The Ultimate G.A.A. Odyssey

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Brussels, Belgium
A journey of triumph and despair across the roads, railways and skies of Europe, sharing in the relentless mission to develop, sustain and grow a G.A.A. club in the backwaters of the Association.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Training Irritations

The Gooch reckoned I had at least twenty seven moans at training on Thursday. He’s probably right. He also criticised me for not finishing on a positive note. I ranted at him about this but eventually acknowledged he was right about that too. William Cummins was the first person I heard say this. It was one of the things he picked up from his time in Chriost Ri; always finish on a positive note.

I do my very best to keep a lid on it at training cause I know fellas don’t want training to be stopped regularly or to hear my voice more than is absolutely necessary!!

However, as it is a two way street, no harm to get the things that I find most irritating out of the way. Reduce this list and get less of a headache.

1) Missing training without informing myself or Colin.

2) Missing training for something you think is a valid excuse but could have been avoided thus making it an invalid excuse. These can be wide-ranging and include excuses like workload even though ya might have strolled into the office at a leisurely hour or taken a nice handy lunch. They may also include going to the cinema with your girlfriend or doing any other activities with said person on one of the two (out of a total of 7) nights you are training.

3) Not recognising the invalidity of above mentioned excuses.#

4) Being late for training without a valid excuse i.e. jesus, traffic was mental because of the EU Summit. These summits are not a secret. Plan ahead, leave earlier than usual.

5) The drill is explained. There are 6 cones and 24 players. Players are told to get in even groups at the cones. They scatter. 10 lads are on a red cone and 2 on a white cone, 6 on a blue and 6 more on a green. Two cones are totally vacant.

6) Arriving late and getting straight into a drill, not recognising that one group may be totally uneven and joining that group. Small thing but that means an uneven distribution of work i.e. one group gets flaaed whilst the other has too much standing around.

7) Being told every night to get your water and bring it to every drill with you. Then, not bringing water in the first place or leaving it in your bag and wasting time between drills going over to get it. And stopping for a chat.

8) Arriving late to training and joining into the conditioned game without asking the rules. Quickly following up your first wrong with a blank ‘how was i supposed to know’ look on your face.

9) Wearing soccer, rugby or any other jersey from a foreign code.

10) Not having gloves when it’s raining or generally greasy.

11) Calling me at 18h40 wondering what the craic with lifts is, when training is at 19h in Tervuren.

12) Talking to the girls when you should be practising your kicking whilst you are waiting for everyone to assemble.
13) Practicing your kicking before training by baiting the ball against the fence (and frequently over it) instead of getting a partner and doing it properly.

14) Looking blankly when a drill you have done a thousand times is explained to you again.

15) Running to the wrong cone.

16) Continuing to play when you know you’ve just carried the ball over the boundary line of the pitch, picked it straight off the ground or thrown instead of handpassing it.

17) Complaining that a ball is flat when there is a pump in the bag i.e. pump the thing.

18) There is a bib bag and it’s been the same bib for a long time. As filthy and smelly as the bibs are, they won’t walk back into the bag.

19) In the warm-up, we’re doing hamstring stretches. Everyone starts on the line. You hold for three seconds and do each side three times, moving forward two steps after each one and counting in your own head. Theoretically, everyone should finish the set at the same time, in the same place. Never happens.

20) Not calling names in drills (I don’t know his name is not an excuse), communicating on the pitch or encouraging the lads who are bursting their balls in a drill while you are resting.

That’s twenty. Maybe Gooch can’t count. I’m not joking when I say all twenty of those things occur virtually every....single.... night.

Conditioned Games

When I was playing football at home a game at the end of training usually took the form of backs and forwards or if we had enough and there was a portable goal around we might split into two and play a match. The most conditions that would be placed on it would be maybe the reliable one hop one solo rule.

Now a day’s though ‘conditioned games’ are all the rage. As with anything you do at training there should be a purpose and that purpose should be explained to the players. One simple game we play has four goals. One team defends its two goals (which should be a good distance apart) and attacks two goals opposite. The other team does likewise but defending/attacking the opposite goals obviously.

The purpose of this game is to quickly switch the direction of the play if one of the goals is blocked. The team should always have a player in the ‘hole’ and the ball should be transferred to the other side of the pitch via home. This requires patience and awareness i.e. don’t try and hammer the ball in through twenty lads, instead switch the play to the space at the other side of the pitch.

