How can we affect change within the county@

[Truth as i see it]

I'm not sure too many would be interested in commenting on this as i get the feeling i've annoyed a few people with my comments over the past couple of months but what i'd like to do is start a forum on how we can affect positive change within the county instead of always giving out about whats wrong with it

God knows the board aren't going to do anything, I liken it to the Trappatoni situation with the Irish team, too old to change, to blinkered to bother.

so with that in mind i'd like to use this thread if i may for people to put their ideas forward, someone could do up a draft and send it to the board on behalf of the fans

Would anyone on here be up for this?

[llkj]

I'd say the best thing to do is to take the lead on it yourself. Add your suggestions, give a date for when you would like responses/similar suggestions, etc.
Don't wait for others to implement it if you feel strontly enough about it.

I, for one, will try to help where possible.

Good luck with it

[Truth as i see it]

I'd say the best thing to do is to take the lead on it yourself. Add your suggestions, give a date for when you would like responses/similar suggestions, etc.
Don't wait for others to implement it if you feel strontly enough about it.

I, for one, will try to help where possible.

Good luck with it

Can't believe someone else is up this late as well, fair play man, you having trouble sleeping as well

I was thinking this day three weeks from now for people to have their ideas in and we could take another week to narrow down the ideas to the best ones

I do have one idea, i sent it off to the Offaly PRO, haven't heard back from him though, not sure if he liked it or not but this is the basic outline of it

I call it the Club Excellence awards scheme

This idea is to give the club an incentive to want to improve by doing some simple tasks

The plan would be that a three tier excellence award scheme is set up into Bronze, Silver or Gold standard or Junior, intermediate and senior, whichever way you want to brand it

The idea is to give the members of the clubs motivation to put the time in and feel that they do contribute not just to their club but also to the county set up as well

The tasks should be three fold, one based on the volunteers, one based on the coaching and games development and one based on facility development

The tasks should be realistic and achievable for the clubs

For example from a volunteer point of view it could be something as simple as logging down how many times sandwiches are made for the senior team on training nights within a fixed time frame

Or how many people helped out with washing the club jerseys or people pitching in to mark the pitches out

For the coaching and games development it could be something as simple as the clubs having a fully qualified under 8s and under 10 coaching team or asking a local county player to again coach the under 8s and 10s ten times in a fixed time frame

For facilities it could be as simple as the club holding a day to paint the club house or take the stones and weeds out of the pitch

It would be in a similar vain to the Lucozade bottle caps competition that was held last year

After the tasks have been completed the county board can hold a night where the clubs can put forward a presentation of their completed tasks in each category along with a prior inspection report of the club grounds by a selected panel of judges

All clubs should receive either a merit or distinction cert for their participation but the Bronze, Silver or Gold awards would be given to the best clubs at junior, intermediate and senior level along with a prize (Training equipment, Prize Money, Free Holiday, Car) for senior level and smaller prizes for intermediate and junior

The idea is to show the club members that their time and effort does matter and that it has a positive knock on effect within the club and the community

The message hopefully is that regardless of how much or how little time a volunteer puts in, the amount of effort and focus that they put into their role at the club is important

It also shows them what a little ambition however small it is can achieve

This idea is just to get the ball rolling, if anyone has a better version or has any other ideas please let us know.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Good idea, but lets not run with solutions before we can walk, lets look at ourselves first.
1) How many people contribute here to the forum?
-A) How many of you are members of your club? (Paid up members who have a vote)
-B) When is the last time you attended an underage Adult or Underage AGM
-C) How do you contribute to your club
-1) Player Me: Player Junior
-2) Administrator Me: with underage club
-3) Underage/Adult coach Me:Underage coach
-4) General volunteer Me: Help mark pitch for underage games/general help when needed
-5) I dont, I support Offaly Me: Support Offaly but tend to prioritise my time towards underage in club
-D) If you dont contribute, what would you be able to contribute, what would you like to do? Me: Continue to develop as a coach with emphasis on increasing the amount of players continuing to play the game after they leave my group/ and learn from clubs using best practice/ also to change the lazy atitude that prevails regarding underage (seperate point needed to elaborate on this!!)

If we wish to ask people to change who are already volunteering their time free of charge, then surely you have to say what you are going to do yourself to change, it will take us all.

I train play with my club, administrate with underage club and train an underage team. I help out with general work when there are games on in the club. I want to develop more as a coach via the courses and seeking out best practice from other clubs. I would like to continue to work up through the age groups at underage and eventually adult teams. But I would feel the only way you can develop is to have a mentor work with you to assess your performance with teams, tell you where you may be going wrong, how you conduct yourself during games etc. And maybe, even though you feel you are good , that may not be the case.

