Quite a comprehensive post. I wanted to give it the dues it deserved.
The structures were actually in place. With Critchleys Setanta programme, the template was there. He had agreed to go back into it again, and retool it, but it was working, and as such, it only needed a small investment to drive it on once again. Croke Park refused.
The Coaches thing is a good point. Our GDA’s are quite good, but overstretched and under funded. Also, we’ve had a shocking turnover of them in recent years and its not allowed a decent bond to build, but in my own experience, we had a wonderful GDA and I couldnt speak a bad word about him. But sadly, he’s overstretched. Perhaps Clubs should be looking to make an arrangement, which leads to your next point…
This is something thats been raised a few times, but through lack of funds, or interest, its never happened. But its a no brainer imo. They have a wealth of young coaches crying out to get experience over there and we’re not utilising it at all. I’d be interested to find out where it currently stands. Bear in mind, Mick Dempsey, Sean Dempsey and Pat Critchley are heavily involved in IT Carlow after all.
There might be some lad working on it doing bits and pieces but it would be a real stretch to call him a sound engineer. Calling him a technician would even be kind
The actual population of Laois hurling country is very small. They need everyone working 100% together which rarely has happened bar a short spell when Chedder was there. Camross seem to be doing there own thing most of the time while Portlaoise are average at best.
Laois are probably lucky all the combo teams in the south of the county has raised the standard while the Fitzgibbon cup has been a help particularly with Carlow IT becoming competitive.
I think it’s still available, albeit the clubs that have the desire and means to do it might have already implemented it. But yeah, neighbours clubs have paired up to share the cost and get a coach between them alright.
Fair enough paying for underage structures but the bigger issue is county teams having to pay for coach,manager ,S&C ,nutrionist,sports psychologist, training weekends etc…it’s madness for an amateur game and when you consider there’s no prize money for winners to recoup expenditure …you’re basically relying the benevolence or massaging the ego of some boy done good from the county …the other knock on from this is the disillusionment of lad in college hearing what resources his mate from another county has at his disposal…why would lads in smaller counties bother their bollox and this will just add to gap…like when you see Dublin buying another base in tyrellstown it’s only going one way…
All fair points. And that’s why you need to spread the financial base as wide as possible so you can build from the bottom up but also have funds available (from whatever source) for those things a senior inter-county squad wants, if not needs.
Having a benefactor would be the icing on the cake though alright. As much as one benefactor might take great pride in funding a development programme to sustain a county for years, you might get another that just wants the buzz of seeing the senior team win something ASAP. The latter are the lads that don’t mind giving six figure sums to cover all these expenses and training camps etc. There are very few counties that have one of those.
Would it not be better to try pull the bigger teams backwards as opposed to the current forward looking arms race? I don’t know how you’d do it but seems more sustainable …I had hoped COVID showed how costs could be reduced and some tasks can be done independently by players in the future …a paid coach isn’t going to encourage less training with the per session fee …
JP McManus paid for Gearóid Hegarty’s skill levels and freakish athletic ability. It’s unreal what money will do. His few quid turned Aaron Gillane from a non entity at Minor to one of the best inside forwards in the game. He bought his new found aerial ability when Aaron was 20.
You’re 100% right there. Sure Dalo only tipped about for a few years there cos he’s so fond of the Limerick lads. Caroline Currid and Cairbre O Cairrealan the same. Very fond of Limerick too
Was it last year’s 12 point mauling in the sun or this year’s 9 point mauling in the storm that has you seething the most? Or a combination of the two?
We couldn’t get rid of him quick enough ffs, the man was a disaster.