We played one the other night which was about reacting quickly when space opens up. The idea was simple. There were four different coloured cones, two on each sideline of the pitch. I could call a player’s name and a colour at any time, even if they were in possession. The player would have to immediately sprint around the colour cone before re-entering play (dropping the ball if in possession). This could be used to create a 3 v 2 by removing a defender or make someone available for a switch pass by taking his marker out of the game as well as creating many other situations. The idea is for players to be able to quickly recognise these openings and capitalise.

I use conditioned games to try and knock bad habits out of us and give us more experience of game type situations. Also they are used to enforce a certain style of play. In our case that should mean moving the ball rather than carrying it.

We use these games a lot. The fact of the matter is we don’t have guys with a load of football behind them so our experience of situations is lacking and also ability wise we don’t have a broad skill set. With that in mind we have to keep things very simple, relying on accurate hand passing and good movement off the ball.

I think guys get a bit fed up of the restrictions so on Thursday we loosened things up a lot. My hope was that the conditioned games we have played would be evident in how we played out a game under normal conditions.

Absolutely not though. We went straight back into bad habits; kicking ball ten yards or nearly worse, thinking we can pick out a lad fifty yards away when he’s marked by two men. Another annoying habit we have (and actually you see this everywhere) is getting the ball out of a pack of people and instead of switching the play, we go straight back into the pack. Carrying the ball, especially into contact is another thing that we seem to think is great craic!

I think a reason for this brain freeze is that guys want to have the ball for longer and make the sexy pass. People get enjoyment out of that. However, the reality is the only enjoyment that is important in hurling and football is that gained from either winning or playing beyond your capabilities. Conditioned games try and train our minds to play to our strengths. The style forced upon you in those games is the style which needs to be brought to unrestricted training games and tournaments.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Tick Tock

This weekend we should have been in London playing the Exiles Cup. It was to be a return fixture for the inaugural one which took place in Brussels last year, which we won in a highly entertaining game.

There was a lot of humming and hawing about availability and eventually we had to pull the plug on it which was a bit embarrassing considering our hosts had done a good bit of prep at their side. The girls did pull themselves together so at least the club had some representatives! They reversed last year’s result to win 3-6 to 2-3.

At this stage of the year you have to pick and choose what to put pressure on the lads to do. We’ve been on the road since January 21st and have trained around eighty times as well as filling 12 weekends with games and trainings. That comes with considerable expense and is very draining on your enthusiasm too.

Prior to Budapest, a lot of us probably felt particularly weary from it. The Munich experience had been bad and the mood was muted in the weeks that followed. Both teams participated well down in Buda though and spirits have been high since we returned.

I’ve taken a kind of countdown approach to things to overcome any motivation issues and now we are down to just four sessions left this year. We can win the Shield in Maastricht and whilst the Championship team can’t win it out, we certainly want to finish what has been a very successful year on a high. Since we returned from Hungary, there has been a great energy about things at training.

Moving to the BSB means getting to training through rush hour traffic is a pain in the arse. However, it also means that the lads who do show are there because they really want to be there and they are not just along for the craic. A good example last Thursday was Ricky. He returned from Luxembourg that afternoon by train and got the tram out to Tervuren. He had Andrew bring his gear and ran in the gate just as we were getting going. As cranky as some people may find me, it’s pretty simple to get in my good books and that’s a good example of how to do it!

I sat out training for the last two weeks to let a few aches ease themselves out. I find playing and training the team at the same time a pain in the ass. Just concentrating on the training side reminded me that I actually enjoy training a team and I think the lads also benefit because things run much more smoothly and my demeanour is much more positive.

So, four sessions left. Sometimes it feels like a big weight around the neck but with the countdown in full swing, the burden turns more to fear. You begin to remember how long a winter can be without training and tournaments and so saviour each evening freezing your nuts off out in Tervuren that bit more.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Options

Currently, we have to acknowledge we are a bit off the pace on the football front. The Championship team has failed to win the last two tournaments and the Shield team hasn't won its tournaments either. When a team isn't winning, it naturally means there is a gap between them and the best. We must now try and figure out how to close this gap.

In a blog entry last year, I was talking about the differences between a coach, a trainer and a manager. I'd defined myself being more towards the trainer profile, focusing more on physical preparation then tactical and skill development. However, there is now a greater need to integrate more coaching into sessions.