[Truth as i see it]

Good idea, but lets not run with solutions before we can walk, lets look at ourselves first.
1) How many people contribute here to the forum?
-A) How many of you are members of your club? (Paid up members who have a vote)
-B) When is the last time you attended an underage Adult or Underage AGM
-C) How do you contribute to your club
-1) Player Me: Player Junior
-2) Administrator Me: with underage club
-3) Underage/Adult coach Me:Underage coach
-4) General volunteer Me: Help mark pitch for underage games/general help when needed
-5) I dont, I support Offaly Me: Support Offaly but tend to prioritise my time towards underage in club
-D) If you dont contribute, what would you be able to contribute, what would you like to do? Me: Continue to develop as a coach with emphasis on increasing the amount of players continuing to play the game after they leave my group/ and learn from clubs using best practice/ also to change the lazy atitude that prevails regarding underage (seperate point needed to elaborate on this!!)

If we wish to ask people to change who are already volunteering their time free of charge, then surely you have to say what you are going to do yourself to change, it will take us all.

I train play with my club, administrate with underage club and train an underage team. I help out with general work when there are games on in the club. I want to develop more as a coach via the courses and seeking out best practice from other clubs. I would like to continue to work up through the age groups at underage and eventually adult teams. But I would feel the only way you can develop is to have a mentor work with you to assess your performance with teams, tell you where you may be going wrong, how you conduct yourself during games etc. And maybe, even though you feel you are good , that may not be the case.

So in a nutshell its like the new Hurling plan that was recently launched, you want am football and hurling mentor for each club Correct??

By the way anyone with any ideas should take into account the cost of implementing them, For me its about using the resources that the county has at its disposal to better effect, (well better than the county board are using them anyway)

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

I dont know about the hurling plan, all I know is what i put down that I do. By the way, not looking for kudos here, I enjoy doing what I do. (Except the grief that I get from the wife over the time!) In fairness if you plan properly it does not take up much time.
However I do think that lads are thrown into jobs coaching underage even though they may not be properly trained. Need to have all coaches doing the proper courses and guys who are experienced need to come in as mentors to oversee new coaches and help them develop.

Lot of guys coaching their own kids and this is a real problem.

But I await to see what the atitude is like here to volunteer, did not see too much uptake re input to the Feile topic! Prove me wrong lads!

[Bord na Mona man]

What are the major problems that we are coming up with solutions for?

Is it lack of volunteers, poor coaching, poor coaching of coaches, lack of money, lack of support from the County Board, poor facilities, lack of interest from players or potential players?

[Truth as i see it]

What are the major problems that we are coming up with solutions for?

Is it lack of volunteers, poor coaching, poor coaching of coaches, lack of money, lack of support from the County Board, poor facilities, lack of interest from players or potential players?

Ok so how do we fix these problems, any practical suggestions?

By the way Ahlethimoutwithit yeah i take your point but my suggestion is more to do with reminding the volunteers of the important role that they play as a vital cog in the machine

If they see the fact that their role contributes in a big way not just on the field but off it as well they will be willing to put in the effort and know its important

This idea is more to do with getting rid of the general apathy around the clubs and sowing the seed that small goals when they are achieved can lead to bigger ones

Thats where i was coming from

[Bord na Mona man]

What are the major problems that we are coming up with solutions for?

Is it lack of volunteers, poor coaching, poor coaching of coaches, lack of money, lack of support from the County Board, poor facilities, lack of interest from players or potential players?

Ok so how do we fix these problems, any practical suggestions?

I was more wondering what do people think the biggest problems are?
I'm not at the coalface, so I'd be interested in getting more feedback as to what the experiences are on the ground.
Once we have identified the major issues, then it's easier to zone in on solutions.

The solutions I've read above all sound good, but I'd also be interested in hearing what particular issues they are they addressing?

[jimbob17]

Generally i think that the clubs are doing ok in relation to a lot of what is going on around the country. the clubs obviously are reliant on their own personnell. I would focus more on what the county board is doing to help the clubs in relation to expertise that can bring players on to a higher standard so we effectively have a higher standard of player, therefore better teams.

The most obvious lacking thing that i notice is a total lack of professionalism or professional approach among underage county teams in the county. People over these teams need to be vetted properly before being put in place. I left an underage dev. set up a few years ago as i could not work with some of the people involved due to the parochial nature of their thinking. There were easily 4 lads from lesser clubs, 3 from north offaly that should have been on the team but werent for the wrong reasons, ie nepotism. The people in place were generally chancers making it up as they went along albeit with great enthusiasm. My point is at this level, enthusiasm is not enough. Three years later, that same team played minor and from the team that was involved at 15 level, i could easily say that ten of the team would have been nowhere near the team at 15 level. The team was beaten by a so called "weaker county" in the 1st round 3 years later. Need i say more. To my knowledge there is little or no support or expertise provided to underage teams in relation to some key issues in reaching the top level, ie game plans and team play to make the most of your resources, education on diet and nutrition, Strength and conditioning, Statistical analysis & sport psychology. If underage county players were provided with such support in a professional environment, then we wouldnt have a minor team lining out without ten of their best hurlers on a championship day.

