Offaly Underage Coaching and Development

[Offaly Hero]

https://www.offalyexpress.ie/sport/gaa/ ... rs-9055138

There are a number of points in this article that are very concerning and that require much closer critical analysis beyond the praise worthy headline.

The most concerning part of this article is not the new partnership in and of itself. It is this:
Offaly had a coaching staff of 13 but this is now down to 6 and may be reduced to four in the coming week.
And:
We had two different Heads of Performance and now have none.

Those are extraordinary figures. For years we were told that Offaly needed to invest in coaching, player development and a proper high-performance pathway. Now the coaching staff has more than halved, may fall to just four, and the county has gone from two Heads of Performance to none. That is a huge reduction in Offaly’s internal coaching and high-performance capacity. It is particularly difficult to understand the staff reductions when Offaly’s Coaching & Games expenditure increased from €453,445 to €574,445 in 2025, while the Condron Concrete sponsorship was announced as funding the Coaching & Games Development programme.
How has this been allowed to happen? Was this a deliberate decision? Was it financial? Were posts simply left vacant?
Who made the decision that this level of staffing was sufficient?


If there are now no Heads of Performance, who has overall responsibility for the physical development of Offaly players? Who is coordinating the pathway from U14 through minor and U20? Who ensures that S&C, athletic development, workload, maturation and player monitoring are integrated with the football and hurling programme?
Those responsibilities do not disappear because the positions disappear.

At the same time as our own internal structure is being reduced, the curical task of underage physical development is being outsourced. There is nothing wrong with outside expertise, but is this genuinely adding to the Offaly system, or is it replacing capacity that Offaly has allowed to disappear? What are metrics that Setanta will be measured against? How much are they being paid? That distinction is crucial. We have been down the outsourcing road before with AIT. The lesson should have been that outside expertise must strengthen Offaly’s own structures, not substitute for them.

There is no doubt that recent underage minor hurling results and the U-20 team from this year are extremley concerning and that some review of our underage structures was required. However I have grave concerns about the proposed approach.
However, why has Offaly gone from 13 coaches to potentially four, and from two Heads of Performance to none, and why was that allowed to happen?
That deserves a clear answer from our County Board.

[private joker]

Seems like a huge turnover in employees. A lot are leaving for the wrong reasons from what I've heard very reluctantly leaving.
There is a huge HR problem and people need to be pulled up as to why so many are leaving.

[Jim Troy]

I don’t think they are fantastically well paying jobs to be fair. There will always be a turnover when that is the case

[Anon444]

I’ve heard from some well placed sources that the Coaching Officer and Coiste na nOg chair plan to switch roles at the County Board AGM. Is this normal? Surely, it’s not in the nature of the 5 year terms rule to do this switch, as it’ll be the exact same with no change, due to how closely linked these jobs have become in the county set-up. I personally think a fresh, respected voice is always welcome and don’t agree with the intentions behind this decision.

Different story if no one is there to do these roles, but I’m not sure that that’ll be the case.

[private joker]

I don’t think they are fantastically well paying jobs to be fair. There will always be a turnover when that is the case

They not , but it's a good enough salary.
The reasons for leaving have nothing to with salary from what I can see as 1 former employee is gone to another county doing the same job. Another is leaving to take a job with substantial less of a salary.

[jimbob17]

There are concerning elements around aspects of this. Firstly, from a HR perspective, are there reasons that so many are leaving in the volumes they are leaving at the same time? It certainly is unusual. If the monetary recompense for such roles are not great, there will be a degree of change within these roles to certain extent but losing 7-9 staff at same time is certainly a concern. Does the salary explain all or are there other reasons? If Leinster GAA / Offaly and the clubs are putting up significant sums of money for such salaries, you'd imagine that there would be some form of HR involvement by Leinster GAA to ascertain the reasons why so many are leaving at same time. If there are some leaving Offaly to work with other counties in similar roles as stated, then you'd wonder why. No idea what backdrop to this is but based on what PJ suggests, there are definitely concerns.

On the issue of Performance Leads or Heads of Performance being removed, with some employees in situ, does this make much sense? Where is the accountability?