When we talk about coaching, we probably first think about skills. How to kick, catch, hand-pass and solo. Of course this is important and we are working more diligently on it recently. However, what lads need just as much of is coaching during game situations. When I was playing at home , I used to think about how to approach each game and opponent a lot (and still do here). Generally you would know the guy you were going to mark from previous experience or from having seen him play. If you didn't, worst case, you could easily hunt down someone who had that knowledge. I'm talking size, speed, kicking foot, type of runs, whether he'll take you on or lay it off etc. Other influencing factors are the style of play of the team i.e. do they pump ball in long or high/low.

So from a defensive point of view, I'd have picked up a good few knacks over the years to try and counter certain traits. Also though, you get an insight into effective forward play because you are in the position of having to counter it. I always found the lad who took off across the pitch or at an angle more difficult to mark. You can't play him from the front as easily or commit to trying to win the ball. He will run into the space he wants to receive the ball, rather then look for it down on top of him. This gives him a better angle to turn you if you are overcommitted.

Now, that kind of experience or thought process doesn't make me a better/worse footballer than anyone else at training but I should be able to give some helpful pointers to guys who would not have played so much. Eoin and Collins have played a lot of football and should have opinions and tips to share also. In the absence of anyone else, we must do our best to try and relate those to other lads. Tony Griffin (former Nemo/Kinsale player) once told a group of us (defenders) in the club to always attack the ball. It's such a simple instruction but I always tried to keep it in my head. It changed my focus from marking the man to going and getting the ball.

I tried to get a message across on Tuesday night that was as simple in its delivery as Tony's words but also as beneficial if you can adjust your mindset accordingly. A lot of our team stays on the periphery of things and waits for stuff to happen. Other lads play the ball on and stop, as if their role in proceedings is temporarily suspended until the ball comes near them again. All we wanted guys to think about during the game on Tuesday night was whether or not they were an option for the man in possession.

Crusher needed a bit of encouragement but once he grasped it he was much more effective in the game. He came on in the final in Belgium and made two runs up the pitch creating good options on the overlap. It yielded a point and a wide but also dealt our opponents a psychological blow as it showed our eagerness to get on the ball even late in the last game of a long day. It also showed that fellas can do it but maybe they don't consciously think about doing it all the time. It clicked with Cathal too. If it doesn't come as a natural instinct then fellas should start by just giving an option to the guy who they have just passed the ball too and build from there.

Trevor Collins trained us in the winter of 2003 when no-one else would. We played some of the best and most enjoyable football I have experienced with Kinsale in those months and steamrolled teams. Everyone was tuned in to movement off the ball from the work we did with him.

As guys get used to thinking options, options, options then they can start thinking ahead further. When Darragh O'Se used get possession in the middle of the field, the gooch often didn't look for it off him at all. Instead, he anticipated the ball in to Donaghy and made sure he was an option for a lay-off from him.

We all know, in a chase, its the guy doing the chasing that suffers the biggest drain to his energy levels, even though he may run no further than the guy he is chasing. So, by constantly making yourself an option you will not only offer more opportunities to your team, you will also wear out your opponent.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

John Mitchells, Birmingham Visit Brussels

John Mitchells of Birmingham visited Brussels this weekend. It was a bit of a strange one. We’ve known they were coming for months but because it came three months after the end of the season it didn’t really come onto the radar.

The danger in such situation was that we may not have a team but in fairness to Adrian and Martin they rallied the troops and we got to around 13 players. I sat out due to injury and was joined on the absent list by such luminaries as The Gooch (ya, he plays hurling too!), Pearce, Daire Cott, Conor Magner, Keary and a host of others.
Most impressive was the appearance of Michael Hough. Back in the first team of FC Irlande, he told them he was unavailable and so dropped to the seconds who were playing later. The game was due to start at 11 so we were there at half 10. They arrived at 12h15 which was extremely inconvenient for most of our team who had soccer matches and kids birthdays to attend.

Now, I fully appreciate that they were over for a session and in fairness they were all sound enough lads. However, they took the p1ss a bit too much during the game, taking off their shirts and waving them in the air when they scored and that sort of craic.

Anyway, we led at half-time mainly through the scoring prowess of Sheanon, Hough and debutant Gearoid. However, with numerous half-time departures for aforementioned reasons, Martin had to make some adjustments. One was to put me in goal.
We conceded one in the first half and five in the second half. Ouch. The usual question is ‘how many were your fault?’. More appropriate question is probably how many I could have saved. In that case, I probably could have saved them all. Bit of a disaster.

In the end we lost 6-11 to 3-9. Not a disgraceful result considering we started understrength and finished further understrength. There was also a camogie game but I had to depart shortly after that started. Reports suggest it went a similar way to the hurling. The whole thing wasn’t quite a waste of time but whether we accept such teams requests to visit so far beyond the end of season should probably be considered in the future.

