SOME TOPICS DON’T get a look-in until the close season. But you could set your clock by someone sounding the alarm about GAA development squads.
In recent weeks, Kildare legend Glenn Ryan had to point out in conversation with Off The Ball that Development Squads are just that – they are not county squads. That, and some parents could do with winding their neck in about the whole thing.
Then, Colm O’Rourke, not particularly fond of most modern trinkets admittedly, was fairly on the nose when he recently wrote, among other sharp observations: “It is also saying to those included that they are in some way superior to the other club players. Teenagers from 14 to 17 are not equipped in many cases to process this sort of inclusion or rejection. And neither are many parents.”
And the truth is, not even the GAA are convinced about the whole enterprise.
Back in 2018 the GAA president, John Horan, established a committee to get some read on what Development Squads were doing.
‘Development Squads’, and its re-branding ‘Talent Academy’ systems had been around in some counties for almost 20 years by then. The aim at the start was well-meaning, and at its core is still the same: to improve the lot of the county.
Despite the advancement of technology and a bank of coaching knowledge building up over the previous decade, counties still operated as independent cells, shielded from the outside world, all convinced what they were doing was right.
Horan’s committee was chaired by Michael Dempsey, the former Laois football player and manager who is perhaps better known as Brian Cody’s assistant in Kilkenny from 2003 to 2019.
Interviewing over 1,000 stakeholders across 32 counties and analysing 7,000 pieces of data, they identified the key areas of concern.
The former Cork football manager, Brian Cuthbert was a committee member and he strongly advised that the concept had evolved into something it should never have been.
Brian Cuthbert. Presseye / Russell Pritchard/INPHO
Presseye / Russell Pritchard/INPHO / Russell Pritchard/INPHO
“In terms of our evidence and our gathering it’s very obvious that the inter-county game is going like a train in the one direction, and the rest of the Association is wondering where we fit,” Cuthbert said at the launch of the findings.
“The kernel of the whole problem is that winning is prioritised over everything else.
“What this committee is very, very clearly saying is that we need to educate our stakeholders, parents, teachers, club coaches, players, around a certain philosophy that is developmental, rather than driving a winning agenda.”
This language was explicit and alarming. Cuthbert intended it to be so. The evidence in front of the committee was that so many counties were treating children of 13 and 14 like mini-adults, thrusting their expectations upon them.
Almost a decade on, it’s clear that the concept of development squads means very different things to different counties. Some used the report’s findings and did some naval-gazing.
Others were jolted into action by a particular result. For Clare hurling, it was a 6-28 to 0-6 defeat in the 2021 Munster minor hurling championship to Cork that prompted a complete overhaul.
The predictable thing here would be to demand that your development squads start winning games, right down to U14 level, in order to boost esteem.
But former senior county manager Donal Moloney came in and brought in over a dozen coaches. They invited in former Ireland U20 rugby coach Noel McNamara. His advice was to take in as many kids as possible, and keep them as long as possible.
Donal Moloney. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Tanking this advice literally, Clare take in 70 youngsters at each age group.
Paul Mannion of St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, was one of the first coaches recruited. He has stayed with the process from U14s right up to being a county minor selector and coach now.
Ask him now on the expectation of winning, and he reflects on the journey.
“There’s none. Honestly, there’s none. We have things we want to look out for. Say at U14, it would be jab-lifting, taking space, scanning, positioning of the ball inside –it’s the skills, not the winning,” he says.
“Sometimes it pains me because we do get hammerings. But there is no focus on winning. No child goes out to lose, but we do not stream the teams. There’s no ‘A’ or ‘B’ teams until minor.”
At the start, he wasn’t so sure himself.
“I found it frustrating that we were being beaten, that we were putting out equal teams of equal ability whereas we could have won with one team,” Mannion says.
“But then you realise that it actually doesn’t matter. What the kids take from it is that you are going to stick with them, for three years. You aren’t going to be discarded at 14 because you weren’t good enough, we are going to stick with you.”
It’s a philosophy that isn’t always appreciated. Not least by the kind of pushy parents who would leave JJ Gabriel’s father blushing. And in the early days, their faith was tested by some of the Godfathers of Clare hurling.
“We have that pressure. We have certain ex-intercounty players, they have been scathing,” says Mannion.
“The first group that we put through this process were getting beat at U15, and U16. And all of a sudden we got to the Munster final at minor level, beaten in extra-time by Tipperary.
“And everyone had to shut up then. Because the following team won the All-Ireland and the team two years after that got to the All-Ireland final.”
