IN 2009, St Columban’s College Kilkeel were tossing around some ideas for a much-needed fundraiser when one teacher had a brainwave. A year previous, he had attended the GAA’s first coaching conference in Croke Park and was captivated. The crowd was immense. Why not organise something similar?
Stephen Poacher organised the field and found a trainer. With the Mourne mountains looming in the background, a coaching giant ran the session for 57 attendees. John Morrison was one of the game’s great innovators. The Armagh man, who passed away in 2019, served on the backroom team of seven inter-county sides. He authored training manuals and utilised a wide arsenal of unconventional methods to get the most out of his players.
His clinic was enlightening. For many, it felt like an epiphany.
Twelve months later they ran the event again and the crowd grew to 87. A year later they broke 100. Last month, Poacher ran three events on three successive Wednesday nights. The overall attendance stood at over 1000.
“This is our 13th year, and it keeps growing. To see so many people here recently, to see it grow to one biggest coaching education events in Ireland, that was humbling,” he admits.
“A big part of it is that we have had great presenters. Conor Laverty. Aidan O’Rourke. Peter Donnelly. Colm Nally. Jim McCorry. A diverse range. Bernard Jackman was here a few years ago. Really informative and experienced.
“They are fantastic for networking for coaches too. The number of friends I made from it. My work with Carlow started from these conferences. I saw this van in the corner one day at 8.45am. The session didn’t start until 10.
“It was a Carlow reg. I said, what the fuck? This guy was all chat. So bubbly. That was the winter of 2015. I went down to Carlow then, first a few drop-in sessions. That winter, Turlough asked me to get involved for 2016. I just went for it.
“The calibre of person coming still strikes me. Malachy O’Rourke was there recently, paying in. Intercounty coaches are coming. Coaches at the highest level are not exempt from learning.”
GAA coaching courses are not a new phenomenon. In the 1970s, they were rare but influential. Kerry captain and PE graduate Mickey Ned O’Sullivan dragged Mick O’Dwyer along to one in 1974. Running it was Dublin coach and defending All-Ireland champion Kevin Heffernan. It proved a pivotal eye-opener. They saw how hard he trained a team and went home to better it. In 1975 Kerry lifted Sam Maguire once again.
That passion for learning is no longer reserved for the elite level of the game. Ciarán McLaughlin is the Ulster GAA Council president having previously served as chairman of the National Games Development Committee. His experience is extensive: player, coach, manager, referee, club and county chairman.
At the 2019 National Games Development Conference, McLaughlin spoke at length about their goal.
To reflect where the association was around development and coaching, Gary Keegan produced a report in 2017 which was ratified at Central Council. Coach education, performance science and talent development advisory were three main areas. As the appetite for learning grew, the association needed to be ready to satisfy it.
“As we go into a modern society and people want to develop themselves, our coaches recognise our players want 21st-century methods,” McLaughlin explains.
“It is no longer good enough to stand six young players behind a cone and tell them to run up and down. The fundamentals are still there. All our coaches are doing it because they want children to enjoy themselves and have fun.”
In recent years, the GAA has revised its Coach Education Programme to take account of the different playing capacities that exist between children (up to 11 years), youths (age 12 – 17) and adults (age 18+), and the competencies that a coach is required to display when working with each group.
The Foundation Award, Award 1 and Award 2 existed to cater for that. Now an Award 3 programme is under development. Those who wish to improve as a grassroots coach have never had as many resources or education avenues. The GAA deserve immense credit for their progress in this department.
By no means are they resting on those laurels. Last month, the GAA, LGFA, and Camogie Association published the findings of the largest ever coach development survey undertaken in Irish Sport.
Over 10,400 coaches took part. Of those, 91% have some form of coaching qualification. Worryingly, one in eight coaches did not hold any coaching education. The most popular learning opportunity was ‘working with or observing other coaches.’
Until the Covid interruption, the annual Games Development Conference continued to grow as the coaching community came together. The 2020 keynote speaker line-up included Éamonn Fitzmaurice, Tony Óg Regan, Niall Moyna and Niamh McElwain.
This year it takes place in the NUI Galway Connacht GAA Airdome on Saturday 19 February under the theme of ‘The Youth Player’. Given the location, the association elected to utilise it and combine key-note speakers with practical coaching demonstrations.
This is precisely what coaches like Poacher have been crying out for.
“My first one was 2008. We sat in Croke Park and watched a practical session on the pitch that day. Martin Fogarty who was with the Kilkenny hurlers and Michael McGeehin who was part of Coaching Ireland. It was a pitch-based session. All games based.
“I went away delighted. I still have the handouts here. We sat in the Hogan Stand. It was the last practical based conference. Why? Don’t get me wrong, they are sell-outs and hundreds go, but they are death by PowerPoints. Coaches don’t want PowerPoints. I don’t want to hear about it, I want to see it. See a coach in action.”
That is key, for the benefit of coaching and for the game. In this realm, the best expression of innovation has always been widespread imitation. In 2008, Poacher took inspiration from watching fellow young coach Jason Ryan in action. At a workshop a few years later, Éamonn Ryan’s enthusiasm and man-management left a lasting impression.
Hundreds of coaches will have heard former Down star Marty Clarke’s coaching cues at Poacher’s latest conference and been captivated. How he consistently stressed he wanted his players to be able to think and how he put a twist on warm-up or standard shooting drills in order to promote that.