Still A Chance To Look Forward, Not Back

It’s a great time of the year to be reading through the sports pages. Club Championships are coming to the final Sunday and there’s no shortage of remarkable success stories and outrageous individual feats to be reading about. It’s fantastic that sport at such a local level gets such coverage.

In the Examiner yesterday, two articles caught my attention. The first was about the Carbery Rangers SFC semi-final against St. Finbarrs. We tussled regularly with Carbery Rangers back in the late 90’s and early 00’s when we were both in the Junior ranks. They went a step further than we did and went on to claim the County and quickly followed it up by winning the Intermediate. Now they are on the cusp of their first Senior final which is a remarkable achievement for a place of its size.

Ballygarvan’s story also drew my attention. We had some very tight battles with them in the SE JHC. They probably came out on top slightly more than us but we were always there or there abouts. I think it was 2004 when we clashed in the semi-final of the Divisional Championship.

It was played out in Riverstick, a cracking spot for a game of hurling. I think the game finished 0-14 to 0-14 with them scoring a late free to get the draw. I was in form that year in goal and that day was one of my better ones. However, one score they got in the second half rankles with me. They had a speedy forward called Muggsy. He took a shot midway through the second half and it came in through a crowd. There was no power on it but it was dipping under the crossbar. I deflected it over to be safe. If I was more confident (or taller!!), I’d have put up the paw and grabbed it. I didn’t though and the game eventually finished level.

I cut my holiday in the US short to come back for the replay out in Ballinhassig. That day was not decided by such fine margins and they beat us with a bit to spare. Ballygarvan went on to survive numerous more replays and win a remarkable County. I can still remember the headline in one of the national newspapers on its sports year in review. It started something like; ‘From Boston to Ballygarvan....’. They ended as a big story whilst we were barely a by-line it.

Today, Ballygarvan play in the Intermediate Hurling final in Cork. When I read about themselves and Carbery Rangers I have many varying feelings; admiration, envy, jealousy to name a few. Mainly though, I’d be just p1ssed off cause they drove on in a way that we never did in Kinsale.

I don’t think enough of our lads would read yesterday’s papers and realise or even believe that could have been us. We won football South-East in ’99, ’01 and ’05 but never back-to-back even though we were the top team in the Division at the time. The hurling came our way in 2006 with a young team but we’ve faded badly since.

The list is too long to analyse all the rights and wrongs but a couple of things are probably notable. One was the disastrous under-age structures (the Dunderrow academy aside) in place. For years, very little came through and what did relied on natural talent more than coaching! Thankfully that has been largely remedied now with some good people involved.

The second is the town factor. Ballygarvan and Rosscarbery are villages. No soccer pitches, rugby pitches or boats. No three nightclubs or streets laden with pubs either. The distraction of drink and women is great craic. How you balance and weigh that against Hurling and football is important though. Too many of us got the balance wrong.

This year Kinsale won the U-21 South-East A Football on B Hurling. The young crop are still young enough to shape their playing careers. They are too young to realise that in ten year’s time they could be sitting in some city in the world reading those articles and thinking about where it went wrong and what they could have done to change it.

Now though, they should be reading those stories thinking, right, we can be playing in County finals up in the Pairc. Let’s get cracking.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Skill Development

Consciously, I have largely ignored practicing the basic skills in the last three years training the footballers. Instead, we focused a lot more on fitness. My thinking was simple; we could get to a lot higher level physically, much quicker than we could get there with our skills. I thought by being very fit we could overcome skill deficiencies and get to a competitive level fast. A very skilful team can move the ball with such efficiency that it can actually outplay a fitter team. However, the skill level must be very high and I didn't think we'd bridge the gap quick enough so bypassed it.

There are a number of reasons why I took this approach. The first is the motley crew nature of our players. A lot of guys have not played a whole load of football growing up (or not for some years) and my perception is that its more difficult to learn the skills when you are older. Getting lads fit is a different story though and is much easier. You can derive confidence from being and feeling fit too. Skill work can have the opposite effect if the balls are going everywhere. Intensity in training is important but drills will too often break down if the skill levels are not high enough and thus the intensity will drain out of a session. Some practical issues influence it also, like not having enough balls, nets behind goals etc. That seems incidental but to practice blocking, shooting etc etc it makes it trickier.