Spend
If there is a problem with development squads, it comes from a lack of appreciation of what they should be. Not least the GAA themselves that see the spend of some counties inch towards €60,000 while others aren’t investing €25,000.
That’s not to say they haven’t tried defining it. After the aforementioned 2019 report, a new player development programme was designed, the ‘Thrive’ document.
The aims contained were to promote the role of the club, to better upskill volunteer coaches, to reimagine the ‘development squad’ as complementing the club and school programme.
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In 2024, they appointed the former Westmeath player, selector under Páidí Ó Sé in 2004 and manager in his own right, Jack Cooney, as the national player pathway lead. It is his job to roll out documents such as ‘Thrive’ as best practice.
Jack Cooney while in charge of Rhode. Evan Treacy / INPHO
Evan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Right now, there are six areas of development that will be the focus in 2027.
“One of them is ‘the player’ – that means to understand the player in front of you,” says Cooney.
“Second is ‘the coach’ – to help the coach develop coaching skills.
“And then you have four areas: technical, tactical, physical and psychological. That’s four areas for the player. All of that is underpinned by the Sports Science Framework.
“Now, some people get a bit uptight when you start talking about sports science and all of that.
“But the science side of that, a lot of the coaches and what they are doing on a day-to-day basis, through club, school or county, there is science behind it in some form.
“Even coaches building relationships with players, coaching players on the pitch, playing games, all of that, there is a scientific element underpinning that. And what we are trying to do is bring best practise, evidence-based learnings for our coaches so that the players will benefit.”
The problem is, not every county is enlightened.
One coach in a high-profile football county was dismayed at his county’s approach to a development squad that he headed up.
Not surprisingly, given his criticism of how things operate in his own county, he asked for anonymity.
“If your club competitions are good, they will get five or six months of competition over the course of the year with a club team that will be training once or twice a week,” he says.
“To replicate that with a development squad of 70 players you are trying to do two nights a week training and a match at the weekend. Well, then you completely drive a train through the club season.
“You don’t see any discernible difference from lads who have been in a development squad for a few months. I have seen no evidence of that at all.
“Whereas lads who go to a school that is pushing to play top competitions and they have them for four or five months, you can see the difference in them when you meet them in the club. But that doesn’t happen at development squads because they cannot put in that level of input.”
Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
When it came to playing games, there was an expectation there that they should be winning, and winning well. Not for the right reasons.
“Absolutely,” he says.
“In our situation, there was a little gang of ambitious coaches there that dream of getting big jobs. And so this was one of the ways they can get there – they need to do well with an underage team.”
He also had enough scrapes with parents and was left with too many hard conversations with children to continue his involvement.
“I saw a few mental experiences with players who didn’t make it. And parents lose their shit over something that realistically, if they were more informed about the situation, they would realise it doesn’t make a button of difference to the player’s development,” he says.
“I don’t think you are accelerating anything, but to another child that is being dropped, you are doing that at an age that they are not built for it; for that message that you are not good enough.”
11,500 players
The scale of this work is enormous. Taking 2025 figures, there were over 11,500 players involved in development squads from U14 to U17. And more than 1,300 coaches, one cohort where there is a serious churn from year to year. There are over 2,200 games played.
Cooney’s beliefs are well-founded, but it’s a hard thing to be a propagandist of Development Squads.
There are still massive areas where the message is scrambled. The influence of ‘Helicopter Parents’ and their expectations can be unrealistic. For many, their child making a group of 70 at the age of 13 is equivalent to becoming a county minor.
Anecdotally, this process has harmed a lot of smaller clubs who, having produced a player good enough to be identified, have soon been poached by a bigger club with the promise of playing at a higher level.
“I think that’s where we really have to define what development squads are really about,” says Cooney.
“I think what we are really looking for is to focus on the here and now and develop at 14. This needs to be communicated to all the stakeholders – players, parents, all of that is so important.
“The U14 side of things, it’s very much a psycho-social development space. We are affording them an opportunity to mix with players from other clubs. And it’s very much a nurturing environment. You are trying to merge them and create a love of the game and start helping these players realise and work towards ambitions down the line.”
What he is driving at has been enthusiastically embraced by Clare.
Paul Mannion’s son, Ollie, is now on the U14 development squad. They are so well-staffed with coaches, that there is a coach to every six children.
Throughout the year, Ollie will be filmed striking the ball off the wall, off either side, from seven metres. Those clips will be sent on to his coaches for personal feedback. Gradually, he will work his way backwards until he is striking competently off either side, 20 metres from the wall.
