Enright highlights Sigerson shortfall

In part two of a series looking at aspects of underage football, Peter O’Connell finds out young players must be encouraged to play third-level football if Clare is to improve at county level.

 

ONE of Clare GAA’s three games development administrators, John Enright, has identified increased participation in the Sigerson Cup (third-level football) as pivotal to player development in the county. In recent years, only a handful of Clare footballers, including Gary Brennan, Dara Blake, Laurence Healy, Joe Hayes and Gordon Kelly, have played football at this level.

Enright maintains that success for Clare football won’t be instant but playing at the highest level possible would be a stepping stone to playing senior football.

“I think success for me would be to see more players playing Sigerson Cup football. A lot of players in Clare wouldn’t have the confidence to play Sigerson football. The thing about Sigerson is it doesn’t matter what county you’re from. If you’re good enough, they’ll play you. But the fact that we don’t have players means we’re not bringing players through,” he said.

“You look around and there’s no Clare players playing. It’s not by coincidence. The standard at club level [at underage] is too low. You can’t bridge it. We’re trying to make the jump from a very low club base at underage and up to playing Sigerson. The gap is too big. They probably don’t see themselves as having a right to go and try out for the teams,” he suggested.

Enright was speaking in the company of Clare GAA Games Development manager Seán Chaplin and 2011 Juvenile Football Forum chairman Eamon Keane, who spoke to The Clare Champion on what progress the county is making at underage level.

Enright also pointed to a disparity between teams playing in U-14 and U-16A grades in the county this year. Ennistymon won the U-14 title last Saturday with a replay win over St Breckan’s.

“If you look at the U-14A championship this year, the average margin of victory was 20 points. I only did this [survey] after 18 games. But if you’re getting beaten by 20 points, that’s not fun. If you’re winning by 20 points, that’s not fun either. Out of those 18 games, only five finished within 10 points and I’d consider 10 points a hammering. There were some victories by 37 and 41 points. That’s no one’s fault. A lot of it is down to complete depopulation back west. You’re going down three years in the age group looking for a team,” he reflected.

“The average margin of victory in the U-16A was 13 points and the two semi-finals were won by 15 and 23 points. So your better players coming through are not being challenged. Then we’re asking them to go from that to playing inter-county football. They can’t do it,” Enright maintained.

Last year’s forum produced 23 recommendations, one of which was the suggestion that a director of juvenile football be appointed. This hasn’t happened but Seán Chaplin says the work that a director of football would carry out is already being done.

“I can understand where some people are coming from. They’ve looked at other counties where a title has been given to an individual. But I feel that in some ways it’s taking away from the work that the lads [GDAs and Gaelic football promotion officer, Eoin Murray] are doing and that it’s a distraction from the work that’s going on. Honestly, I don’t think that if anybody else came in that they would be able to add too much more to what we’re doing already. I can’t talk highly enough about the lads who do the work,” he said.

Chaplin insists that significant development and coaching work is being carried out at club, divisional, development squad and secondary-school level.

“We have a plan for everything and there’s a programme in place, whether it’s for the primary school coaching, the divisional school or development squads. It’s a standard programme at schools level and it’s the same at divisional squad level. We sat down and looked at where are we weak at U-14 and what do we need to work on? The whole thing is that everybody isn’t doing their own thing; that we’re all working to a programme,” he explained.

Currently, schools in West Clare, North Clare and Ennis play Munster Colleges A Football from U-15 to senior, while six divisional squads from U-14 level have been created. They are Cill Cheathair, An Tuaisceart, Estuary Gaels, Corca Baiscinn, Inis Faughs and Boru.

“The divisional teams can be a bridge but to play meaningful games, they have to train. We all accept that. If we just turn up to play the game, there’s no buy-in from the players and the games aren’t competitive. Therefore, they’re a waste of time,” Enright stated.

“The Munster colleges games are the most meaningful games because you have to go out and compete against a Kerry team or a Cork team. We all accept that if we put them out there without any meaningful training, they’re definitely going to get a trimming. That’s what we found with the county U-16s this year.

They put the work in. There was a nice crop of players there this year. Aidan O’Keeffe was over them with Joe Considine and Tony Byrne. They did three nights a week for those that committed. They went down, beat Cork and won the shield. This is my fourth year doing this and it’s the first year we beat a Cork or Kerry team at development squad level. We beat them at U-15 and U-16,” he noted.

Chaplin feels Clare underage development squads are making some progress.

“Apart from Waterford, this is the first time we’ve beaten any other team in four years. We are becoming more competitive. If we can get back competitive, we can then look at taking the next step. There has to be a rotation of competitive teams coming. That hopefully will drive on the U-21 team and feed into the senior team but it will take time,” he said.

Enright believes small playing numbers in Clare, especially rural areas, doesn’t mean high standards cannot be achieved.

“Because we have a small playing base means we can get everyone working on doing the same thing. This year at U-14 is the first group of players that have come through from U-10 to U-14. We’ve a minimum of 30 plus players in every division that we can hand over to the divisions and say ‘this isn’t your squad but here are 30 players that you can start from’. We see ourselves as a network reaching into the schools, the divisions and the clubs. If we get them all doing the same thing, then over time we’ll improve what we’re doing and we’ll refine what we’re doing. We’ll see what’s working and what isn’t working,” he concluded.