New schools development structures the way forward

One of the most obvious ways of improving Clare’s underage football record is to concentrate on coaching and development work in the county’s secondary schools. St Flannan’s College in Ennis is the only Clare school who compete in Corn Uí Mhuirí, the Munster A colleges senior football tournament.
Almost every year, at least six of the quarter-finalists in this competition are from Kerry or Cork and the same statistic regularly applies in the Munster B Colleges Championship.
Kerry and Cork minor footballers are therefore exposed to a much higher level of schools football than their Clare counterparts.These Kerry and Cork schools compete in the U-15 A and U-16½ Munster Colleges Championships so by the time they play minor for their counties, they have years of high-level football behind them, along with coaching and competition provided by their involvement in county underage development squads.
Finally, Clare has copped on to this approach and next month, a West Clare Colleges team will compete in Corn Uí Mhuirí, where they will play Killorgin and Macroom, who were beaten in the 2010 final earlier this year. A West Clare combined colleges team will also compete in the U-15A Munster Championship, while it is envisaged that a team will be entered into the U16½ championship next year. The four West Clare secondary schools that incorporate the amalgamation are from Kilmihil, Kilrush, Kilkee and Kildysart.
Clare County Board games development administrator (GDA) John Enright is managing the project and he is keen that the same template will apply to North Clare colleges next year or in 2012.
“It would still be our long-term goal to have the colleges in North and West Clare competing in the Corn Uí Mhuirí but with the economic climate now, teachers’ backs are to the walls as regards finance and substitute teachers. So their priority wouldn’t be football but maybe by working with the clubs, somewhere down the line we’ll get them in as well,” he suggested.
The Kilkee clubman believes playing Munster colleges A football can only improve Clare’s best youngsters.
“What I want to do is expose all of our potentially best players to an equal level of football and to the highest possible level of football that you can get in Munster. The problem with Clare is that our highest standard of underage A football is probably at best B or possibly C in Kerry or Cork. The best coaching you can get is playing against fellas that are faster or stronger than you. You either sink or swim,” Enright added.
David O’Shea (Kilrush) is the manager of the West Clare Corn Uí Mhuirí team, while Joe Garry (Cooraclare) is the trainer.
“Joe knew I was working at this for a couple of years and when we got in, he rang me up and said ‘right, when are we starting? We can’t let this go until they go back to school. I’ll train them. It’s important we get it right the first year’. So Joe agreed to train them but he wanted an outside manager because you’ve four schools involved,” he explained.
Following discussions with minor club managers in West Clare, it was decided that the Corn Uí Mhuirí panel would train on Monday nights in Cooraclare.
“We’ve six weeks of training done. The first night there was 19 there, which wasn’t too bad but then it went over 30. The template is there and what we have to do is be ready for when the players do come along so that we’re not trying to catch up,” he noted.
John is adamant that improving coaching and competition at second-level are key ways to improving underage football in the county.
“I think the schools is the best place to get them. If you look at any strong county, they’re coming through the schools. If we get the West competing at U-15A, U-16½ and in Corn Uí Mhuirí and the North the exact same, all your underage county managers have to do is go to these matches and they’ll see them all in one go. You’ve got St Flannan’s competing as well,” he said.
West Clare Colleges will play their two Corn Uí Mhuirí group games in November, while some of the same players will be involved in the Munster U-17 development squad tournament in October.
A West Clare team will also compete in the U-15A Munster Schools Championship and this team is being trained by James Murrihy.
They are due to play Clonmel in the first round next Wednesday.
The First Year Colleges Project, funded by the Clare County Board and Munster Council, is also entering its second year in West Clare.
“It’s the same four schools in the west training together. They train for 12 weeks leading up to Christmas and for 12 weeks after Christmas,” John Enright explained.
The plan is that the first-year panel will make up the U-15A panel when they are in second year, before eventually graduating to the U-16½ and Corn Uí Mhuirí teams as they get older.
“On top of that, this week we’re starting the U-15 Club Divisional Championship next week. We divide the county into six regions. You’re going in training with numbers, which is good, especially for a player from a smaller club,” Enright maintained.
The U-15 regional development squad tournament was first held earlier this year in January and February.
“We said we’d do it every year but not in January and February. We want to keep January and February for regional squad and development squad work. They have a minimum of one training session per week and a match at the weekend,” he stated.
Each regional squad has at least four mentors, one of whom is a current or former Clare senior footballer.
“We’ve got a county player involved with each division to try and create that county link. For example, Gordon Kelly is over Mid-Clare, David Tubridy is involved with West Clare, Laurence Healy with North Clare, Gary Brennan is with South Clare and former county player Joe Considine is involved with the Ennis divisional team,” he added.
The coaching structure starts at U-12 level, where players are coached regionally, although nobody is dropped from the panel, while smaller clubs are encouraged to send as many players as they can to these sessions.
“What I want to do is to leave an overall template there so no matter who’s in charge or who is doing this job, the template can be easily followed.
“You’ll have people within clubs that have been educated with us for two or three years,” John Enright concluded.