From the Setanta College input, and from the reference of Padraig Boland's point in the article, I'd have some concerns about if this is a wise move from S&C perspective. Boland has been around the block before and would be speaking from experience. This is nothing against Setanta College or the credentials of those at higher end of this organisation. They are a reputable group that provide good S&C education etc but here is the context. Previously, when AIT sport science department oversaw the S&C of Offaly underage, it was a disaster for a number of reasons. Those given the responsibility were young kids doing their college course, that were given credits for work experience for their time. They were not qualified, far from experts and only learning their trade, and when some of them didn't turn up or left their course, there was difficulty replacing them. Because of the nature of this, there was a huge volume of personnel change from year to year as to who was delivering s&c support to squads. Essentially, some students cared, while others cared less and there was high level of variance of the quality and continuity of S&C provided. More importantly, and understandably, there was very little build up of knowledge of the players across time as the students / coaches changed from year to year and little or no relationships were built up across time between development players and S&C coaches, resulting in a lack of accountability towards S&C development. There was a marked improvement in our fortunes when we moved away from this in either Boland's or Tommy Byrne's tenure when they went and employed our own people who were there continuously, developing lasting relationships with likes of David Hare and later Conal Mahon, both of whom had major impact on the county winning U20 hurling and football Leinster and All Ireland titles.


To move back to this type of scenario, relying on non expert students is a backwards step (if this is the case) in my opinion. Now if there is a qualified lecturer or employee from Setanta who is constantly there conducting same consistently, then that is a different story. However, if Padraig Boland, or likes of him has been through this before, and has expressed concerns, then it would be wise of current decision makers to listen and take all on board.


If Padraig O'Meara is able to report that 'Standards have been slipping' at development squad level, perhaps it isn't all down to levels of S&C, and more to do with selection policies of his own 'Development Squad Committee', which has chosen to exclude some of the best talent in the county. I don't know of any other county with such outdated policies as Offaly's, and that includes some of the bigger and more successful counties. There has been much talk among knowledgeable GAA people in the county about the inner workings of this so called committee and the damage it has been doing to the future chances of Offaly success. This will only bare fruit in the next 5-10 years and if the senior results mirror the results of the hurling and football development squads over the last 3-4 years, we may be heading for Div 4 in football and back to Christy Ring hurling in the not too distant future. Without getting into specifics, one example was broadly mentioned in both local and national media at the time regarding the exclusion of a very young Cian McNamee from the development squads because of his brief involvement in another sport overlapping with GAA. This has been replicated with countless other examples in more recent years without ever reaching media. McNamee was excluded later at minor level in his first year despite being the best young minor forward in the county at the time.


There is an arms race for talented players between 3 or 4 of the bigger sports in most counties (GAA, soccer, rugby and basketball mostly). Offaly GAA does not have the luxury of excluding it's best talent that may be involved in other sports at underage level. We are not winning by excluding them and letting other elite sport systems have exclusive access to our raw material at our own expense because they chose not to commit to GAA solely at 14/15/16 years of age. Kerry didn't rule out Kieran Donaghy because he played basketball, or either of the Cliffords or Darren O'Sullivan because they were elite underage soccer players. Limerick allowed Cian Lynch to play elite level soccer up to U18 level while Gearoid Hegarty still plays junior soccer in Limerick during off season. Mayo didn't cut off Ryan O Donoghue or Andy Moran because they were elite level underage soccer players either. Cork and Tipperary GAA have had any amount of lads who were elite level underage soccer and rugby players including Ben O'Connor and Alan Tynan in recent years that crossed over with Munster Rugby involvement as minors and U20s. You can be certain that the likes of Dylan Hyland, Cormac Egan, Cillian Bourke, Nigel Dunne, Cathal Daly, Ciaran McManus and Keith O'Neill's levels of GAA were also enhanced by involvement in other sports through their development years (among countless others).


The fact is that the slippage that O'Meara relates to has happened on their very recent and current watch, and underage development hurling teams have been struggling to beat Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring and in some instances Nicky Rackard counties as a result. The football development squads have been operating at a fairly low level too, taking some hammerings and often without some of the best talent in the county. It is hard to ignore the fact that because of O'Meara and their committee's selection policies employed, development squad management and coaches have been blocked from bringing in the best available talent and the county underage teams have struggled to compete as a result of this authoritarian governance. It is amazing that O'Meara is shining such a light on S&C while ignoring the elephant in the room - ie their own selection policies that prevents management teams from autonomy to manage and select the players that they want.