Hockey is a very technical game and one where fitness will only take you so far (and nowhere near as far as it will get you in Gaelic Football). I remember Eddie Kirwan (our former coach in UCC) used say he found putting lads through physical drills to be boring for him and he much preferred working with lads when they had a stick in hand. Obviously Eamonn Ryan is all about skills and his visit a couple of weeks ago has definitely influenced my thinking.

Some simple drills he did left us all fairly bait and really showed how you can get intensive bursts of activity, that totally focus on specific skills, into training. Kirwan probably also preferred skill based training because he could see some clear improvements in his players. After Eamonn's session I can definitely see an improvement in my kicking, particularly point shooting (although I still reserve this for training and not matches!!). In a different way, I've found that not blowing the ball wide or over a lad's head provides a similar level of satisfaction to bursting your nuts at a physical session.

Last night, we got a good bit of this type of stuff in and with reasonable intensity too. The huffing and puffing may be more of a reflection on the lessened physical approach in the last six weeks though. Still, it probably has to be the way forward as guys can only take so much hard slog and retain their motivation. In the end, they are there to play football and throwing the odd ball into physical work will only cod them so long.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Lego Man Fails To Save Day


Lego man claimed six points against Paris

Our first encounter of 2010 with The Hague took place in Amsterdam back in March and finished 0-4 to 0-3 in our favour. On the same day, in the final, they turned it around to win something like 0-5 to 0-4. Little has changed since and the games between us continue to be tight and keenly contested. Saturday in Budapest was no different.

We were drawn in a group with Guernsey and The Hague in the 'Championship' section. Stockholm, Budapest, Paris and Luxembourg were in the other group. Bolstered by the return of Lego man and Olof, we felt we were in a stronger position than in Munich. Our opening performance didn't reflect that though and we were absolutely brutal surrendering awful possession, fouling, not tracking men etc etc. We pretty much failed to tick any box. Despite this we somehow managed to lose only by a point. However, the despondency afterwards seemed like it would bring the curtain immediately down on our chances for the day and season.

Guernsey's misfortune proved to be a blessing for us. They had flight complications and as a result they would arrive late and the schedule would be adjusted to cater for this. It left us with a long gap which allowed tempers to cool and banter to resume. In fairness, we have many faults but when fellas have it out it rarely lingers. Bizarrely out of all this, Jim, formerly known as Burger King, came out of it all with a new name, 'The Gooch'.

Back to Guernsey though and it was a game we had to win to qualify. Johnny O was given a job to do on the man mountain and we set our stall out early, tacking on a few decent points. My head for detail isn't so great but I remember Eoin Sheanon getting his jersey fairly well stretched on many occasions. He seems to get very little change out of the referees but is probably one of the most fouled players at these tournaments. Guernsey did make a comeback but we had another surge in us and Olof hit an insurance point with the conviction we know he has in him.

Second place meant we faced Paris, group A winners. They've had the edge on us since Copenhagen last year. We entered the game in Championship mode though, knowing that if we were to win this year's overall Championship, we could not lose again. It was our best half of football of the year, bar none. We totally overwhelmed them and burst forward on every occasion. When they did raid, they found a rejuvenated pairing of Burkey and Crusher in uncompromising form. 2-6 to 0-2 at half-time was our reward.

As you would expect from a team of Paris' quality, they rallied and claimed two goals (the only ones we conceded all day). Those goals showed up a frailty in our defence where we tend to be slow to react to certain situations. Again though, the surge was there and led by Lego man's six points from play (apparently) we took a deserved victory. Again, it would be The Hague in the final, for the 5th time this year.

The early chapters in this year's story with them were riddled with red cards and unsporting behaviour. In fairness both teams have largely reigned in that side of the game but they remain tight and edgy affairs. They have a particularly effective place kicker and again we were punished for some silly fouling in the first half. A one point half-time deficit was not overly concerning. It proved a stubborn gap to close though and The Hague increased it early in the second half. As the game came to a close, Timmy took a run at goal. There was traffic but he managed to veer right of it but in doing so cut his angle in such a way that a point was all he could muster. It wasn't enough and our opponents claimed a second successive European Championship under the lights of Budapest.

As always, it was disappointing but we cannot begrudge them their victory. They were missing a few lads too so to come down and grind out a win was a big achievement. It is hard to pinpoint where it has gone wrong for us but it cannot be anything too major. We are still there or there abouts and the margins in the two games against The Hague on Saturday show that. When we watched them against other teams on Saturday they looked awesome at times but we have it in us to contain them. Despite Maastricht being meaningless in terms of the overall Championship, our pride will ensure that we'll try and finish the year on a high.

