Twenty-eleven was an extremely busy and successful year for Coaching & Games in the Royal County, with a veritable plethora of activity taking place around the county. One of the most notable developments was the genesis of U12 and U13 Schools of Excellence. But it was a hectic and fruitful twelve months across the board (between the Schools of Excellence, Go Games, Blitzes, Summer Camps and Development Squads etc.) New Meath Coaching Officer Eamonn Barry and his trusty team continue to sow the seeds for a Meath GAA future that's looking increasingly bright.

It was Eamonn Barry's first year as County Coaching Officer and to suggest that the former county manager had his eyes opened would be no exaggeration. What surprised Eamonn most was the vast amount of work involved at administrative level: "I found it to be a very interesting and very busy year. It's a lot different from what I had previously been doing, when I was coaching various teams on the playing field. I thought I was busy in the old days managing and coaching Dunshaughlin, but I was twice as busy in this post between the actual coaching and the administration - attending monthly County Board meetings as well as all the other meetings from coaching through to Juvenile Board and Minor Board meetings. And, of course, getting to know all the people involved. It was a busy year but we made a lot of progress."

As Coaching Officer, Eamonn effectively serves as the link between the coaching staff at Pairc Tailteann and Meath County Board. The coaching staff comprises three full-time coaches and three part-time coaches, all under Dudley Farrell, who is County Games Development Manager. Dudley is assisted by Christine O'Brien and Maria Kealy, while Jenny Rispin and Debbie Walsh work part-time and Peter Durnin was enlisted in 2011 on a six-month programme as part-time hurling coach. Kit Henry was likewise brought on board as part-time football coach.

"The plan was to regionalise the coaching into different areas and to give specific coaches responsibility for their area and for the clubs in that area. That worked very well," Eamonn notes. "We also had a successful re-launch of the club / school link, especially at Primary School level, but that has also been extended to Secondary Schools.
"We have in the region of 105 coaches on our list who are actively involved in up to 95 Primary Schools in the county. Christine O'Brien was the co-ordinator of that scheme and the idea was to encourage clubs to volunteer to go out and help the teachers and principals in their schools to coach both football and hurling."

Eamonn Barry has been involved in coaching in Meath for 15 years; he was one of those who originally got involved through the late Seamus Heaney from Simonstown, the man credited with starting coaching in the Royal County. Even coming from such a strong coaching background, the new Coaching Officer was surprised to discover the sheer extent of coaching efforts around the county: "Having been involved for so long, I thought I had a good knowledge of it. I thought I'd have known at least 75% of what's going on at coaching level around the county, but by March, 2011 I realised I only knew about 50% of what was taking place.
"Meath Coaching & Games were involved in 30 different projects during the year between schools, Development Squads, coaching courses within the county, etc. There's huge work going into it that most people aren't aware of.

"The most intense time is during the summer months with the county Development Squads from U14 to U17 getting up and running in both football and hurling. Dudley Farrell, myself and Coiste Fe 18 appointed a manager to each squad and he in turn appointed his own team of selectors. Three Blitzes were organised by Leinster Council and Croke Park for each of these squads but interestingly the general opinion is that these Blitzes don't satisfy the needs of the various county teams because you only get 20-minute-a-side games played over the course of one day whereas players are looking for proper, one-hour competitive matches played on separate days. So we organised up to four intercounty challenge matches for each team, which proved very useful.

"Some problems arose due to interference in the squads which meant they didn't have enough time to prepare for those games so we have reviewed that and made recommendations for next year to give them the week off from Monday to Friday, fixture-free, when they are preparing for a match. That's one of the things that came out of this year; there seems to be a glut of underage fixtures during the peak season in summer and that needs to be addressed."

Another really positive development was the genesis of the U12 and U13 Schools of Excellence - the first experience young lads will get of being part of a county Development Squad. "On the first Friday in July we started off the U13 School of Excellence and 90 U13s and 70 U12s turned up for coaching, which was a phenomenal turn-out," Eamonn continues. "All the clubs were invited to send their Top Three players at that level and we ran that through July and August. I took the U12s along with Ian Maguire from Seneschalstown, Vincent Carton from Ashbourne, Eoin Carroll from Walterstown, Phil Fay and Donal McLeoud. PJ Cudden took responsibility for the U13s, ably assisted by Tommy Maguire, Philip Dowdall and Kevin Kealy.

"We also got members of the Meath senior football squad to come out on two nights and help with coaching for all the kids and we finished up with Blitzes in September, where regional teams played each other in competitive matches and the players were all issued with Certificates of Excellence for their participation in the School of Excellence.
"One of the most informative things I learned about these U12s and U13s was that all these boys are also actively involved in competitive soccer and rugby too and that's the challenge being laid down: we are competing for the same pool of players and if we don't provide adequate coaching to fulfil their needs with a regular series of matches every week then these players will go elsewhere."

Daragh O'Byrne was over the Meath U14 Development Squad in 2011 and this group played matches against Monaghan, Louth, Dublin, Westmeath, Kildare and Sligo. Huge numbers of players attended the initial trials before the squad was reduced to 40 and this level of interest proved very encouraging to all concerned. "Up to 110 young lads turned out for trials in Dunganny over a one-month period and we have no worries over the numbers of players looking for the opportunity to wear the Meath jersey.
"In saying that, the only way these players will be developed to the best of their ability is to provide quality coaching both at club and county levels. It's imperative that we provide them with a weekly series of matches," Eamonn stresses.

