There is a directive on the Go-Games from Croke Park to be played at U8,U10 & U12. This simply can not happen. I believe if we take the competitive edge out of these kids at 10 & 12 we will loose them to other sports where they can get compeitiive action like soccer rugby etc. The Go-Games are more difficult to organise which will affect smaller clubs where the extra heads just arent there to help with the extra organising. I dont believe that this will improve the game in Donegal by that much. Recently our club competed an U10 turnament in Belfast with teams from every county in Ulster. There was a cup section and a shield section. St. Eunans ended up playing Glenties in the Final and Fanad Gaels ended up playing St. Vincents from Dublin in the shield final. These were the only four clubs out of 20 that didnt play the Go-Games and all four clubs were of a much higher standard than the other clubs. I think this tells it's own tail on how effective the Go-Games are. From being involved in U8,10 & 12 for a number of years and seeing the Go-Games in action I think that it would be a step in the wrong direction for Gaelic Football in Donegal.

TheTrout (Donegal) - Posts: 16 - 15/12/2009 11:01:05    514246

Trout, i think its a great idea!! the two most successful counties in the past decade Kilkenny and tyrone both have no competitive competition below under 12s i think its great, just because there is no competition doesnt not mean game will no be competitive jyst means there would be no county champiopns!!

mBnG Gael (Donegal) - Posts: 187 - 15/12/2009 13:54:44    514399

Kids should play football up to the age of 14 purely for enjoyment. The ones who want competition are the so called adults living out fantasy manager **** and pretending they are the next Micky Hartes. Let the kids enjoy the games and from sixteen onwards they will get enough pressure. How many wonder kids did we see winning matches single handed at U14, thus ruining it for the other kids. Funny thing happens to them around 18, the rest catch up and wonder kid might be lucky to be playing junior B when he's 21.

ontheroad (None) - Posts: 530 - 15/12/2009 13:55:36    514400

well said, i am imvolved in u8 for 2 years and the improvment in in the kids skills from being taught the traditional and competitive way is great .
WHY ROB THEM OF THE CHANCE TO WIN AND LEARN THE PROPER GAME BEFORE THEY ARE 14 ,THEY WILL GET FEDUP AND LEAVE FOR OTHER SPORTS.
IF ITS NOT BROKE DONT FIXIT.

manager2 (Donegal) - Posts: 208 - 15/12/2009 14:21:28    514437

Yeah Kilkenn and Tyrone are the most successfull counties in the country this past 10 years but it's not because they play Go-Games it's because their county board have put in a structure, from devolopment squads from U13 upwards to several county coaches going into schools and clubs, invested time and money into coaching in schools (primary & secondary). Our county board are looking for the handy way out as usual.

Do kids that compete at under 10 & 12 not get any enjoyment out of playing GAA. I do agree that U8's shouldnt be competitive but take a look around the county teams like Kilcar, Glenties, St. Eunans, Fanad, Termon and many more go all over Ulster playing Blitzes and being successful at them. I do agree all kids should take part but not like this our A & B sections work fine.

Did the Termon U10's not enjoy beating Crossmaglen in 2009
Did the Fanad U10's not enjoy beating St. Gauls in 2009
Did the Glenties U10's not enjoy beating St. Vincents in Dublin
Did the St. Eunans U10's not enjoy beating beating St Pauls.

I mean the problem in Donegal football is not the 8's 10's & 12's it the 16's 18's and 21's and I think the county board should address the problems there and not be messing with something that is functioning fine.

Just to address another point Donegal is one of the biggest soccer counties in Ireland and if we loose these kids at 8 10 & 12 to soccer or rugby then we will not get them back.

TheTrout (Donegal) - Posts: 16 - 15/12/2009 15:39:34    514529

the reason they put strucutres in place was to put emphasis on development not competition!! if its year round enjoyable and develops skill confidence and aims to promote the game i say give it a go!! there also should be U13,14,15,16,17 regional development panels for selection to county panels training every three weeks on a saturday in a 3 hour slot for the main development of players!!

mBnG Gael (Donegal) - Posts: 187 - 15/12/2009 16:10:22    514569

Go games also allow for the weaker chrildren to be involved, to get a regular touch of the ball and to gain confidence by having fun. In competitive under age games the less talented kids stay on the line and lose interest. I believe there should be nothing competitive before u14. Concentrate on the basic skills with simple drills.Gaa is a simple game being coached by complicated people. The more players that a club or county has at u14 and minor, the more successful they will be.

gpa.no.way (Louth) - Posts: 104 - 15/12/2009 19:18:09    514821

Go Games is the only way to go forward. I am sure the Donegal clubs enjoyed wining thier games in the Ulster invitational tournaments, but how many kids actually got to play iin those games. Sure Glenties had about 20 players on the sideline during the u12 Co final this year. Those players will soon get fed up.