Seven sessions left this year. There will be plenty of time to twiddle thumbs in the winter.

Shield Steps From Shadows

Rapid growth in Year 1 meant that we were well ahead of our plan in playing numbers when we landed in Maastricht in November 2008. That day we fielded two teams for the first time.

In 2009 we needed to consider whether we should persist with fielding a second team and we decided we had to. It would benefit everyone as we would have more players at training and more people involved in the club. Also, if we didn't we would lose the marginal lads. It was a big struggle though as you really need at least 26 lads travelling to allow both teams have subs and survive the day. Also, from the organisation side it adds a hefty weight to the burden.

Last year, we achieved our aim to field a second team in all the tournaments but did so without much success. The team was ragball-rovers-esque, playing in a beaten up set of jerseys from bygone days and fielding random characters regularly. Doors had to be knocked on, lads had to be dragged from beds and on occasion we even needed to recruit one or two on the day. There were so few glimmers of light it was admirable that the team kept stepping up to the plate with enthusiasm and will.

Back in March, we played up in Amsterdam, again with two teams. The first game would be between the two Belgium teams. Both togged in Belgium jerseys but this year the club had bought a second set, in red. It kind of rubber stamped the existence of this team. We made another decision that would negatively affect the team when we decided that the A team would no longer allow its subs to play down (or whichever way you say it to stay within the rules). It (paying up and down) had benefited no-one and meant that some guys would play too much and the subs on the Shield team would play too little. There were no complaints, the lads just got on with it.

Through Benelux, they fought gallantly in the toughest of regions (with 3 seasoned Championship teams). In Luxembourg, they claimed 3rd place, beating the hosts in the 3rd/4th playoff. It was coming together and they were heading for the Shield in buoyant form. Round 1 would take place in Munich. The team was down a host of regulars and struggled up front for long periods. They did manage to get their first win against Copenhagen and the copious amount of possession in other games (even if not reflected on scoreboard) bode well for the future.

Budapest was the latest outing at the weekend. Despite missing a wealth of decent players, the team had a hardy luck to it. Ross Church would make his debut and Ricky would move from Championship to Shield panel at the last minute due to Alec's missed flight. A tough group with Vienna, Copenhagen (winners of previous two Shields) and Amsterdam lay in wait.

Ricky struck late against Vienna for an opening win and that was followed with a 2-2 to 0-8 draw with Copenhagen in a game we should really have won. The group was very tight and even with two going through, whoever won the Amsterdam game would qualify. The losers would go out. Our lads were not to be denied, winning by a point.

A semi against Warsaw was next up but the detail has been lost through some beery memory loss. As we were in different locations, we couldn't see all of each other’s matches. Apparently Warsaw had one unbelievable guy and he ran wreck. Despite this, the lads could again have stolen the show with a couple of late goal chances.

Winning the group represents serious progress though. The team now has a realistic chance of winning the Shield out down in Maastricht. With many faces due to return, it should ensure training will be lively between now and then.

I could only manage to see only one game but heard many positive reports about the performances of Fergal, Hough, Andrew and Ricky especially. Also, only two goals conceded was an excellent reflection on the defence and RumAdrian. Onwards and upwards towards Maastricht.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Organisation

Whilst most lads are aware of the organisation that goes into tournaments, unless they've done it themselves they can't really understand.

The preparation started weeks ago with hotel bookings and flight arrangements. The Budapest club organised a group rate in a hotel in the city. In the past, everyone used to stay in the same place and that made things a lot easier to coordinate i.e. everyone leave for the pitch at the same time and get there at same time! Also there is money to be collected for registration/lunch/dinner, team sheets to fill and disclaimers to sign. Having fellas in the same place makes this a lot easier. Now though, some guys prefer hostels and others bring their girlfriends and check in elsewhere. There’s very little price difference between many hostels and the hotels we stay in now so I don't really get why guys don't just take the offers. It's not something i try to enforce though.

Then you have lads who put their name down for the hotel, knowing that the club has to pay a deposit and then either pull out or change their arrangements. Everyone is always apologetic and they probably don't think it's a big deal because it's only them but in reality, there are a load of lads trying to tinker with arrangements and it creates us, mainly Colin, a big headache.

The information pack takes a lot of putting together also. You need to consider transport from airport to hotel, hotel to pitch and back, hotel to restaurant etc. All that takes a lot of time to gather. The simple stuff like gear required, weather, fixtures, panels etc also need to be gathered and collated.

