Tipperary Coaching and Games putting in the hard work

By Shane Brophy

When it comes to judging the state of Tipperary hurling and football, there rarely is a middle-ground!

When the county is going well, everything is rosy, but when Tipperary are struggling what we are doing is wrong and must be changed.

The latter has been a regular comment over the last three years as Tipperary have slipped back into the pack at senior level and underage teams have had their difficulties. When that happens, the next point of criticism after the management, is that the structures in the county need changing, county board officers out, overhaul of our coaching structures etc…

Every other county are doing things better than Tipperary. Limerick are the county setting the way at the moment, followed by Cork, and now the likes of Offaly following their Under 20 Football success last year, and now their minor hurlers are in a first All-Ireland final since 1989.

However, it wasn’t long ago that Tipperary were the ones setting the way nationally, being among the first to establish development squads in the mid-noughties in both hurling and football, and it yielded a plentiful bounty of players that went onto have great senior careers in both codes, that many won underage hurling and football medals was a bonus.

However, “If you stay still, you get left behind,” admitted Kevin Halley, Games Manager for Tipperary GAA.

“Every county is always moving in some direction; at times it might not be the best direction, but they are moving. Everyone is trying to steal a march.”

Tipperary are in that stage where they are working hard to improve standards all the time. Go to Dr Morris Park in Thurles any Saturday morning between 8.30am and 1.00pm, and you’ll see the very best young talents in the county put through their paces on the various development squads, but if you were listening to some people, Limerick were the only county who have cleared Saturday mornings to focus on developing their players. Tipp have been long doing the same but when you aren’t winning you won’t hear that.

Kevin Halley and Paudie Malone have been hearing it regularly in their roles as Games Development Administrators (GDA) with Halley this year being promoted to County Games Manager after the retirement of Dinny Maher at the end of last year. It’s water off the ducks back for them as they put into place the development plan for players from the ages of fourteen to seventeen, in both hurling and football.

“When a senior team loses a match, and people think there is a problem in the primary schools, that is just sad. It’s kind ad-hoc comment that isn’t really researched to be honest,” Halley added.

“It might be a comment off the cuff and to be fair the GAA cohort in Tipperary are very good people and are passionate about what they want to achieve, as we all are, but ultimately our perspective is focusing on the process, the outcomes will happen. If we have a good process in place, we will have positive outcomes and that is the key and the shift we have in relation to what we are doing.”

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

To that end, Rockwell Rovers clubman Halley believes Tipperary’s underage structures are in a good place and will yield its true benefits in the coming years. However, green shoots are already visible with this years under 17s, with the minor hurling panel reaching an All-Ireland final while the Celtic Challenge team won their competition, and the minor footballers won the Daryl Darcy Cup and played five competitive championship games. That’s almost one hundred players playing at a high level and being extremely competitive against the best from other counties.

The Tipperary minor hurling panel for next Sunday’s All Ireland Final contains 22 players that played in the successful 2019 Tony Forrestal and Sonny Walsh U14 panels, with a number of others who were on those squads having made the minor football panel this year, with some of the remainder having chosen to focus on other sports in the meantime.

That rate of player retention in three years is impressive, but also allows for scope of players that develop physically later than others to be added to squads in subsequent years.

“The retainment level is so high which is an indication that players are enjoying it,” said Paudie Malone, a native of Portroe and GDA for North Tipperary.

“On a cycle basis you won’t have strong coming through all the time, but we are very happy where we are now at under 14, 15, and 16.”

This year is the first time Tipperary Development Squads are continuing their strength & conditioning (S&C) programs right through the summer. S&C is almost becoming as important as technical ability in modern GAA as the body has to be able to sustain the stresses it comes under.

It’s no surprise that this extension of the development squad program coincides with the first year of Tipperary County Board’s collaboration with Setanta College, based in Thurles, one of the worldwide leaders in player and coach development.

“Our collaboration with Setanta, from an athletic development point of view, has really come to the fore over the last six months,” Halley continued.

“We have always had a program per say but it was not as dynamic or as joined-up as it is now.”

Tipperary’s player development plan follows a ‘Triangle Approach’ which has three strands, Athletic development, On-field development, and Subsidiary support, the latter focusing on developing the person, an example of that happened last Thursday when over 150 academy players, hurling and football, attended an online nutritional workshop.

“We are educating them to be as good as the possibly be,” Halley added, but stated that it also comes down to personal responsibility on the player and his parents on how far they want to commit to try and play for Tipperary.

“It is a huge responsibility playing for Tipperary GAA. There is huge reward, and we are totally invested in them,” he said.

COACHING

To have good development squads, not only do you need players and a plan, but you also need quality coaches to implement it. Committing to a development squad isn’t as demanding as at inter-county senior level but it isn’t far off it.

Tipperary development squads, from under 14, 15 & 16, operate ten months of the year from October to August, with a winter program for the first five months and a summer program for the remainder. That requires commitment, not only from the players and their parents, but also the coaches.

“We try to identify good quality people within the divisional structures, the clubs, the divisional boards, and we go after them,” Halley revealed.

“That is not to say we don’t get them all. We might get thirty or forty percent, and then we will go and try and recruit the best we can.

“We would always like to have two or three really strong people and then have enough with each age group where there will be a role for everyone, be they strong coaches, strong administrators, strong communicators, strong organisers.”

As with any other area in life, everyone with ambition would always like to climb the ladder and underage coaching is no different as an under 14 coach today might well have ambitions to be a minor, under 20 or senior coach down the line.

“We usually give them a pathway,” said Paudie Malone.

“At the end of every year we do a review, and we talk about what went well, what needs to happen next year, and we try and keep the core group of people that were with that age group with them again. We might add a few different voices to an age group to keep it a bit different.”

Halley added: “That comes in consultation with the management team. You have experienced and intelligent people. It’s a collaborative approach about how we operate and where we are going.”

FUTURE

In terms of the future, while supporters will measure underage success, for the Tipperary Coaching & Games Development team, it will be about how many well-trained and developed players they bring through from under 14 that will go onto wear the blue and gold at senior level in a process driven approach.

“I know we have the talent,” Halley added.

“We focus on ourselves and the key areas from a developmental perspective, and developing the person, will make them a stronger person when it comes to adult level to deal with the stress and strains on a human level to play at the top level.”