WHEN CORK U20 manager Keith Ricken stands up to leave the room, you instantly find yourself wishing he could stay.
He’s leaving a captivated audience behind as he walks out of a suite in Croke Park. Over the previous 20 minutes, he has covered a lot of ground in an insightful discussion about the current landscape of the GAA.
Coaching techniques, fixture schedules, and suggestions for implementing new age grades that will help players make the ultimate transition to senior football, all get a mention.
So far, so standard GAA chat.
But Ricken’s approach goes far deeper than that. He truly cares about the character development of each of his players. His work as a GAA development officer in Cork IT allows him to assist guys who are going through those stages of maturity in life.
Ricken even quotes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to illustrate his understanding of his role as a football manager. It all makes for such a fascinating chat, that we barely get any time to even talk about his All-Ireland U20 success with the Rebels last year.
“The person is very slow to evolve in their brain, their body and their physique,” Ricken begins.
“They’re thousands of years behind how society has evolved. Essentially, what we have is a very modern society. But we still have a very ancient person.
The boys I would have coached in the north side of Cork city in the 80s are no different to the boys that are here now. They’re certainly dressed different and they don’t wear socks. And I don’t know how they breathe in their pants.
“They’re the same boys because we’re still neanderthals, or certainly homo sapiens. We’re less developed, and people forget that the basic needs of love and honesty still have to be met no matter what team you train.”
By now, you’re getting an appreciation for the way Ricken’s mind works, and the humour he carries in his voice.
As he continues to engage us with his views on coaching, he talks about how he considers the impact of his tutelage on players as they move on in life. The impression they take of him, is important to Ricken.
But as the GAA becomes more entrenched with elitism, Ricken fears those relationships between mentors and players are in danger of being jeopardised.
“Absolutely,” he says when asked if he has concerns about the growth of elitism in the sport.
“When you finish and when you retire, what do people bring away from it? ”Your feelings is what you take with you.
There’s only memories and feelings that I have left. The feeling never leaves you and if you’re cognisant of that, that’s the end product. We as coaches, have to work from the end product back.
We tend to do it from the other way around because you know what the end product is. And knock all this elitism shit out of it. And I genuinely believe it. There’s horror stuff [going on].
“Lads going off to U16 and U18 bonding camps. Everyone is trying to improve with it differently every time and it scares the living daylights out of me.”
Ricken adds:
“One more thing I’ve noticed is an anxiety in our elite athletes. I would know this from third-level. They’re anxious when they go back to their own club. How are they going to be perceived? They’ve been locked in this inter-county set-up or college set-up and they’ve to go back and it’s ‘oh you’re back now.’ There’s huge anxiety around that.”
The U20 football championships get underway this month. Ricken’s rebels will begin their Munster defence against either Clare or Waterford in the semi-final as they look to ultimately retain their All-Ireland crown.
This is a chaotic time of the year for young players, particularly those who play on third level teams while also serving their club and county masters.
It leaves Ricken with plenty to juggle during the busy season, although he’s happy to share his players with their club teams. It’s the amount of money being spent on inter-county teams that worries him.
“I think it’s bananas,” he says of the expenses involved in running an inter-county team.
“We trained last year for five months. I think this year it will be four months. This month is taken up with U21 championships in club and lads playing county leagues which are starting. The lads are playing freshers competition and schools competitions.
You know, I get requested every week to release players, but I laugh at that. It’s like I’m a prison warden. I’ve never and never will stop a lad playing with his club.
“Because you’re from your club. Your club jersey is the jersey that goes with you at the very end. Your club colleagues are the people who bring you to your final destination. So your club is everything.”
Cork won their All-Ireland crown in August last year, after rallying back from nine points down to edge out Dublin in the decider. The competition has been pushed back this year and will conclude in March, with the All-Ireland semi-finals scheduled for St Patrick’s Day.
Ricken doesn’t agree with that move, but he accepts that “it was a genuine effort to try and solve something.” He would prefer his players to be enjoying the summer football, rather than trying to get up to championship pace in the cold weather.
Like many others, he knows that the GAA is need of change but admits that he doesn’t have the solution to what is a very complex issue. Again, the philosopher in Ricken comes to the surface along with all the empathy and compassion that he has exuded throughout this fascinating discussion.
“People have to stand up sometimes and say ‘we don’t know.’
“The GAA is very complex. We’re dealing with two codes, we’re dealing with sister codes, we’re dealing with handball, various grades. It is an impossible task. It’s like putting the lotto numbers together. The come up sometimes and sometimes they won’t.
“You have to squeeze and batter stuff before we fix it. And I do think they will eventually get back to something that was there last year. In order for that to happen, third level has to be fixed and sorted out.
“The second level competitions and the club has to get its place. There’s a lot of balancing in that and any fella who says he knows the answers is a bit of a bluffer because that’s a tough one to call.”
Keith Ricken was speaking at the launch of the 2020 EirGrid GAA Football U20 All-Ireland Championship.
EirGrid has been a proud sponsor of the U20 GAA Football All-Ireland Championship since 2015.
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