We go into a fair amount of detail to ensure there are as few loopholes for questions as possible. Still though, it seems unavoidable. Today, Hough emailed to say he thought we should emphasise more that its on astro and only mouldies are allowed. Now, in my world, you receive a pack of information and you read it because all the information in it is important. Otherwise we wouldn't have taken the time to put it in.

Also, some lads are just too smart for their own good and like to highlight things like Hungary not being in the eurozone. The reg/lunch/dinner costs €35 and thats what we put in the mail. If we wanted it in funny money, we would have asked for it in funny money!

And the jerseys. There’s always a scramble to collect the jerseys the week of the tournament. I washed the 'Championship' teams jerseys last night but the 'Shield' ones are still sitting in a spare room in our apartment building waiting to be washed.

Finalising the panels is no straightforward issue either. Paul Hagan pulled out a week or so ago, Paul Quinn pulled out yesterday and Kevin Keary today. This can't be helped as situations change etc so you just have to adapt quickly to it. Some guys are carrying injuries and were asked for an update on their situation on Monday but still have not informed me. Again, this complicates the selection process.

That's just a taste of it. There are a million other little things to be done also. You need lads to behave like an army of little ants to make things go smoothly. We've improved our information supply a lot in the last two years to try and reduce any possible mess being down to human error rather than us not providing the required details. I think we have pretty much achieved that. Next thing to tackle is reducing the human error factor.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Budapest Beckons

www.doodle.com has become a regular feature on our weekly info mails to the lads. It helps us with planning of attendance for training, tournaments and giving lifts. Yesterday afternoon we had 7 registered to attend training. I was not happy. It was the first night out at the BSB and I suspected some of the lads would be put off by the trek out by tram or car in rush hour traffic. We've rented the best pitch they have so decent numbers would be needed to justify that.

In the past, we used nearly go round to lads workplaces and hold their hands to bring them out there. Now we just send the list of possible drivers and tell lads to organise themselves. Still, Olof Gill of all people, called me at 18h10 (training at 19h) wondering where the meeting point for the lifts was. Naturally I referred him to the communication in the mail but he said he had no time to read it. No time to read that but enough time to engage me in gmail chat whilst said mail was sitting in his inbox in front of him!! Anyway, he pulled a lift out of the back so was spared. Remarkably it was the only call I received. Progress.

My mood improved as everyone trudged in on time; all 19 of them. Training has been fairly low key since Munich and I've been much quieter at training. Before our trip to Bavaria I was more vocal than at any point of the year as I tried to make everyone aware of the need to raise everything a few notches from Benelux. It didn't work so the approach possibly needed adjustment. One disappointing point since is that the majority have been happy to continue in the roll of follower rather than leader. You would be hard pressed to pick out the guys who have noticeably tried to drive things on since. Guys need to be less passive and step-up because the few they rely on to do it won’t always be there.

In any case, it is this week that is most important and last night's session went fairly well. We've some proper selection headaches with 29 guys travelling. Last year there was a fairly clear division between the Championship and Shield panels with little or no movement between the two. The group is much more even now and we have tried to give fellas a chance if they are showing well. It is a horrible task as you are always open to the accusation of subjectivity but it is very hard to have justifiable objective criteria, especially in the situation we find ourselves here with transience, business travel, personal upheavals etc being regular distractions,

Thursday night will be our last outing before we fly east on Friday. The panels should be communicated beforehand and then it will be all systems go. The Championship panel will have one or two guys returning which will give more depth to the team and the knock-on effect of that will strengthen the hand of the Shield team, who have a strong look about them. Still, just like all the talk about what we would do before Munich, in many ways, who you have, is not necessarily what matters, it's what they have and will bring to the show that matters.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Coaching Missionary Visits Brussels


Eamonn Ryan is highly regarded coach in G.A.A. circles and his name would be known throughout Ireland. His credentials are impressive having played inter-county football for Cork in the sixties and then gone on to coach Cork teams in virtually every code at every level. His most recent successes came with the Cork Ladies Footballers with whom he won five consecutive All-Irelands. Other clubs he would be strongly associated with would be Glenville, Watergrasshill, Na Piarsaigh and UCC to name just a few.

It is to his credit that he has kept up to date with all the latest coaching innovations, when many of his contemporaries have lost their jobs and credibility for not doing likewise. Mick O'Dywer is of the same vintage and much heralded but has not won an All-Ireland in donkeys years whereas Eamonn is still achieving great successes.

