LAST UPDATE | 9 Mar 2022
IT WAS A standard November morning when news broke that then FAI chief John Delaney had met with Dundalk boss Stephen Kenny to discuss the U21 manager position. This was to prove the starting point for Kenny’s ascension to the big job of Irish football. A different time, a different world.
Later that day coaches from around the country gathered in Carlow IT for the FAI Coaching Conference. Shane Keegan was in the crowd and stunned by one presentation in particular. So much so that he felt compelled to contact Kenny with a recommendation.
“It grates me that Jim McGuinness didn’t have more success. I think it will come. I am positive it will come,” he says now.
“I remember saying that afternoon, ‘Stephen could do worse than incorporating Jim McGuinness in his set-up.’ His presentation that day was absolutely superb. I ended up out that night, my assistant at Galway did his course with Jim. We were in the same social circle that night and ended up in a conversation about it. I threw it at him. ‘Look, I’d know Stephen well enough that I nearly feel obliged to ring him if you ever felt like getting involved.’
“He said, ‘to be honest I’ve something else in the fire. Almost done or dusted.’ Two weeks later it got announced he was off to America. He will have success in soccer. I’ve no doubt whatsoever. They are already raving about the work he did in Derry.”
It had been established by then that the All-Ireland winning manager had turned his focus to soccer. Keegan previously pitched the idea of bringing him in with Galway United to the club’s hierarchy. He and the club parted ways before they could follow it up.
It is a crossover that registers. Like McGuinness, he is at a similar coalface, chipping out a double-barrelled journey. Following in the footsteps of elite trainers who worked in both codes.
“McGuinness moving to football was not the first of its kind. Mickey Whelan has a huge amount of League of Ireland experience. I think he has UEFA licences. Mickey had the idea of crossover years ago.
“Even bouncing between sports and changing your role. Look at Corofin, I’ve never seen a setup like it. What an underage structure. So much of that is David Morris and his father before him. David is the driving force there for Gaelic football. He is arguably one of the top performance analysts in hurling too. Micheál Donoghue had him in with Galway.
“If you have interest and love of coaching, you can bounce between sports with a bit of thought.”
That is his essence now. This week Keegan started in a fulltime role with Leinster GAA. The former Wexford, Galway United and Dundalk manager was also recently appointed head of the Academy with League of Ireland outfit Treaty United.
As a result, he is invested in coach education. The calendar is scheduled around upcoming conferences. He has even taken to planning his own. On Saturday, Keegan hosts the Hurling Coaching Workshop at the LOETB Centre of Excellence in Portlaoise.
Excited to be hosting The Hurling Coaching Workshop on the 12th March at the LOETB Centre of Excellence in Portlaoise.
— Shane Keegan (@ShaneKeegan81) February 24, 2022
6 top class coaches, each delivering a practical session
Book on the link here for the early discounted rate:https://t.co/heXP7oPFrc
Any Q’s send me a DM 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/4O5fl0aE7h
It is six practical based pitch sessions with Eamon O’Shea, Derek McGrath, Christy O’Connor, Willie Maher, Kevin Murray and Seorise Bulfin. An insatiable passion for learning exists in the GAA. This is yet another substantial offering.
Keegan’s own lightbulb moment came thanks to an invaluable lesson from a man who runs such workshops. Years ago, the Laois native took charge of a talented underage football team that included future stars like Sean Maguire and Mikey Drennan. Their bond and talent were evident. At the time it felt faultless.
After they reached an All-Ireland final, six players were selected for national trials. Keegan was convinced every one of them was a lock.
Only one made the cut. Perplexed, he reached out to Niall Harrison, the National Coordinator of the FAI Emerging Talent programme. That phone call was enlightening. It struck like a lightning bolt.
“He said to me, ‘Shane look, I have been at your games this year. You are so functional. You had a brilliant season, but if you say jump, they will jump. The problem is you are literally telling them to do everything. They land into me, and you are not there to explain everything. They can’t make decisions.
“Ever since then, I want to create decision-makers. This applies to hurling as well. My club are probably sick of me going on about it. Have a look before the ball comes to you. Do you know what is around you? To me, that is where coaching needs to go.
“My big thing when I am talking to coaches, I completely understand you want to write down the what. What did he do? What was that drill? You are going to want to write down the what. I understand that. But the really important thing is the how. How does someone coach?
“The style, body language. Are they dictatorial or looking for questions? All of that. That is far more important than coming away and saying, ‘right thanks to that I have my next three sessions planned.’”
On Saturday a community will travel in search of pertinent nuggets. Never before has so much been so readily accessible. Courses, clinics and examples of drills are just a mouse click away. Workshops all over the country, all year round. Everyone in search of details that can be weaved into their own unique coaching tapestry. That is vital, stresses Keegan. It has to be your own.
What moves the game on is experimentation and innovation. That is nine-tenths of the gig. Create big and bold concepts, make it small and simple for the players.
Last weekend a video did the rounds of the Laois footballers warm-up routine involving a pole and footwork. Perhaps it was poppycock, as many suggested online. Or maybe it was a manager taking over a side who finished with no points and a -28 scoring difference in the league, conceded 3-20 in their last championship match, and deducing this was a team that needed to learn how to tackle. A bid to fix an overreliance on the arms as well as improve foot and bodywork.
Billy Sheehan tried something different. It didn’t work out and they were beaten. But as Keegan explains, there is a lot to be said for the coach who dares.
“The process of coming up with what you will coach should be complicated. Delivering it to players should be simple. That is what the likes of Eamon O’Shea or Christy O’Connor are all about.
”As for actually doing something, bear with me here. We Had our GPO training all week in Abbottstown with James Devane. He started one of our workshops by putting up a graphic. It was a picture of a train coming down the line. Further down the line were four people tied to the track.
“Then there was an option to pull a lever and that would make the train veer left, down a line where there was only one person tied to the track.
”He asked us, stand on the right-hand side of the room if you wouldn’t pull it and would let it drive over four people. Stand on the left if you would pull the handle.
“The split in the room was stranger than you’d think. His point was there is a huge amount of people who wouldn’t pull the handle. The train was coming anyway. If four were killed, you could easily claim it wasn’t your fault. Whereas if you do something and pull it, you are involved. You acted.
“I think of someone like Cheddar Plunkett. I would have been in Portlaoise way back when Laois played Galway and went with one in the full-forward line, a third midfielder and a sweeper. More or less everyone else was going 15 on 15 back then. Galway scraped past us that day.
“Look, If you just go with the norm and you are beaten, there are every few eyebrows raised. You can point to the players or say, ‘sure it was expected anyway.’ Whereas it is so much braver and takes more guts to try to do something different. You have to believe it is right, you can’t do it to be seen as cool and trendy. You need to believe something radical is right.
“How many people do you think came up with something different and then backed away from it because they might look foolish? Billy probably looked foolish because they lost that match. If they won, there’d be talk about how brilliant it was. How it helps tackling or whatever. He tried something.
“There is no doubt doing nothing and staying away from the lever is way easier.”
The Hurling Coaching Workshop takes place on Saturday, March 12. To book a spot visit KeeganCoaching.ie.