It’s an approach that is replicated across other facets such as speed and reaction strengths. It sounds rewarding, with achievable targets signposted, in an environment devoid of undue pressure.
What a pity that many others don’t get to experience that.
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Costly and exclusive or nurturing and necessary? The battle for the soul of development squads
SOME TOPICS DON’T get a look-in until the close season. But you could set your clock by someone sounding the alarm about GAA development squads.
In recent weeks, Kildare legend Glenn Ryan had to point out in conversation with Off The Ball that Development Squads are just that – they are not county squads. That, and some parents could do with winding their neck in about the whole thing.
Then, Colm O’Rourke, not particularly fond of most modern trinkets admittedly, was fairly on the nose when he recently wrote, among other sharp observations: “It is also saying to those included that they are in some way superior to the other club players. Teenagers from 14 to 17 are not equipped in many cases to process this sort of inclusion or rejection. And neither are many parents.”
And the truth is, not even the GAA are convinced about the whole enterprise.
Back in 2018 the GAA president, John Horan, established a committee to get some read on what Development Squads were doing.
‘Development Squads’, and its re-branding ‘Talent Academy’ systems had been around in some counties for almost 20 years by then. The aim at the start was well-meaning, and at its core is still the same: to improve the lot of the county.
Despite the advancement of technology and a bank of coaching knowledge building up over the previous decade, counties still operated as independent cells, shielded from the outside world, all convinced what they were doing was right.
Horan’s committee was chaired by Michael Dempsey, the former Laois football player and manager who is perhaps better known as Brian Cody’s assistant in Kilkenny from 2003 to 2019.
Interviewing over 1,000 stakeholders across 32 counties and analysing 7,000 pieces of data, they identified the key areas of concern.
The former Cork football manager, Brian Cuthbert was a committee member and he strongly advised that the concept had evolved into something it should never have been.
“In terms of our evidence and our gathering it’s very obvious that the inter-county game is going like a train in the one direction, and the rest of the Association is wondering where we fit,” Cuthbert said at the launch of the findings.
“The kernel of the whole problem is that winning is prioritised over everything else.
“What this committee is very, very clearly saying is that we need to educate our stakeholders, parents, teachers, club coaches, players, around a certain philosophy that is developmental, rather than driving a winning agenda.”
This language was explicit and alarming. Cuthbert intended it to be so. The evidence in front of the committee was that so many counties were treating children of 13 and 14 like mini-adults, thrusting their expectations upon them.
Almost a decade on, it’s clear that the concept of development squads means very different things to different counties. Some used the report’s findings and did some naval-gazing.
Others were jolted into action by a particular result. For Clare hurling, it was a 6-28 to 0-6 defeat in the 2021 Munster minor hurling championship to Cork that prompted a complete overhaul.
The predictable thing here would be to demand that your development squads start winning games, right down to U14 level, in order to boost esteem.
But former senior county manager Donal Moloney came in and brought in over a dozen coaches. They invited in former Ireland U20 rugby coach Noel McNamara. His advice was to take in as many kids as possible, and keep them as long as possible.
Tanking this advice literally, Clare take in 70 youngsters at each age group.
Paul Mannion of St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, was one of the first coaches recruited. He has stayed with the process from U14s right up to being a county minor selector and coach now.
Ask him now on the expectation of winning, and he reflects on the journey.
“There’s none. Honestly, there’s none. We have things we want to look out for. Say at U14, it would be jab-lifting, taking space, scanning, positioning of the ball inside –it’s the skills, not the winning,” he says.
At the start, he wasn’t so sure himself.
“I found it frustrating that we were being beaten, that we were putting out equal teams of equal ability whereas we could have won with one team,” Mannion says.
“But then you realise that it actually doesn’t matter. What the kids take from it is that you are going to stick with them, for three years. You aren’t going to be discarded at 14 because you weren’t good enough, we are going to stick with you.”
It’s a philosophy that isn’t always appreciated. Not least by the kind of pushy parents who would leave JJ Gabriel’s father blushing. And in the early days, their faith was tested by some of the Godfathers of Clare hurling.
“We have that pressure. We have certain ex-intercounty players, they have been scathing,” says Mannion.
“The first group that we put through this process were getting beat at U15, and U16. And all of a sudden we got to the Munster final at minor level, beaten in extra-time by Tipperary.
“And everyone had to shut up then. Because the following team won the All-Ireland and the team two years after that got to the All-Ireland final.”