Given all of the above it is interesting to note Operations Manager John Hackett's odd assertions, '“What we have done in the past hasn't worked. We have to do something. It is a significant cost but it is an important investment,” he remarked." So basically, they are attempting to resolve problems that their own committee created by pretending the problem has been a S&C issue, and going back to what was shown not to work in the past from S&C perspective under a previous regime! Not sure there is much semblance of sense in this and the reasoning behind it, particularly when it appears it will come at an extra cost to what was actually working from S&C perspective. What he really should be saying is that their selection policies have not worked and that they are going to look at that again because the hurlers are struggling to beat Roscommon and the footballers are not much better. Let us remind ourselves again that before his involvement and the impact of their development squad committee has taken hold, we won both U20 hurling and football All-Ireland titles in the last 5 years on the back of a well functioning S&C system he is choosing to dispose of. It is quite bizarre really.


The slippage at underage level has only started in very recent years of this so called 'Development Squad Committee's' watch, and the solution to much of the very recent demise is a fairly simple one I think. It is most probably not going to be found in moving from a permanent and highly qualified S&C professional in the building who knows our players as an employee to utilising a wave of students from a commercial educational company looking to build student experiences in the name of providing a professional service at a significant cost to Offaly GAA - that was shown not to work under a different sport science 3rd level institution previously (AIT/TUS). Again, if this is a singular qualified employee from Setanta, I would retract this assertion. The big and easy win in terms of improving the underage system as many knowledgeable Offaly GAA people would see it is to simply stop excluding some of the best young talent in the county from playing for the county, because they have dabbled in other sports (that will benefit them as athletes).


The irony is that either Padraig Boland's or Tommy Byrne's (don't recall which) county board reign fixed that S&C problem many years ago before the Duignan reign ever commenced. That reign facilitated an underage development programme with full time underage S&C coaches that involved continuity and relationship building across time. That positive change then directly resulted in Offaly becoming competitive at Leinster and All-Ireland level at minor and U20 after a fairly fallow period. As a result, we reached Leinster Minor hurling and football finals and All Ireland finals in both at U20 level some years later. Why fix what is not broke, and worse again, spend extra to do it.

I just hope this isn't a retrograde step towards something that did not work previously, that attempts to divert attention away from the actual source of the problem of our development squads standards slipping. Are they trying to distract from the ELEPHANT in the room or what?

Apologies for long blurb, but think there is strong merit in much of this argument.

[Offalyblueboy]

Some fascinating points made, I would have one question or issue ? Have we appointed any managers for 2027 yet ?

Minor Football ?
Minor hurling ?
U21 Football ?
U21 Hurling ?

Or are we behind this also ?

I see Tipperary appointed a new manager for underage teams and am just wondering where are we with this ?

[Hasselhoff]

I just hope this isn't a retrograde step towards something that did not work previously, that attempts to divert attention away from the actual source of the problem of our development squads standards slipping. Are they trying to distract from the ELEPHANT in the room or what?

Whats the elephant in the room in your opinion?

Whats your alternative plan?

[private joker]

Not what. I'd say its more who is the elephant in the room.
Brian Carroll minor manager for a 3rd year. That's all but confirmed.

[Hasselhoff]

Who else is around that would take it??

He can only do so much if he doesnt have the hurlers.

[private joker]

That is a separate topic to the thread.
If the job was advertised you'd have options.

[jimbob17]

I just hope this isn't a retrograde step towards something that did not work previously, that attempts to divert attention away from the actual source of the problem of our development squads standards slipping. Are they trying to distract from the ELEPHANT in the room or what?

Whats the elephant in the room in your opinion?

Whats your alternative plan?

The ELEPHANT in the room is that since this so called 'Development Committee' has taken over, the development squad system has broadly speaking, fallen into the abyss with it appearing almost harder for a player to get off a panel than it is to get on to a panel. Remember that the recent successful All-Ireland winning teams went through the development years under the previous system that had appeared to be working quite well. We became competitive at minor and U20 and won a few Leinster and All-Ireland titles. The coaches were allowed to select the best and who they wanted and the S&C was overseen by an in house qualified S&C coach.

The system was majorly transformed a few years ago whereby that old system was done away with completely, and is now run by a 'Development Committee' that includes members of the county board and others (Keith Screeney (hurling) and Declan Kelly (football)). Under this newer and current system, in both hurling and football, the coaches of the teams have zero autonomy over who they can include or exclude in county squads, who appear to be selected by 'committee people' who sit in offices and have no clue of who the best players are. I have no doubt but that there is a large degree of nepotism involved (I have been told this) and to make a long story short; a lot of the best players in the county are not all playing for the county, particularly in some of those teams.