On Friday, I picked Eamonn up at the airport and we headed for a pre-arranged talk. There, he spoke to a group of forty club members for nearly two hours. Much of it focused on demonstrating what he wanted to do during the pitch sessions. A couple of points he made stood out though. One was relating to ownership and the player's role in develop their skills. When I was thinking about what to say to the Ladies at the 7's, one of the points I made was that as a coach, I'm only a facilitator. They are the players and they must make the decisions on the pitch. Eamonn also linked this to skill development and it is an important point for us all to remember.

He talked about a study he did on hurley size and his evidence and argument were very convincing. So many of the older generations live in the past and refuse to embrace the changes in modern hurling. Eamonn bucks the trend and he talked of how a shorter hurley is more relevant for the modern 'pick and strike' game. He had done a study of inter-county hurlers and listed off the names of top hurlers and the size of their hurleys. By the end of it, I think he had us convinced and most will seek a shorter caman for 2010.

On Saturday, he got rolling at 10h00 with the Ladies footballers and followed up with a session with the men. Many of the drills were the same and very simple in nature. In different ways, he pressurised and tired us but always kept the focus on the skill element. His explanations were clear and concise and he had many of us kicking points with our weaker foot by the end of it. I tend to cram too much into each drill and try and short-cut things a bit. I'd be paranoid about training lacking intensity and all that. From that point of view, how Eamonn goes about his business is a good learning.

On Sunday morning he was out with the Hurlers and again, we had a very worthwhile skill based session. Whatever about football, we especially need to work on our basic skills in hurling so his guidance was very relevant. His patient but firm approach works well and keeps you focused during the session.

A late addition to his itinerary was to train the kids out in Tervuren. The kids club have remained very separate to us since our re-formation and I thought it may be a good opportunity to start some strengthening of the link. With Fergal, Sean and Conor M playing with us but also having kids out at these trainings, the timing is good. Eamonn was excellent with the kids and his structured way of teaching the skills should be a great learning for the coaches. Eamonn himself felt it topped off the weekend very well.

He told me that when he used to first hear about European G.A.A. he wouldn't have taken it very seriously. Since then he has the opportunity to travel to Holland, France and Spain coaching teams and it has heightened his respect for the games on the Continent. At the weekend, he attended sessions in four different locations across the city. When you see his energy, enthusiasm and knowledge, it’s easy to understand why he remains such a respected coach.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Bounce

We concluded our year's training in Parc50 last night. With no lights and the evenings closing in, we have no option but to relocate. Our home for the remaining ten sessions of the season will be the BSB. Better forward planning this year means we have the nice pitch out there but we are still stuck with the 19h slot which is difficult for a lot of lads to make. It is also out in Tervuren and that is a very busy route at rush hour.

On top of this hurdle is the fact that numbers have begun to tailor off at training and the atmosphere has become a bit flat. The departures of key personalities is a contributing factor as well as people's workloads getting back to normal after the summer break. It's been a long season, stretching back to January and we've covered a lot of ground around Europe since then. It seems to be taking its toll.

My mood has become more irritable too which never helps things. Fellas not bringing gloves, arriving late, not telling me when they won't arrive at all etc are all getting on my nerves more frequently. The group needs a few characters with a bit of bounce in them. Not the type of p1ss artist who mucks around constantly at training, more the lad with the one liner and well timed interjections. I didn't hear anyone make a concerted effort to try and get some momentum into things last night. As with everything, fellas need to step up, especially when the mood is down.

I'm not so concerned ahead of Budapest though. Maybe we were all too wound up prior to Munich. We have Eamonn Ryan coming this weekend for some coaching sessions and his positive energy should transmit itself to the lads. Two good sessions next week and we'll head down in good shape. We've big numbers travelling and some lads are showing particularly well. Ricky kicked three points on the trot last night and is looking lively. Others need to pick it up in the next three sessions and earn their places.

I'd be half depressed after a poor training session and last night would fall into that category. When fellas look like they are going through the motions and not enjoying themselves, a fair share of the responsibility for that falls on the trainer. However, the trainer feeds off the enthusiasm of the group and that stimulates your mind to come up with new ideas. We put down a tough enough week this week but over the course of a long year, weeks like this are inevitable.

Expectation over the next 9 days is clear. Get out of your comfort zone of doing things who wouldn't normally do. Be more vocal and more positive. Show for balls in positions you normally wouldn't. Think about how you are going to make a difference in Budapest. And then actually do what you think/say you are going to do.