Ask any young lad what they think of playing for a co underage team and generally theyll tell you its a joke. Poor training, no fun and learn pretty much nothing. There are obviously exceptions to this but generally this will be the case. by the time they get to 21 senior, the talented lads have found better things to do with their time and only the really committed actually play on. Look at the present senior football team. Many of The best underage players of the last ten years are no longer playing football even with their clubs. There is no real prestige in playing for the county anymore. the only way of creating this is if we adopt a professional approach from top to bottom and lads will then buy in and believe again, resulting in a good senior team eventually.

To develop from here, people with expertise in these areas (nutrition, strength and conditioning etc) could and should be sent out to the clubs to share their expertise and paid by the county board or shared between board and clubs. One club for one evening would cost as little as 200 euro i would imagine and could cover maybe 80 - 100 players from 15 to 21 in each club. Board pay half and club pay half. If this is done in every club, then every player in the county from 21 to 15 would have access to this expertise. if it was only done for 14 to 18 year olds in strength and conditioning, it would be in invaluable to the development of the players. Not all players might take it on, but the real genuine guys would get a lot out of it. there is no foresight however, but if there was, this could transform the competitiveness of our minor hurlers and footballers if they were getting good quality coaching at the same time. And if it were really known, most good competitive counties are generally following this approach and have seen themselves step away from the plebs that we presently are. It all needs to come from the top though and i dont think the management expertise or intelligence exists at the top table to follow through on such progressive programmes as they havent a clue as to what is actually required to be competitive at the top table.

[jimbob17]

Generally i think that the clubs are doing ok in relation to a lot of what is going on around the country. the clubs obviously are reliant on their own personnell. I would focus more on what the county board is doing to help the clubs in relation to expertise that can bring players on to a higher standard so we effectively have a higher standard of player, therefore better teams.

The most obvious lacking thing that i notice is a total lack of professionalism or professional approach among underage county teams in the county. People over these teams need to be vetted properly before being put in place. I left an underage dev. set up a few years ago as i could not work with some of the people involved due to the parochial nature of their thinking. There were easily 4 lads from lesser clubs, 3 from north offaly that should have been on the team but werent for the wrong reasons, ie nepotism. The people in place were generally chancers making it up as they went along albeit with great enthusiasm. My point is at this level, enthusiasm is not enough. Three years later, that same team played minor and from the team that was involved at 15 level, i could easily say that ten of the team would have been nowhere near the team at 15 level. The team was beaten by a so called "weaker county" in the 1st round 3 years later. Need i say more. To my knowledge there is little or no support or expertise provided to underage teams in relation to some key issues in reaching the top level, ie game plans and team play to make the most of your resources, education on diet and nutrition, Strength and conditioning, Statistical analysis & sport psychology. If underage county players were provided with such support in a professional environment, then we wouldnt have a minor team lining out without ten of their best hurlers on a championship day.

Ask any young lad what they think of playing for a co underage team and generally theyll tell you its a joke. Poor training, no fun and learn pretty much nothing. There are obviously exceptions to this but generally this will be the case. by the time they get to 21 senior, the talented lads have found better things to do with their time and only the really committed actually play on. Look at the present senior football team. Many of The best underage players of the last ten years are no longer playing football even with their clubs. There is no real prestige in playing for the county anymore. the only way of creating this is if we adopt a professional approach from top to bottom and lads will then buy in and believe again, resulting in a good senior team eventually.

To develop from here, people with expertise in these areas (nutrition, strength and conditioning etc) could and should be sent out to the clubs to share their expertise and paid by the county board or shared between board and clubs. One club for one evening would cost as little as 200 euro i would imagine and could cover maybe 80 - 100 players from 15 to 21 in each club. Board pay half and club pay half. If this is done in every club, then every player in the county from 21 to 15 would have access to this expertise. if it was only done for 14 to 18 year olds in strength and conditioning, it would be in invaluable to the development of the players. Not all players might take it on, but the real genuine guys would get a lot out of it. there is no foresight however, but if there was, this could transform the competitiveness of our minor hurlers and footballers if they were getting good quality coaching at the same time. And if it were really known, most good competitive counties are generally following this approach and have seen themselves step away from the plebs that we presently are. It all needs to come from the top though and i dont think the management expertise or intelligence exists at the top table to follow through on such progressive programmes as they havent a clue as to what is actually required to be competitive at the top table.