My simple plan is fairly standard, far from radical and would run along lines that most people would expect is already happening - except that it isn't. That would be to hire an in house S&C coach (like most counties have at this stage) who builds knowledge of the players and relationships with players (and parents) over time like we have had for the last 10 years or so. That was clearly working well up to now. Do not go back down the road of trying something that clearly did not work before, paying a commercial company more than what a full time S&C professional costs, to provide unqualified students who will be there for a couple of months before being replaced by the next batch. That ain't rocket science by any means but hey, some genius thinks it is a great idea! Fair enough, like I said if it is one person responsible - a qualified professional provided by Setanta that is always there. In that sense, it'd be the same thing as I suggest.

The other element would be to have good quality volunteer coaches, and allow them and empower them to do their job; ie select the best players that they think should be with the county, which has not been happening either. It's no wonder that O'Meara and Hackett are talking about slippage and that something isn't working. They are the very ones (with others) overseeing this whole thing and not allowing these coaches to manage the teams without their interference on selecting who should or should not be in a development squad.

Players develop at different stages and this should be factored in to the system to allow coaches tweak and adjust panels as they see fit, affording the management teams autonomy to pull in lads for a few weeks if they think they might be up to the level. These decisions are currently controlled by a group of people sitting on chairs, most of whom do not know the players concerned in any great depth and most of whom have little or no knowledge about coaching GAA. The result is that according to one club underage hurling coach I spoke to recently, that club team has lads on the county development panels that are not guaranteed starters on their own club team this year! Others are there because they are somebody's sons. It's actually laughable if you did not care enough. This is the ELEPHANT in the room - and in the meantime, those in charge appear to be pointing the finger at S&C for the abject performances of some of the development squads in recent years. If you don't believe me, ask a coach that has been involved in the development squads over the last 3 or 4 years! This has been discussed ad nauseam in GAA coaching circles, and I am surprised there has been no kickback from clubs on the whole development squad system currently in operation. There are plenty of stories out there at this stage and something needs to change or we are heading back to Div 4 football and Christy Ring hurling.

[Anon444]

What I can’t understand is that the whole development squad system was overhauled when Duignan and co. took over. They said that the county was heading in the wrong direction, which was true, and needed new life. However, one of the areas they felt wasn’t working was this exact plan that they are now introducing again. So, it either works or it doesn’t work? It’s almost as if they just want to be seen to do things, rather than doing what’s best practice. They need to target the secondary schools in this particular area or come up with some sort of hubs for S&C work where they can do it more than once a week. But they won’t, as they want the players to be training with their clubs every night of the week.

There are so many stories leaking out of OCP, some would really worry you. I posted about apparently the Coaching Officer and Coiste na nOg chair effectively switching roles so that they can maintain control over most areas of the underage. I really disagree with this and hope clubs do too.

[del]

The development squad set up has been a failure the last few years the results are enough evidence . Our best players aren’t been encouraged in fact some of them are been turned off Gaa.
A Tullamore player scored 6.7 last night in an u 14 A semi final. But he’s not involved in development squad. This kid is a special talent that likes other sports too we should doing everything we can to hold onto him but no Offaly Gaa and the people overseeing development squads are pushing them away cause he won’t make every development squad session when all the evidence points towards multi sports involvement makes better players in whatever code or sport they end up in . Inevitably the kids come back too Gaa

[Tar Man]

The development squad set up has been a failure the last few years the results are enough evidence . Our best players aren’t been encouraged in fact some of them are been turned off Gaa.
A Tullamore player scored 6.7 last night in an u 14 A semi final. But he’s not involved in development squad. This kid is a special talent that likes other sports too we should doing everything we can to hold onto him but no Offaly Gaa and the people overseeing development squads are pushing them away cause he won’t make every development squad session when all the evidence points towards multi sports involvement makes better players in whatever code or sport they end up in . Inevitably the kids come back too Gaa

The counter argument to that is that for a Development Squad to be effective you need full participation. If players attend a week and you only have half the participants then it really isn't effective. If as you say the Kids inevitably come back to GAA then we don't have an issue. We have 35 or so kids through the Development Squad system which in theory should make them better and we have the special kids to rejoin at some future stage. If the Minor Team was being picked solely from Development Squads then we would have a problem but from what I hear that is not the case - one is supposedly independent of the other.

Now is everything rosy in the garden - No, it's quiet clearly not. The fact that a Tullamore player is scoring 6-7 in an U14 A Semi-Final should be ringing alarm bells (unless he's the next David Clifford) - I see that Tullamore won 9-12 to 2-2 against what on paper is the 3rd or 4th best team in the County - we have other issues within our county that no Development Program is going to be able to overcome - maybe it can paper over the cracks for a while but eventually we're going to be in bother again.