Warning: This is not another tribute to Mick O'Dwyer. There's no mention of the eight All Irelands he helped Kerry capture as a manager. It's not about the two Leinsters he won with Kildare, nor 2003 and the single provincial glory bestowed on Laois. O'Dwyer will be the first to tell you it's time to move on so instead, this deals with the darkest and most difficult chapter of a never-ending story. Wicklow, and how the most successful manager of all time ended up with the most unsuccessful county of all time.

GOTCHA, and you're not getting away this time, even if it will have to be done over the phone. You see, for a guy that seems to be in front of you nine months of the year, Mick O'Dwyer is always just out of reach. Four times he said he'd help fill this space. But like so many of his recent days presiding over people's dreams, there's always a twist and a surprise result. A late goal. An even later cancellation. It was no different in 2006 when there was the humiliation against Dublin that left a god feeling emotions he had long forgotten. Shame, shock, embarrassment. Less than two weeks later there was the dethroning of the All Ireland champions, Tyrone, and Micko sitting in a Portlaoise dressing room, slowly pulling on a dry pair of socks and refusing to talk to those that had helped shovel out his grave with their cold and bludgeoning words.

Now it's no different. Change doesn't suit some people.

"Yeah, but the problem is, everything keeps changing. Something will work somewhere and if it does, it's natural for all the other county teams to follow straight away. That's what's happening at the moment. We can't deny all these fellas are experts in their own fields. All these coaches for every position imaginable. It's why they are gone very professional up in Armagh and Tyrone and as the man says, the wheel keeps turning slowly but surely all the time."

It changed for Micko, slowly but surely, last January. After losing another Leinster final, this time to Dublin, Laois captain Fergal Byron sat down with the panel and they decided things were too old fashioned for their liking.

They wanted coaches for every position imaginable. They wanted what Tyrone and Armagh had. They got what they wanted as well, but after reaching a league semi-final they saw the error of their ways on 25 June. Dublin 3-17, Laois 0-12.

"The players came to me at the turn of last year and said they wanted things done a little differently. I never felt undermined in any way but maybe at that stage I should have got out. But I went along with them anyway and they got what they required and the whole lot and that didn't bring success as everyone now knows. I took over the team then after the Dublin debacle.

Things were done my way. Of course the attitude of players was different and it wasn't that we got rid of any of these specialists, after all they are all experts.

They were all still there but I spoke to the team, personally, before games and during games and at meetings and training. That was the big change that was made. All the others were still available to the players if they wanted but I was in the foreground. And look what followed. We went on to beat the All Ireland champions Tyrone. We beat a fine Meath team. We beat Offaly up in Navan. We drew an All Ireland quarter-final we should have won against Mayo and maybe we didn't play as well the second day. We had a wonderful run in the championship after that.

"And overall, just like I had in Kildare, we had a wonderful spell. Before I came, they were beaten by Meath by 10 or 12 points in the championship. They were looking pretty bad. I was at that game actually and several people said to me, 'Mick, I don't think you can do so much for those guys'. You can say we might have won more with Laois alright. We did lose two Leinster finals that we might have won [Westmeath '04, Dublin '05] but we had a lot of injuries. And just because they had great minor teams, they don't naturally mature after. They didn't win an under21 title with those fellas and that was something they should have done because that's the real test. You win an under-21 title and most of those players come through.

"That's what I did in Kerry. I managed the Kerry under-21 team for four years, we won three All Irelands and we were beaten in the fourth final. But with Laois, winning a minor All Ireland was like winning a senior one, the guys were wined and dined and that never helped them."

In the end it wasn't the agony of defeat to Mayo in an All Ireland quarter-final replay that signalled the end of his time at O'Moore Park. Long before he had told his selectors Declan O'Loughlin, Gerry Lawlor and Martin Parkinson the road was again calling, louder than ever. He'd always planned to get back into it at some stage, just not so soon. He turned down five other counties before Arthur Ffrench, a close friend with contacts in the Wicklow camp, approached about bringing back hope to yet another Leinster county.

The most hopeless of them all.

"I never ever said that was going to be the end of the road. I just said I was leaving Laois and other people put words in my mouth that this was the end of it all. I had it my head that maybe I would do another team somewhere and sometime. But there were men like Arthur Ffrench and Billy Timmons and they got hold of me and it was something I wanted to do. It excited me.

And now with the selectors we have and the county board we have, there's a great structure. And I'm generally doing quite a lot of the footballing side of things myself. I lay down the rules and the systems that I want to put in place. I get whoever is with me in Wicklow at the minute and I get them to carry out what I think we should do.

What I've done over the years has stood the test pretty well so I'm going to continue.

"As well as that, there is a lot of work going on at underage level, places like Bray and Greystones and all up along the east coast. It might take a number of years but they are on the right road if they can keep things going. Things have been pretty disheartening here and that's always the case if you are losing a lot but sure, if I can help raise the profile of the game in Wicklow, well fair enough. I'm not saying we are going to be setting any records here. We won't but I'd like to get this county back to where it was seven or eight years ago when they had a good side."

But weren't you worried at all by the trouble certain clubs caused in the past and by the way John O'Leary and Hugh Kenny were treated?

"I'm amazed with all the talk there is about all the trouble with the clubs in Wicklow. I've gone to 16 different clubs on different nights and I don't see any trouble anywhere. There's a wonderful spirit there and I'll tell you something, what I have seen is no different to what I saw in Laois, Kildare or Kerry. As for managers coming and going, that's part and parcel of management. They could do the same thing with myself in 12 months time. That's football, you do something if you want to do it, that's most important and I'm managing Wicklow because I want to do it.

There's no other reason in the world.

Wicklow are supposed to be one of the lowest teams at the moment so surely we'll be able to raise the profile. I've no doubt in my mind we'll be able to do that with a bit of time."

He denies being offered the Wicklow job before, saying he helped them out once on a trip to Waterville but too much was made of it. But mention Kerry and there's too much history and love for him to back away from the question with ever-predictable answers.

"Well, there was talk about me going back there alright. But when I took the Wicklow job, I didn't know Jack O'Connor was going to pack up and get out. Not him or his selectors made it known that they were leaving the job.

So I took on the Wicklow job and when I did that, that was the end of that. So there was no question of me going anywhere after that because I'm a man of my word and that's that. If they had gone a little earlier it would it have been tempting. It could have been. . .

There's no point in talking about that now. Sure you've enough there now at this stage, have you?"

You ask for a couple more questions, but before any answer, the phone dies.

Call back, you're wasting your time.

"Hello, hello, hello, I'm in a bad area, can't hear. . ." Again there's a dead silence on the end of the phone and you throw in the towel.

Do that in Wicklow any time soon, and that'll be 20 laps.