of Cork GAA winning the first All-Ireland hurling and football double in exactly 100 years saw respective managers Fr Michael O'Brien and Billy Morgan honoured. It happened again in 2015 when Irish football manager Martin O'Neill and Northern Irish football manager Michael O'Neill shared the award for qualifying their respective sides for the 2016 European Football Championships.
Jack Charlton is the most honoured manager since the award's inception, having won it four times during his tenure as Ireland football manager. Declan Kidney is the only person to have won the award for achievements with two different teams at different levels, while Brian Kerr was honoured for success with three different Irish national soccer teams. Joining Charlton, Kidney and Kerr as a multi-award winner is Kilkenny hurling supremo Brian Cody.
Philips Sports Manager of the Year winners
References
- ↑ "List of previous winners". The Irish Times.
- ↑ "O'Dwyer Named Manager of the Month". The Belfast Telegraph/INN.
- ↑ "Kilkenny boss named Manager of the Year". Irish Examiner.
- ↑ "Harte takes the top award". The Irish Times. 12 December 2005.
- ↑ "Kidney Crowned Philips Sports Manager of the Year". irishrugby.ie.
- ↑ "Kidney Chosen For Manager of the Year Honour". irishrugby.ie.
- ↑ "Sheedy named manager of the year". The Irish Times. 15 December 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
- ↑ "Trapattoni wins manager of the year award". RTÉ Sport. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
- ↑ "Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll says that the RWC 2015 comes 18 months...". RTÉ Sport.
- ↑ "Billy Walsh and Peter Taylor share Philips Manager of the Year award for 2012". RTÉ Sport. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
- ↑ "'Humbled' Gavin caps a year to remember". Irish Independent. 12 December 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
- ↑ "Joe Schmidt wins Philips Manager of the Year award". The Score. 10 December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
- ↑ "The two O'Neills are sharing the Philips Sports Manager of the Year award". Newstalk. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2015.