Spend
If there is a problem with development squads, it comes from a lack of appreciation of what they should be. Not least the GAA themselves that see the spend of some counties inch towards €60,000 while others aren’t investing €25,000.
That’s not to say they haven’t tried defining it. After the aforementioned 2019 report, a new player development programme was designed, the ‘Thrive’ document.
The aims contained were to promote the role of the club, to better upskill volunteer coaches, to reimagine the ‘development squad’ as complementing the club and school programme.
In 2024, they appointed the former Westmeath player, selector under Páidí Ó Sé in 2004 and manager in his own right, Jack Cooney, as the national player pathway lead. It is his job to roll out documents such as ‘Thrive’ as best practice.
Right now, there are six areas of development that will be the focus in 2027.
“One of them is ‘the player’ – that means to understand the player in front of you,” says Cooney.
“Second is ‘the coach’ – to help the coach develop coaching skills.
“And then you have four areas: technical, tactical, physical and psychological. That’s four areas for the player. All of that is underpinned by the Sports Science Framework.
“Now, some people get a bit uptight when you start talking about sports science and all of that.
“But the science side of that, a lot of the coaches and what they are doing on a day-to-day basis, through club, school or county, there is science behind it in some form.
“Even coaches building relationships with players, coaching players on the pitch, playing games, all of that, there is a scientific element underpinning that. And what we are trying to do is bring best practise, evidence-based learnings for our coaches so that the players will benefit.”
The problem is, not every county is enlightened.
One coach in a high-profile football county was dismayed at his county’s approach to a development squad that he headed up.
Not surprisingly, given his criticism of how things operate in his own county, he asked for anonymity.
“If your club competitions are good, they will get five or six months of competition over the course of the year with a club team that will be training once or twice a week,” he says.
“To replicate that with a development squad of 70 players you are trying to do two nights a week training and a match at the weekend. Well, then you completely drive a train through the club season.
“Whereas lads who go to a school that is pushing to play top competitions and they have them for four or five months, you can see the difference in them when you meet them in the club. But that doesn’t happen at development squads because they cannot put in that level of input.”
When it came to playing games, there was an expectation there that they should be winning, and winning well. Not for the right reasons.
“Absolutely,” he says.
“In our situation, there was a little gang of ambitious coaches there that dream of getting big jobs. And so this was one of the ways they can get there – they need to do well with an underage team.”
He also had enough scrapes with parents and was left with too many hard conversations with children to continue his involvement.
“I saw a few mental experiences with players who didn’t make it. And parents lose their shit over something that realistically, if they were more informed about the situation, they would realise it doesn’t make a button of difference to the player’s development,” he says.
“I don’t think you are accelerating anything, but to another child that is being dropped, you are doing that at an age that they are not built for it; for that message that you are not good enough.”
11,500 players
The scale of this work is enormous. Taking 2025 figures, there were over 11,500 players involved in development squads from U14 to U17. And more than 1,300 coaches, one cohort where there is a serious churn from year to year. There are over 2,200 games played.
Cooney’s beliefs are well-founded, but it’s a hard thing to be a propagandist of Development Squads.
There are still massive areas where the message is scrambled. The influence of ‘Helicopter Parents’ and their expectations can be unrealistic. For many, their child making a group of 70 at the age of 13 is equivalent to becoming a county minor.
Anecdotally, this process has harmed a lot of smaller clubs who, having produced a player good enough to be identified, have soon been poached by a bigger club with the promise of playing at a higher level.
“I think that’s where we really have to define what development squads are really about,” says Cooney.
“I think what we are really looking for is to focus on the here and now and develop at 14. This needs to be communicated to all the stakeholders – players, parents, all of that is so important.
“The U14 side of things, it’s very much a psycho-social development space. We are affording them an opportunity to mix with players from other clubs. And it’s very much a nurturing environment. You are trying to merge them and create a love of the game and start helping these players realise and work towards ambitions down the line.”
What he is driving at has been enthusiastically embraced by Clare.
Paul Mannion’s son, Ollie, is now on the U14 development squad. They are so well-staffed with coaches, that there is a coach to every six children.
Throughout the year, Ollie will be filmed striking the ball off the wall, off either side, from seven metres. Those clips will be sent on to his coaches for personal feedback. Gradually, he will work his way backwards until he is striking competently off either side, 20 metres from the wall.
It’s an approach that is replicated across other facets such as speed and reaction strengths. It sounds rewarding, with achievable targets signposted, in an environment devoid of undue pressure.
What a pity that many others don’t get to experience that.
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Development squads GAA Gaelic Football Growing pains Hurling Investment