substandard wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 12:44 am
The Down game will be difficult. The likelihood is Down might give panel members game time, and these will be lads anxious to make a statement. Questions about commitment or attitude are moot at this stage- pride might dig a result or performance out, but the rest of the year will also be an issue. The championship will plod along, and yet the last 4 will be 95% predictable. The club record in Leinster is no great shakes. It would appear that football is on a plateau, or if you want to be less kind, gone stagnant.
When there is no single identifiable cause for a problem, then there is no single solution. This means having to tease out specific areas and take the necessary steps, but this has to be done across the board. Change the manager. Change the S/C coaches. Change the personnel with development squads. Change the development squad criteria. Change championship times and formats.
If something isn't working, change is the silver bullet that will cure everything. Keep changing. And yet, with all these changes, things seem to end up the same. At some point, you have to wonder why? It's said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and again and expect a different outcome. Anyone of the above changes, in isolation, won't make feck all difference. But if we look at the word improve, for a moment.
Without giving anyone the boot (hypothetically), how might the individuals or groups involved above improve? What tweaks, additions or subtractions might lead to improvement?
The u20 footballers were rightfully celebrated, as was the management. The current u20 hurlers have high expectations, and some serious talent. But one, or even two, golden crops won't sustain a senior county team in the long term. Michael Duignan came in as chair to huge fanfare and bringing sweeping changes. The Faithful Fields is a fantastic facility. Shane Lowry's status and input was the envy of every mid-ranking county. There has been notable highs during his tenure, but now it seems faultlines are showing. If the u20s hurlers get derailed, if Offaly fail to overcome Laois in the Joe McDonagh, then it will seem that all the positivity and momentum will have stalled.
And stalling would be the worse thing that could happen. Because if you aren't moving forward, even incrementally, you'll find yourself going backwards very quickly. And this doesn't even mean that everything is being done particularly badly, rather that other counties are doing the very same things, only slightly better.
Through involvement in 3 different development squads over almost 20 years, I noticed a few patterns. It's a delicate balancing act to try and improve all of the players. If you get settled on a starting 15 too early, and they get disproportionate game time, or become a default tournament selection, then their improvement graph slows down. On the challenge circuit, you'd come up against some counties where you'd recognise a lot of the team, and you knew if you weren't starting strong, you were going to get a rough time. Likewise, you'd come up against counties that you'd see a 50:50 pattern emerge, where they'd have different selections each time, and you'd go away thinking where'd number X come out of, he looked serious but I hadn't seen him before. Certain counties wouldn't look up to much, but through 'getting their act together', suddenly would appear with a very competitive minor team. And even at that, take a moment and think, how many stand-out minors you'd have seen playing in minor All-Irelands, and you'd never hear of them again?
In a ridiculously long-winded effort to get to the point I'm trying to make, change for change's sake, or knee-jerk reaction, isn't necessarily the correct thing in all cases. One thing that can't stand in the way of change is ego. Because ego won't allow room for improvement. And that's where I think the key focus should be: improvement. Because we evolve through improvement. Players train to improve, to play systems better. If the system isn't good enough, it's up to the coaching staff to improve it. Small tweaks can make big improvements. But there are many areas for improvement. If people are willing to adapt, make changes, and look to improve, then the whole picture will improve. But you can't stand back admiring the odd success, nor bury your head in the sand if things aren't going right. Because the counties that are overtaking you are doing the same things- they're just improving faster.
