YOU will never replace the buzz of championship and winning championship matches as a player, but coaching is as close as you will get.
Heading into 2024 I find myself in a very privileged position as Cork minor football manager, more by accident than design if I’m honest. A huge honour for myself, my club and my family.
I had been heavily involved with my club Carbery Rangers at senior level up to the turn of the decade and felt it was time for a break to recharge the batteries and recover the appetite. Saturday mornings with my son Philip’s U9 team was as much football as I needed in 2021. I wasn’t really missing the club scene and was enjoying being ‘a hurler on the ditch’.
An unexpected phone call in the autumn of ’21 put the wheels in motion for what has become the next chapter in my coaching career. The call was from Cork football co-ordinator Conor Counihan asking would I be interested in getting involved with the Cork West U15 squad for 2022? He explained that it would only be Saturdays and should not be a huge imposition. There was never a question in my mind. I owed this man from way back when he coached me during my time with the Cork seniors. I got a lot from the red jersey. It was payback time.
Now, I will openly admit back then that I wasn’t a huge fan of the squad system, feeling that it was giving players the feel that they had made it long before they should and that once you were on it, it was nearly impossible to be thrown off. My experience since then has been far different from those misguided ideas. James McCarthy and Paudie Crowley, the local GDAs here in West Cork, had assembled a talented bunch of local U14 players and it was time for them to move on. Brian McCarthy from Drimoleague, JC Daly from Drinagh and myself were entrusted with the responsibility of guiding these young lads through the next stage of their development.
I never played minor with Cork. I was starting to grow into myself and improve though as I came to the required age and was invited in for a trial by Fr McCarthy, the then Cork minor boss, at the Mon field way up the north side in the depths of winter in late ’94. I didn’t cover myself in glory and got knocked out to boot. That was the end of that for me. Nowadays it is a far more rounded process. Little did I think that I’d be with a good chunk of those U14 players that we met for the first time in late ’21 at my home pitch in Rosscarbery for the next three years.
The squad system nowadays for young and up-and-coming footballers is a great experience. If you told me I’d get the chance to play Kerry, Dublin or Galway at the age of 15, I’d have bitten your hand off. Back in 2022, at U15 there were four squads across the county – West, Mid, North and City/East. They all had their own coaching groups and we played each other at regular intervals. It was proving very enjoyable; the young lads were like sponges and we were seeing that there was quite a nice bit of talent all around the county. The inter-county season for them, which consisted of five guaranteed matches, was fast approaching when again I got a call from ‘the boss’ asking would I coordinate/ manage the four squads for the remainder of the season. I jumped at it. It was new. The players were the best of the best and it was different to the club scene.
We travelled the length and breadth of the country, playing games and seeing how they do it in other counties. Seeing their facilities, their training centres, talking to opposition coaches, we were all learning. We had over 120 players across the four squads that year and it's amazing looking back how they have changed in the intervening time. Young fellas grow at different rates and gain the required confidence at different stages. Some of our best back then are not even part of the panel now and vice versa. That squad season finished in late August and the squads were disbanded until late ’22. I was enjoying it and was happy to continue on with the group for 2023 at U16 level.
Those four squads had to be whittled down to two squads which meant going from 120 to around 70 players. A challenging operation, to say the least. The North amalgamated with the City/East and the West joined with the Mid. The great thing about it was all the coaches stayed involved, too. We reiterated to both players and parents that the door was never closed and it materialised as such over the time. Some guys that were deselected early on improved and were brought back in. The 2023 inter-county season served its purpose with regard to the development of the players from all the different aspects – football, physical development, education on diet and nutrition and managing their workload.
So, as you can see, one thing kind of rolled onto the next. All of a sudden, it’s 2024 and we have four months to prepare for Kerry in the Munster minor football championship away on April 30th. The process between now and then will be busy but I am lucky that over the last two and a half years I have worked with very good people across the county, all of whom have continued in some capacity as part of the management team for ’24. The pats on the back are coming hard and fast at the moment but we all know the old saying ‘there’s only a few inches between a pat on the back and a kick up the arse’.
It’s an honour for us all to have the responsibility of steering the future of Cork football at minor level this season. At worst, we will send these players back to their clubs as better footballers. At best, we will identify a half a dozen who could possibly go on and represent our county at senior level. If silverware accompanies that process even better.
- Given how busy life is going to get, it’s the right time to take a break from this column to, hopefully, give the sports editor plenty to write about in the months ahead. Thanks to all the readers who have engaged with this column. I enjoyed the challenge, a new one to me, and now it’s time to focus on my latest challenge.
