I wasn't trying to be in any way disparaging towards Birr. One could argue that in many clubs, the same level of preparation is not being done in schools that once did this work. This is certainly true. My point is that Birr were once a huge force at underage. That slipped for a good while but in the past 5-6 years, the work is being put in again by many who came through the previous successes and this will eventually surface at senior level and with consistency of approach, it will happen at underage also.greenairfield wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:14 pm Jimbob hold on here for a second. Its very hard to wipe the floor as you say in any county Birr might of done it for years due to the fact of the presentation brothers were feeding Birr with numbers every year with a huge amount of talent amongst them players.
That is not the case anymore due to the fact the brothers are no longer there and the school gives as much time ot things ike rugby,soccer music art whatever it may be.
So then it just down to the club and huge work is been put in while they mihght not be sweeping the floor like they use they have 7 or 8 lads from the age of 18-21 who were on Offaly underage teams the last few year and thats all they need and thats all they need as a club.
I'd argue that the Kildangan Ballinamere comparison is not so relevant. Kildangan is a huge parish stretching from Nenagh right out to Dromineer and over to Borrisokane. They had successful teams and a strong history back in the day but then disappeared for years. It has many primary schools but never really pushed things from a club perspective. Darragh Egan and a few more have strategically addressed this with huge underage work over last 10 - 12 years and now it is bearing fruit.
Ballinamere on other hand is a tiny place with no strong history, but they are getting a few in from Durrow and maximising every bit of talent involved with almost a hundred coaches involved in underage alone. They are lucky that there are some strong GAA people that have moved to the area that are involved or have been involved in underage teams, like Ml Duignan, Jim Troy and Daithi Reagan for example in hurling and Declan Meehan (Galway) in football. However, behind these well known names are a host of interested GAA people who might be largely unknown but do huge volumes of work in coaching the underage teams. There is a strategy there and while they might only be struggling at A level at times or even competing in B at younger age groups, they are more than competitive in A hurling and football by the time they get to minor level. Their minor football team of last year is a case in point. This is as a result of the work being done. It is the club here that is organising itself and doing huge work and credit to them, they are seeing rewards and significant improvement, and their girls football teams have also come from nowhere to now being very competitive in all grades. If all clubs had this level of organisation and maximised what they had, we would be in great place, that is all I am suggesting.