Why?

Because it's the next best thing to playing, says Anthony Daly, Tony Considine's predecessor as Clare boss.

Because managing teams is second nature to so many GAA people, says Wexford chairman Sean Quirke, who last Thursday announced the appointment of John Meyler as successor to Seamus Murphy. Because pressure is the spice of life and keeps hurling people on their toes, says Jim Greene, who hopes this week to succeed Justin McCarthy as Waterford manager.

"Being there on the sideline on the day of a big championship match, " Greene philosophises. "There's nothing like it. There's nothing better. Who wouldn't want it?"

Certainly there's no shortage of men who continue to court actively the adrenalin rush. Greene, who's thrilled that he was at least called for interview by the Waterford county board recently after making no secret of his irritation at being ignored last time around. Considine, twice an All Ireland winner as a member of Ger Loughnane's backroom team but never an inter-county front-of-house man till now. Meyler, a Cork selector in 2002 and the man who emerged as the anointed one from a list of 30 names originally considered by the Wexford county board subcommittee charged with finding a new manager.

It's a wheat-from-chaff process. Preliminary investigations in Wexford indicated that 60 per cent of the names put forward were genuinely interested in the job.

The sub-committee proceeded to give serious consideration to seven or eight candidates, of whom three or four . . . all plausible-looking contenders . . . ruled themselves out on the grounds of logistics or practicalities: the time, the travel, changing circumstances at work, the fact that one had already committed himself to another team for 2007.

That Wexford's poor year at senior level might have put off potential managers didn't enter into it, according to Sean Quirke. "A lot of people are still interested in intercounty management, but then a lot of people have grown up in that kind of environment. They're used to it, they don't see it as hassle, they're able to take it. It's like politics in that way and it's much the same with people who become county board officers. If they feel they're not able for it, they get out of it fairly quickly.

When you hurl or play football, Quirke adds, becoming a selector or manager with your club teams is a natural progression. The inter-county scene is the next step after that for many people who think they have something to contribute. "Basically they get involved because it's second nature to them."

Like it is to Jim Greene, now 57 but still burning for a turn at the wheel in Waterford. Natural progression is the operative phrase in his case too. He hurled for the county "for 100 years", played in "24 or 25 Munster Championships between senior and underage" and managed the Waterford minor team that reached the 1992 All Ireland final. Though he's never hidden his desire for a crack at the senior job, as of this moment he has no idea where he stands in relation to it or what announcement will be made this week. All he knows is that he was called for interview a fortnight ago and received a more than fair hearing from the four officers of the county board on the sub-committee.

"I got to say all I wanted to say and they asked me some very good questions, " Greene reveals. "I enjoyed it. I was honoured and delighted to be asked. I appreciated that they gave me the opportunity." In turn, Greene laid out his vision and went so far as to name the seven or eight "good Waterford people" he's lined up on his putative staff, among them Peter Queally, Pat Bennett and Shane Ahearne.

Having plenty of hands on deck will make for a good start if Anthony Daly is to be believed. It's not the training that's the real burden on the modern inter-county manager; it's what Daly terms "the stuff outside training".

Making phone calls, conferring with one's fellow selectors, arranging challenge matches, cutting panels, heading up to Portumna for a preliminary look at the team's training camp. Nine-tenths of an iceberg is unseen.

Daly did three years on his own treadmill in Clare. The first year was "an awful culture shock". Yet even in his third year, he found himself undertaking duties he wouldn't previously have imagined constituted part of his remit.

The fine print of the preparations for the All Ireland semi-final in August, for instance. Clare couldn't get their usual hotel in Dublin that weekend so they arranged to stay in another hotel. But this new hotel, it emerged, had a nightclub.

How late did it go on a Saturday night? Would the noise keep the Clare lads awake or were they staying in a different part of the building altogether? Ten days before the semi-final, Daly presented himself at Shannon airport at 6.45am. Flew to Dublin, checked out the hotel for himself and was back home by 3pm. A day wasted? No; time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted, as the old military maxim has it. But a day consumed by the demands of the job?

Absolutely.

Or take the weekend of 1011 June. Clare having been sent packing from the Munster championship by Cork a fortnight earlier, Westmeath were one of the teams they might have been drawn to face in the qualifiers. Westmeath were hosting Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final on the Saturday night. So off Daly headed to Mullingar, intent on killing three birds with the same stone. Seeing Cusack Park for the first time, getting a proper look at the new players on the Kilkenny team and continuing on to Nowlan Park for the other semi-final next day.

Accuse him of unnecessary caution in regard to the Westmeath leg of the exercise and he won't deny the charge, merely plead that caution goes with the territory. "Okay, I'd have been confident we'd beat Westmeath if it came to it. But I was trying to cover everything. By going to Mullingar I'd be able to report back that it was a tight pitch, what kind of crowd would turn up, how noisy they'd be and so on. To generally get a feel for it. Had we been drawn against Westmeath, gone to Mullingar and won, we wouldn't have got any credit for it. But I'd have been crucified had we lost."

Daly couldn't find a bed in Dublin afterwards, this being the night of the Metallica concert. Neither could he find a bed in Kilkenny when he rang ahead, this being Kilkenny in summer. He eventually managed to find a room outside Dublin, had his breakfast next morning, drove south, took in the Wexford/Offaly match and was back in west Clare at 9.30pm. Such are the additional duties undertaken by a manager who knows his team have ground to make up on the market leaders, Daly agrees.

"You'll try absolutely everything to bridge the gap. You'll go to extraordinary lengths.

But here's the thing: maybe Cork and Kilkenny are doing that too. Going beyond what you'd expect Cork and Kilkenny to do, even though they have that extra bit of firepower compared to other counties. Yet all that can change in the space of 70 minutes at any stage. We nearly caught Cork last year. Galway did catch Kilkenny.

There's always the chance, always the possibility.

"That's what helps keep managers going."

Helping keep Sean Quirke going is the thought that John Meyler will play a handsome part in developing a new "culture of confidence" in Wexford hurling. ("Bad as some of our results have been during the last couple of years, I honestly think that the picture isn't as bad as it's been painted.") Helping keep Jim Greene going is the conviction that there's a kick left in the current Waterford team.

"I believe profoundly that they're well capable of winning an All Ireland still.

Something small could make the difference. I don't know what the small thing is, but I think what I have to offer is different."

Helping keep managers going.