Having stood witness at his altar, they then go to spread that gospel. Carrying those lessons back with them. Once this practice was reserved for county level. Now these developments have filtered into clubs. Transitions, concepts and kick-out strategies are now part of that lexicon too.
A new breed of coaches craves depth and detail. They too need opportunities to access it.
“I don’t place an enormous value on Zoom and webinars,” says Poacher.
“They are too impersonal. That is how I met the Roscommon team for the first time. It was daunting, I’d never be nervous meeting a group of players. 90% of my coaching is using my personality. I found it very impersonal to meet a group on Zoom. Building relationships through a screen isn’t natural.
“I have got my Foundation, Level One and Level Two. I did them all. You can do them with your eyes closed. That is why I get more value out of seeing coaches in action. That is what we need more of.”
It is a common critique at the top level of the game. Last year former Donegal footballer Eamon McGee identified ‘bad coaching’ as a problem within the GAA and proposed a badge system such as the one run by Uefa in soccer.
Meath S&C coach and former Munster rugby player Niall Ronan previously cited the contrast between his experience in the GAA — “one day of coaching at a course and that is me qualified, rock up and get it” — and that in rugby, where he was interviewed and assessed numerous times.
McLaughlin understands these concerns. At the same time, you can’t put the horse before the cart. The priority must be the many at the base, not the few hankering for more.
“One of the standards in place was every development squad in the country was expected to have a Level One coach. But we can’t make it mandatory. At the end of the day, small clubs would struggle.
“We want to try and make sure every club and every team has the opportunity to have one person on Level One. They would go through the pathway. Award 1 (adult), that deals with concepts and tactics.
“What often happens is you get someone onto a team out of necessity, some clubs or teams need help and they might not have it. I would never knock someone for taking on a team, I would just say there is a pathway to improve. If you’re not sure, join it and go up the ladder and you will get experience. It is there and it will stand to you.”
In certain counties, the coaching education offered is exceptional. One of the modern-day innovators, Limerick hurling coach Paul Kinnerk, is also head of the county’s football Academy. They have recruited numerous former players to roll out game-based coaching strategies across the county, establishing roots to reinforce the remarkable job being done by Billy Lee at the top.
Limerick stalwart Pa Ranahan, who retired from inter-county action in 2016, has witnessed these masterclasses up close. He was one of the first former players Kinnerick called upon.
Ranahan is currently a post-primary school Development Officer and involved with the U20s for 2022.
“Paul is one of the few great at running practical Zoom sessions,” he explains.
“What Paul is really good at is he makes the practical simple. You can go to a lot of these coaching conferences and come away with a load of fancy things in your book. The reality is a lot of people go away and don’t come back to it. There is so much information that you take in nothing.
“I found it was that way for me. Joining all these calls and webinars, while you are doing it, they are great. But the important part is practically putting it into place. Going away and doing it. That is the only way it seeps into your subconscious.
“With Paul, there were three or four key things. He is all game-based. Three things to hammer home.”
These sessions start with the technical in order to set a framework. They then progress to animations before finishing with highlights and clips from games. Read it in words, digest it in a diagram and watch it in action. Every coach’s dream: having a picture in your head and seeing it unfold on the pitch without having to spell it out to players.
There is a place for non-practical sessions too. Ranahan cites a recent example with the renowned Paul Kilgannon that was superb, exploring the why rather than the how.
And yet, the county is also a case study in the need for a multifaceted approach. In 2019, Limerick announced they were to appoint a full-time development officer for football as recommended by a football review committee. Until that happens, this armoury of expertise will remain limited in its scope.
“To be honest, it is unfair to expect volunteers to spend as much time away from work committing to this as it would be for a full-time official. There is a huge opportunity while the schools are open. Especially the secondary schools in Limerick.
“Anthony Masterson in Wexford seems to do fantastic work with the secondary schools. Every week I see online how well they are doing it. It was once said to me you can’t expect volunteers to make a big difference. There is a ceiling on it. We all have bills to pay.
“If there was someone to go to clubs who are really interested in football and need a small hand to get to the next level. A full-time role, whose job from Monday to Friday is to promote and develop Limerick football. The difference that person can make is huge.”
There are great resources within the county. The Limerick man points to the brilliant website ‘Game Sense Coaching’ which is run by Stephen, Peter, and David Lavin having been born from their involvement with Kinnerk. It is a guide in teaching skills and tactical awareness.
Former players like Lavin, Ranahan and Seanie Buckley all benefitted from the infectious coaching of Donie Buckley during their playing career too. Consider the Bill Parcells coaching tree that produced six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick.
“I am not saying any of us are on the level of Donie. It is just funny how someone like that can inspire other people. The ultimate Bill Belichick off Parcells is Paul Kinnerk off Donie. I know he has said himself before that when he played for Limerick, he picked up a lot off him.”
As an upcoming ambitious coach, Ranahan has taken to looking elsewhere for educational opportunities having exhausted the options afforded to him.
“I have Foundation and Award 1 done. I asked about Award 2 but there was none going on locally here. I actually did a coaching certificate with Setanta College last year. I had a bit of time, and I wanted a bit of a badge. If a job came up somewhere, they could see at least he went away and invested in something. The current stuff is almost too shallow.
“I have great time for anyone who takes the time to do one of those courses. But it doesn’t mean you are any better tactically to coach at a high level. What was there for years has been fantastic. Now it needs another level.”