The U15 Development Squad was run by Eoin Carroll and they too had a very successful campaign where they also competed in three Blitzes and won the U15 tournament organised in Darver by Louth County Board. "One of the disappointing aspects of their season was that they weren't allowed to compete in a Blitz competition in Castelbar in Mayo due to a mix-up in local fixtures in the county on the same weekend," the Coaching Officer notes.

"That was hugely disappointing because it was a great opportunity for this group of players to experience playing against other counties from the west of Ireland, where normally you only get to play against neighbouring counties. It's always nice to play against a county from a different province, especially the likes of Tyrone from the north or Mayo from the west, who are always two of the leading underage football counties in the country."

Finian Murtagh was over the U16 Development Squad and they also did well during the year, although it was disappointing that they were knocked out of the Gerry Reilly Tournament in Oldcastle, failing to reach the final. "The Gerry Reilly Tournament organised by Oldcastle is probably the top U16 county football tournament held in Leinster every year and it always serves as a good guide to let you know where your U16 team stands," Eamonn continues. "We lost to Westmeath in the first round and also lost to Louth in the second round but got back in by beating Dublin. We then had a play-off against Dublin for a place in the final against Westmeath but Dublin won that play-off and Westmeath beat them in the final. The U16s also had matches against Kildare and Longford."

The U17 Development Squad was managed by Kit Henry from Cortown, assisted by Anthony Monaghan, Padraig McDonagh from Kilbride, Tom Hanley from Athboy and Manus Tiernan from Bective. They also enjoyed a successful season, as Eamonn confirms: "They played in three Blitzes and were beaten in the final of the Damien Reid Tournament in Louth. Unfortunately, some of the top U17 players in the county weren't able to play with the squad in that tournament due to injury or club commitments. It's fair to say that players at this level have a busy schedule because many of them are involved in minor and adult teams in their clubs and the competition was possibly held too late in the year as it seems to clash with a lot of end-of-season fixtures within Meath. This group is possibly the most important Development Squad as it provides the yardstick for the following year's county minor team.

"On the administrative end of things, Dudley and the coaching staff also organised coaching courses in both hurling and football at Foundation Level and Level One; a Code of Best Practice course; and a Coaching Seminar in Ashbourne in January.
"One of the highlights of the year was the visit of national hurling co-ordinator Paudie Butler, who came to Walterstown GAA club to speak to people involved in Go Games within the county. Anybody who has ever heard Paudie Butler speak at any conference in the country knows that he is highly respected and the passion he holds for gaelic games would only inspire you to hear the man anytime he speaks. So hopefully we will be able to get Paudie back to the Royal County again next February or March."

Eamonn adds: "One area identified that needs to be improved upon in the county is the introduction of strengthening and conditioning training for all the squads from U14 upwards. All the most successful underage counties in the country - Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Tyrone - have introduced this in the last two or three years and we need to follow suit. It's not enough to introduce it at U17 with a view to minor the following year. Players need to be introduced to it gradually from U14 level up, so that they will develop gradually over the course of four or five years and accumulate the knowledge of how to prepare themselves better to achieve their ultimate goal, which should be to be the best they possibly can.

"Hard work like this will take a lot of time and finance but we need to go down that road or else we will lose further ground on the more successful counties.
"The skilful player also needs to be well-balanced, physically strong and to possess the technical and tactical ability to perform at the highest level.
"Getting to a Leinster minor football final in 2011 and being unluckily defeated by Tipperary in our All-Ireland quarter-final shows that we are not too far behind the top counties.

"The success of our U18 hurlers in an All-Ireland 'B' final shows there are plenty of good hurlers in the county, some of whom are dual players, naturally. It would be fair to say that traditionally Meath has always been a football county but in the last few months a hurling forum has been organised with a view to improving the standard of hurling in the county. There's a huge need for a full-time hurling coach in County Meath. While we had Peter Durnin in as a special project as part-time coach for six months during the year, this needs to be organised on a full-time basis with full-time coaches going in to work in all the schools in the hurling clubs in Meath.

"A lot of the hurling clubs in the county are doing their best to improve the standard of hurling in Meath but this is something that will only happen if everybody is prepared to put their shoulder to the wheel. Brendan O'Sullivan from Kilkenny and George O'Connor from Wexford have been working within the county with the hurling committee and with Dudley Farrell for the last three months and hopefully many of the recommendations of this committee will be adopted.
"Another change we made this year was that U12 football and hurling were introduced to Go Games on a non-competitive basis, whereby every child has the right to play in the match.

"The aim of the coaching progression at U8, U10 and U12 level is to ensure that every player by the age of twelve in hurling can play off his left of right side and in football that he can catch, kick and handpass with his right or left foot or hand. If all our young players were able to do this by the age of twelve, we would be able to produce well-grounded, technical county players going forward.
"Finally, I'd like to thank my predecessor as Coaching Officer, Brian Carberry, for all his help and advice during the year and Dudley, Christine, Maria, Debbie, Jenny, Kit and Peter for the tremendous amount of work they did during the year. To all the people in the clubs that I came into contact with during the year, my thanks for their help and support and I look forward to continuing in this position in 2012. As the saying goes: 'A Lot Done, A Lot More To Do'!" Tweet

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