The people are well fucked so. I have seen three of my old hurling/football squads and two acquaintances sons go through the academy and they have less than zero to show for it. Could not take the course of their choice in ul and a few now back to square one
Why are you shoe horning is some stories about your mates kids into the rugby passion of this country?
I’d say you know one or two still in it… Young Collins…
Because it is the story of rugby squads. A narrow funnel and broken dreams. Do you not know anyone who has been through the system?
Not coming down one side or the other but would that not be the story of most young lads who head off to dream the dream? And that given Ireland only has one pro sport to speak of that she the story you hear?
1 Like
Don’t stop there!
I just don’t see how this fits into your initial couple of posts on the topic.
Sure I know plenty but most rugby players go into further education. Your late teens/20s are the time to give something a go.
Why couldn’t they do course they wanted in UL? Seems odd.
Not a huge fan of the academy system myself and was v sceptical about it but appears to work from a rugby perspective alright. I’d imagine to end with up with a degree at end having gone through academy process requires serious dedication and time management, not many have that application at a young age. I’d be curious to see how many of the Munster squad do have a degree or equivalent. There is a staff member to support players through it to ensure they are prepared for career not working out one way or another. Relatively recent development I think, it might even be Derval O Rourke
You only need listen to Brolly though to know this is a problem for any young fella at top end of their sport. Demands on you will never be as high as when your least capable of dealing with it.
Why could they not go to college. They encourage that. Thats more down to the lads themselves not wanting to i would suggest.
I am friendly with a guy who works in the Swedish FA. He is from Cork. He is one of the driving forces behind Sweden getting rid of academies and pouring the more into better coaching education at grassroots. They will now only start having elite teams at 17. They are not long into it but its working and the reason they did it was based on science and stats. They were not any better off at elite level than before academies and they suspected they were losing more late developers than ever.
I’m having him over next year to present to clubs on coaching and maybe do a presentation in UCC as well. He is very interesting.
I think this is what most good organisations will go to eventually. Except the English FA and FAI.
I know lads from Killkenny have already spoke to him about his concepts and the work he is doing fir instance.
1 Like
Interesting. My main bugbear was exactly that, it shut the door on late developers and didn’t give half enough game time to these players.
Seems to have been addressed somewhat recently though with lot more lads playing regularly in the AIL where there was a rule a few years ago that limited involvement of academy and contracted players. Connacht have brought few lads through this route like Ronaldson and Matt Healy for e.g.
Players need games, 20 or 30 a season. It’s all well and good being conditioned to within an inch of your life if your not using it.
Absolutely.
And its mad that S&C gets blamed for this when most good S&C people preach about skill develooment being the end game all the time. Its lazy coaching and organisations that for 20 years now have just kept adding with the “more is better” approach.
The Irish 07 World Cup team is a great point in this. EOS wanted Ireland big for it. He was advised against it by Liam Hennessy, the leader of S&C in ireland, as he knew what EOS wanted would take 2-3 years without fucking up the players. He went and did it anyway. Everyone looks at them and says they are too slow, too big etc etc. What tye fuck were tge fitness guys doing???
How is it working?
Where is the evidence that this is working?
Rugby comes first, Munster don’t want to hear excuses - I know one lad in the academy who chose business as they allow the student to spread it out over 5 years as opposed to the regular three years… but with the commitments involved and the academy training down in Cork two days a week a lot of lads couldn’t commit to it and a full time degree.
It was based on science. That’s the evidence.
2 Likes
No one forces them into the academy. If I wanted to try and become a doctor and hedge my bets and do the accountancy training at the same time then one or both will suffer too. There is no doubt you are taking a risk by trying to pursue a career in professional sport.
A huge amount will come down to personal application to focus on the studies when you can. Lot of lads won’t have that at 19/20.
But you are risking your capacity to do a degree in 4 years by also pursuing a professional sports career. That is clear. Don’t think anyone is hiding the fact.
Oh and I have a business degree. Anyone who thinks you couldn’t get an honours business degree by committing 25 hours a week to it from Sept to June is lying. It’s not taxing.
Who pays the fees?
The poor struggling kid.
Munster do actually