PS pass it on to the gurus in O Connor Park at least.....

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Fair play Jim Bob, lot of valid points there. However wheras you seem to think that the clubs are doing a good job at underage, I would tend to disagree.
And I have outlined points above but to elaborate on one aspect, lazy coaches, guys who want to be involved but only take teams one night a week and run for a limited time of the year.
In summary:
-Need underage coaches in club in place in November
-Seek out people with necessary skills/ put plan in place to help them get their coaching courses done
-Seek out best practice on how often teams need to train/what are we trying to achieve with each group
-Call on all fitness experts in the club to input in order to build a training plan/template that will address the gaps with individual players
- Look at what is being done in the off season from 12 up, give kids programs to do individually, skills tasks, core work, running plan, and measure fortnightly--- Nutrition/Diet plan, involve , present to parents, indeed organise some walking/running/circuit activity as part of the club that parents can sign up to do and run during training, (simple as encourage parents to walk around the pitch during training)

-Assess how many people are needed to help implement this new plan, who can be approached in the area, and how that approach is being made.


-Continually assess and evaluate how sessions are run, attendance levels, progress, behaviour of mentors & children and

Present this plan at the AGM (which should be held for underage in late September), have a vision for what we are trying to do, as simple as "using Gaelic football as a platform to create a healthy lifestyle choice for the kids & families of our Club"???

I know there are a number of good people in our club who have been burnt in the past by similar experiences to what you describe above JimBob, and now sit back and look on, an apathy has grown, and this is now feeding through at adult level.
The preparation and training sessions are haphazard, and poorly executed, lads standing around while drills are being set up.
One session a week for 2 of the underage teams, training running from end March to early September, poor link up with activity in the National Schools.
I plan to draw up a template with areas to address in the club and would like some feedback from other clubs who may have tackled some of the issues above, I know Edenderry in particular are doing some great work.

There is so much that can be done, and there does not have to be huge investment of additional time or money, just through people using their time and current resourses smarter and more efficiently.

People need to invest in themselves also/do a little research/visit a successful club outside the county(clubs love to share their knowledge)/just find people to evaluate your training session and take a bit of feedback.
Kids need to see that you value their time and are making a real effort each session you have with them/ that you are interested in developing their all round skills/ decionmaking/fitness/ability to use both hands & feet/ .......and the key is to making the sessions enjoyable. People forget that they are role models for these kids, and in many cases are often the only male influence, whether kids decide to stay playing football is often dependant on the coaching they get.

A real responsibility, but one that should be seen in a positive light!!

[Truth as i see it]

Ok all excellent points but just two quick points on that

1. Isn't it the county coaching officer Alan Mulhalls job to get the underage coaches up to standard

if you type in Offaly coaching and games development into a google search engine you should find an online booklet on the coaching and games shcedule for the year within the county, in it it goes through the programmes that the county are running at the moment and one of them is coach right best practice, it gives an overview of what this section involves on the first two pages

I take it this isn't working yes?

Perhaps we should be asking Alan if he feels its working or not and would he be open to suggestions on how we can tackle the problem

Second of all the county board are notorious for their penny pinching tendencies, if they can find an excuse for not spending money they won't

Jimbob you say that the county board don't have the mindset to think in a modern sense, on that i 100% agree with you, so for me what we have to do is come up with ways of getting the right information out their through alternative ways without costing the county board a whole lot of money

We'll have to put it in a language they understand

Thats the whole idea of this thread

[Truth as i see it]

There is so much that can be done, and there does not have to be huge investment of additional time or money, just through people using their time and current resourses smarter and more efficiently.

People need to invest in themselves also/do a little research/visit a successful club outside the county(clubs love to share their knowledge)/just find people to evaluate your training session and take a bit of feedback.
Kids need to see that you value their time and are making a real effort each session you have with them/ that you are interested in developing their all round skills/ decionmaking/fitness/ability to use both hands & feet/ .......and the key is to making the sessions enjoyable. People forget that they are role models for these kids, and in many cases are often the only male influence, whether kids decide to stay playing football is often dependant on the coaching they get.

A real responsibility, but one that should be seen in a positive light!!

This for me is 100% correct, by the way if you want any suggestions for your template i'd be happy to put them forward

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

The point is you cant change it here because most of the guys on here have no involvement. First thing to change things is get involved. But not a great input as to what involvement anyone has, including yourself.

Also, it is Alans job to a point , but clubs are asking guys to coach teams and these guys are not doing the coaching courses, this is the case believe ot or not.

I am happy enough to do up a template myself, but anything you want to put up here would be apprieciated.