Was there a Harrington in goal for Cork in 90s?
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His dad
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Biscuits
Smallies called crumbsđ
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Phil
The future is really bright for Irish football
So many good players coming through
You wanna see the physique on him
If he was aggressive youâd need to get out of his way
I predict a championship place for him for a few years
The one about the Drogheda fan?
Yep
A burn
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I really doubt a Shamrock Rovers player could be that quick witted
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I have it on good authority itâs true 
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Brilliant
can someone paste this up please? TIA
Shamrock Rovers put focus on taking project to next level
European adventures and money from sale of academy product Gavin Bazunu have put Hoops in a position to expand from a position of dominance. What happens next?
âWeâre replicating what some of the bigger clubs are doing across Europe,â says Shamrock Rovers academy director Shane Robinson.
Daniel McDonnell
August 29 2022 02:30 AM
THE Conference League group stage draw has allowed all involved with Shamrock Rovers to put a structure on the calendar of a busy autumn.
It will run in tandem with a programme for 21 aspiring young footballers that might just have greater relevance for the clubâs long-term future. This September, the Transition Year (TY) programme which the League of Ireland champions run in tandem with Ashfield College is expanding in size and in scope.
For the first time it will have girls on the programme, with four signed up to join 17 boys in a year where full-time football will be combined with education.
Itâs an expanding scheme that is relevant at a time when Irish football is trying to figure out how to take control of player production.
Unsurprisingly, promotional material put out by Rovers to advertise the course leans heavily on the success story of Gavin Bazunu, the Ireland goalkeeper the Hoops were able to sign on a full-time professional deal at the start of the link with Ashfield.
He has become the poster boy for the academy and the âŹ3m or so that he has earned for Rovers from transfer fee and add-ons is helping to put his alma mater on a solid footing.
Justin Ferizajâs man-of-the-match display in the clash with Ferencvaros last Thursday will also ultimately prove to be good for business. The 17-year-old is a fine prospect.
It presents a picture of health, yet thereâs a sense that the Rovers âprojectâ â which was mocked when the senior team was going through a rough patch in the mid-2010s â is really only starting to take shape now and the jury is out on the implications for themselves and Irish football.
Academy head Shane Robinson says the growth of the transition year class is an important step toward the vision of providing a viable avenue at home.
The schedule for the students, who do their school work in a small classroom off the main corridor at Rovers HQ at Roadstone Sports Club in Kingswood, merges sporting work with academic.
For example, a Tuesday morning starting with work on their weak foot technique is followed by a Maths class. The afternoon is French or Spanish lessons before gym sessions.
âThe programme allows them more time on the pitch to develop physically, tactically and technically, so they would be doing the equivalent of what a top-five country would be doing in terms of developing young players,â says Robinson, the former Rovers midfielder who hung up his boots in 2014 to concentrate on the youth side of the operation.
âThese are 15-year-old players and they will now be doing three evenings a week training and five days a week (in the course) from 9am until 3.30pm. Itâs a proper full-time model.â
Students take a break from their current secondary school to do the programme, yet thereâs a possibility they will stay on to do their Leaving Cert via the Ashfield link-up. That is how Rovers were able to make Bazunu part of the family.
So just how good is the pathway Rovers are offering?
The club website describes their set-up as the âfirst professional youth academy in the history of Irelandâ and an âequivalent standard to English Premier League clubsâ. Itâs a description that would raise a few knowing eyebrows. While itâs unquestionably the best in Ireland, UK experts brought in by the FAI during ongoing attempts to figure out what happens next for our academies visited Roadstone and offered the honest view that the grounds would be considered unremarkable across the water. It effectively stands out here because of the absence of real competition.
Nevertheless, the comparison thatâs relevant from a Rovers perspective is where they started from â which was effectively nothing at all. When Robinson and current Rovers first team boss Stephen Bradley were overseeing the birth of the academy, they were renting astro pitches at the nearby Spawell complex. Robinson was the director and Bradley the head coach.
The partnership with Roadstone has allowed the club to turn a field into a home for all of its teams from senior down to underage level. A visit there last week highlighted how it has become a proper complex with full-sized astro and grass pitches, an indoor astro surface and gym and supporting facilities.
Tuesday is the busiest evening at Roadstone, with boys teams from U-9 to U-19 level and the U-17 and U-19 womenâs sides all present across a four-hour window. Rovers were one of the founder members of the Womenâs National League in 2011 but dropped out after just three seasons. They are aiming to have a senior team again from 2023 and say their commitment to this area is serious, with the mixed element of the TY programme an example of that. In that sphere, Shelbourne are in their sights. Watch this space.
Dominance is the endgame, much as Robinson will stress that they would like to see other clubs develop their own version of Roadstone to drive standards up across the board.
Yet it would be fair to say Rovers have knocked a few noses out of joint along the way, and there are fears that group stage qualification for Bradley will give them a financial muscle that makes it harder for others to compete.
At underage level, Rovers have recruited well from traditional nursery clubs who feel their input at a vital stage has been downplayed. The highly rated Ferizaj came from St Kevinâs Boys.