just4fun (Donegal) - Posts: 13 - 15/12/2009 22:33:34    515065

Not a very nice comment about fantasy managers, ontheroad. All people I know who are involved in underage management are extremely hardworking, caring and very sincere individuals who give their time to the kids of their clubs in a totally voluntary capacity, the majority of whom have undergone coaching courses to teach the little kids the basic skills initially and then to show them how to employ their skills in whatever sort of games the controlling board dictate be played and if that involves a competitive edge at present at u12, so be it. Re Go Games, there is a lot of merit in Go-Games and they should not be dismissed out of hand and probably is the way forward at u8 and u10s but I would take issue with them being the way forward at u12 level. I think that to take the competitive edge away from kids at this age is wrong and especially to suddenly introduce this would be severely damaging to their development. Take a scenario where a youngster has played very competitively at u12 level in 09, is then asked to play non competitive or near enough non competitive in '10, then reverts back to competive playing at u13 level in '11. this does not bear thinking about from a player development perspective. If Go games at u12 level is to be brought in by way of a motion at Congress next April it needs to be introduced in a phased basis starting in 2011 with u8s and u10s and perhaps partially introducing it in the following years at u12 level. Re Go Games teaching kids the basic skills ect ect, all clubs that take the coaching of their underage seriously do this anyway using both feet ect, ect, doing proper drills ect, ect regardless of what sort of format is employed by the governing body. A lot of talk on this post is about helping the weak player, which of course is of great importance, but we, as coaches also have a duty to further the talents of our naturally gifted, better players if we are to ever become a force again at any level of intercounty football and I do not think we can achieve this with the Go Games concept alone at u12 level - perhaps we need to look at a dual system of championship and Go Games blitzes. Go Games alone at u12 level only plays into the hands of those clubs who do no work with their youngsters, as they will not be exposed when playing this 'pass the parcel' type football. I agree with TheTrout and what he says re Tyrone and Kilkenny. I wonder what they do in the real home of Football, Kerry? I can assure you its not Go Games

ThePike (Donegal) - Posts: 156 - 16/12/2009 00:44:55    515165

Pike check out the Kerry coaching and games report 2009 which you can view on the Kerry GAA website. They see the benefit of GoGames.

Glenman (Donegal) - Posts: 183 - 16/12/2009 10:44:19    515263

Ok lets say we introduce Go Games, some posts here are talking about giving weaker kids a chance to play and to get them more involved. What happenes to the stronger/better players?? Have they to be taken back a level to suit weaker kids?

Do you think clubs are going to mix their U10 & U12 teams to have weaker players playing along with the more devoloped players. Come on. Competitive or Non-competitive the clubs are still trying to devolop their strongest teams with their strongest players to win matches.

On paper it looks and sounds fine but in reality clubs are still going to have the more devoloped players on the team.
Perhaps we could introduce Go Games in conjunction with keeping the competitive tournaments for 10's and 12's for a year and assess how it actually runs in through out the year. At least this way it wont be a hugh shock for players that are used to competitive action.

TheTrout (Donegal) - Posts: 16 - 16/12/2009 13:12:06    515364

if this directive is let happen then I fear for the future of football.As a underage football coach for the last number of years one of the most important skills that can be taught to a child is awareness on the field,By playing 9 and 11 aside games with players not allowed to move out of their area it is madness.It takes along time to coach this 1 skill.Who that have seen the great runs and support play by backs in recent years want to see this gone out of our game.In my own club we have entered 2 under 12 teams and 2 under 14 teams that last few years where bye all kids get plenty of games,We have trained up our own coaches to a high standard with games for all players being to the forefront.As PIKE touched on some clubs in my county and maybe donegal are not putting in the work for one reason or another part of this is that their is not enough being done to train up the coaches within the clubs.As The TROUT said the reason why kerry and kilkenny are so good is that they all work together and I will give one example of this Jack o conor has coached most of the club coaches in kerry at some stage.Their is a competitive streak in us all it needs to be looked after not supressed in this go games formula.if any of ye have kids playing outside or kids over and their is a game going on outside they are playing on their own what do they want to do ,WIN.Why because that is the competive side that is in us all it is part of our makeup.My own county voted nearly 100 per cent against it at the recent county convention and I hope that other countys follow suite

behindtheditch (Galway) - Posts: 333 - 23/12/2009 16:02:06    521468

there is advantages to this in that a greater number of kids will get to play games rather than be subs all the time. also with the blitzes the kids wont be playing the same teams all the time. the disadvantage is that kids who having been playing in the old format since they were 7 now have to revert to a new set of rules. what should have happened is that all kids starting from U-8/9 would play the go games from 2010 and continue on and the ones currently in the system keep going it would only take 4 years to implement and would cause less confusion for the kids now playing