Rovers also took Kevin Zefi from there before his move to Inter Milan. Aidomo Emakhu, the 18-year-old forward who has made his mark in Europe too, arrived via Lourdes Celtic, Crumlin and Shelbourne.
Roversâ academy also includes players from Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, Longford, Laois and even Dundalk, with players and parents convinced itâs the place to be as opposed to their local LOI club. This approach would divide opinion â underage leagues were supposed to stop the best of the best from travelling long distances to train â but Rovers have considerable pulling power.
That said, in the older brackets, Rovers are by no means the outstanding force. Shelbourne and St Patrickâs Athletic lead the way at U-17 level.
The Rovers counterpoint is that the first generation of kids to come all the way through their ranks is beginning to come to the boil. There is considerable excitement about the crop born in 2009 which won the All-Ireland at both the U-13 and U-14 age groups last year.
Earlier this month, the IFA in Belfast invited them to play the Club NI U-15 team, which is basically their international representative side. Chelsea were the other team the IFA sought a friendly with in the same week.
Evidently, that Rovers group are viewed as high-calibre opposition. Former Ireland international Graham Barrett and Rovers striker Aaron Greene were putting them through their paces on the evening the Irish Independent visited.
Thereâs a view that the key learning years are between the age of eight and 12 and Rovers say they are upping their game in this department; this is where the established schoolboy outfits do much of their best work.
Robinson declares he can see a marked improvement in the eight-year-olds at Rovers who have been there for nine months, with the 41-year-old of the view that their cubs are starting on a road that will allow them to match up with European counterparts.
âI still see a difference at age 15 or 16, weâre not as strong physically as players in some of the top countries,â he says.
Casual chat with a parent on the sideline results in positive feedback about the âperformance environmentâ that is in place with their 10-year-old â a recent addition â already more conscious about nutrition and other messages that are being drilled into the mindset.
âWeâre replicating what some of the bigger clubs are doing across Europe,â says Robinson. âObviously it can be improved and we want it to go even further.â
The next stage is the construction of LED floodlights funded by a Sports Capital Grant. Rovers have over 40 coaches involved with the academy, and there remains a considerable volunteer effort.
Robinson is supported by full-time staff with ex-League of Ireland players Aidan Price and Steven Gray employed there, the latter to the fore as regards the TY and education project.
Progress is inevitably linked with finance, and this is where the domino effect of the performances of Bradleyâs side comes into it. Last November, it was reported that Rovers recorded an after tax loss of âŹ1.8m in 2020, with Covid an obvious factor.
Accounts showed the directors had agreed to write down a âŹ800,000 inter-company loan due from the academy with the youth wing separated from the main body of a club when it comes to trading and filing accounts.
The academy was running at a significant loss in its early years, and Rovers officials said they were relaxed about that as they were looking down the line.
It wouldnât have got off the ground without a restructuring in 2016 that allowed the member-owned club to adopt a hybrid model and accept additional investment from Australia-based Hoops fan Ray Wilson and Seumas Dawes, another businessman based Down Under.
Three years later, members accepted a deal that saw Dermot Desmond put in âŹ2m to become a 25pc shareholder. Desmond said he was supportive of academy plans and suggested that he saw himself as akin to a trustee rather than getting involved with a view to monetary gain down the line.
This gave Rovers additional security as regards their strategy and club sources are confident that significant loans from Wilson and Dawes will be repaid in full ahead of target.
Itâs not just the sale of Bazunu that has improved the outlook. Zefiâs deal to Inter Milan and Sinclair Armstrongâs move to QPR are two deals which are expected to significantly benefit the Dublin 24 club in due course.
Brexit should allow Irish sides to secure larger fees, although cheap buyout terms in contracts have complicated that process.
Ferizaj and Emakhu have no such clauses in their respective arrangements, which should strengthen Roversâ hand.
Robinson asserts that the work of the club is not just about the players who go abroad. Naturally enough, there has been commentary on how the squad that won back to back league titles largely consisted of established players lured there from other clubs.
Robinson keeps a list of individuals who have spent time at Rovers before leaving for elsewhere in the league in search of gametime.
Nine were involved in a recent meeting of Drogheda and UCD. While Robinson can envisage a situation down the line where half the first team would have come through their pathway, a necessary element of the financial commitment to the TY scheme is accepting that the majority will end up elsewhere.
The club view is that they will depart better equipped on a number of fronts.
âIf I was a kid Iâd want to come here,â said club captain Ronan Finn last week.
âI went to UCD and education is something that was very important to me. Iâd be saying to my parents: âThis club wants me to play full-time football but I can also go to private education.â They are ticking so many boxes here.
âBut thatâs why itâs so important for us as first team and senior players to bring in revenue because winning leagues and cups and progressing in Europe allows all of this to continue.â
Robinson and Bradley have both referenced the club plan to target the Europa Conference League when UEFA announced the creation of a third tier tournament and with a minimum of âŹ3.6m coming their way from this yearâs endeavours, the potential is there for Rovers to build and evolve even further. The future lies in their hands.
fantastic
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Bohemians-esque levels of self-praise
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Fuck bohs
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Great signing
Nice profit
Crucial goals
Here until seasons end
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