shaneanthony (Sligo) - Posts: 277 - 28/12/2009 20:37:59    521729

Yes I agree that there is some advantages with the go games, ,to me it all goes back to club coaches being coached on some of the go games ideas i.e more players getting more game time and more time spent on skills and player development.My own club played against 14 differrent teams this year as our club along with many others are giving all their players game time.I will say it again the instinct or will to win is part of the human makeup it is total madness you could say political correctness gone mad in trying to take this out of our kids instead we should be doing as much as we can to develop this natural human instinct.In an u10 100 metre race between two young kids of the same speed it is the kid who has the bigger will to win that always does what is wrong with this

behindtheditch (Galway) - Posts: 333 - 29/12/2009 14:49:03    521941

I couldn't agree more with the two previous posts from Galway and Sligo. The way the GAA is trying to introduce Go-Games is crazy, as I said in an earlier post, children who have not played the GO-Games system at u8 or u10 should not have this system imposed on them in 2010/2011 at u12 level. They should continue to play with what they are used to and Go Games should be introduced from u8 level in 2011 in a phased basis, IF it is approved at Congress next April. The way this directive is being shoved at counties says a lot about the morons on the Games development committee at Croke Park. Surely they must realise that to phase this in, would be the logical way forward.
It is refreshing to see sensible and well thought out posts like the ones from 'behindtheditch' and 'shaneanthony' on this topic. It is obvious these are genuine people who are involved in the coaching of young teams and like myself are disillusioned with what is coming from Croke Park.
In actual fact GOGames will, in my opinion, if allowed to go ahead, contribute to a significant number of our more skilled u12 players going totally to soccer and rugby as soccer here at this age group is very competitive and this is what 10,11 and 12 year old kids thrive on. It would be a shame if this is allowed to happen.

ThePike (Donegal) - Posts: 156 - 29/12/2009 17:18:23    522053

After go games being reluctantly accepted by the regional boards on advice of coaching officer Mc Inaw despite vast majority of clubs oppossed to these at u12 level it now transpires after last Thursdays meeting in Ballybofey with Croke Park officials that Mr. Mc Inaw(probably mistakingly) misinformed the boards as to Croke Parks envisaged format of Go games at u12 level. The Croke Park officials said that there could still be competitive small sided mini leagues at u12 level. This is completely contrary to what we now have in place where there is absaloutely no competition at all at u12 level. WE ARE NOW IN A SITUATION WHERE WE ARE GOING TO BE THE ONLY COUNTY IN IRELAND WHERE COMPETITION IS TOTALLY TAKEN OUT OF U12 FOOTBALL.
Was talking to 2 Northern Board officers today and apparently Coiste na nOg are not going to change this ridicilous situation even though they freely admit they got this totally wrong and that it will be to the detrement of young footballers at this level.
YET ANOTHER BLOODY SHAMBLES

ThePike (Donegal) - Posts: 156 - 15/03/2010 16:52:03    588736

WE ARE NOW GOING TO BE THE ONLY COUNTY IN IRELAND EVEN UNDER GO GAMES THAT ARE NOT ALLOWING EVEN MINIMAL COMPETITION AT U12S. Croke Park officials at briefing meeting last thurs in Ballybofey and they had envisaged and had informed people in each county responsible for implementing go games that mini competitive league were perfectly acceptable at u12 level under go games rules. Unfortunately this information was not passed on to the clubs who reluctantly agreed through the regional boards to implement go games in a totally non competitive environment.
Was talking to 2 northern board officers today and they say that this mistake is not going to be changed despite the fact that it is wrong.
Yet another fine shambles!

ThePike (Donegal) - Posts: 156 - 15/03/2010 17:35:35    588824

what will these children do when they loose their first final or game at u14? loosing isnt easy at any age group. why dont we let kids get used to the loosing feeling cause it takes alot of getting used to.
dont wrap them up i bubble wrap.. they will soon be adults.

winger (Donegal) - Posts: 86 - 15/03/2010 17:51:20    588853

Trout sush up there!!

Go-game are the only way we can keep our players!I've been involved in the club for a few years now at underage and it breaks my heart seeing weans who trained hard all season hardly ever missed a single one sitting on the bench and not even getting a sniff of the ball.I've seen the go-games in the camoige in Derry,my young cousin plays, and it does wonders!Every young cub gets a shot and the craic on the bus back it great!I started playing with 40 we've 6 of them still there.you get fed up sitting on the sideline. and Trout you're not pulling the talented players back you're levelling the playing field and giving everyone a fair shot letting them all develope there skills! and here Donegal football isn;t the best so what are we losing trying this? I remember the days we played the mini-7s and blitz being the best days out really build the team as a unit and I never had so much fun, winning county medals are great believe me but spending the day in B-bofey watching teams from all over the county playing teams from all over the county was great. And there is the main thing that the weans have fun and everyone gets there time playing for there club and I think the go-games are the way to achieve this.

lk (Donegal) - Posts: 181 - 15/03/2010 19:38:20    589031