Moran praised for driving Mayo underage coaching links

Mayo senior manager Andy Moran has been hailed for the hands-on role he has taken in linking the county’s underage academies, coaching structures and senior setup.

“We contacted him as soon as he was appointed and he was gung-ho from the start. He is connecting the dots between the coaching and games piece, right through the academies and right through the senior team and he has been brilliant,” said Mayo GAA Head of Coaching and Games, Billy McNicholas.

McNicholas and Academy Director Kieran Kilkenny gave a presentation on their work to the March meeting of the Mayo GAA County Board and outlined the role Moran has taken since he was appointed senior manager last year.

McNicholas said Moran had presented at workshops to over 350 coaches in the county while Kieran Kilkenny said Moran spoke to every single academy squad and senior players like Jack Carney, Tommy Conroy and Jack Coyne have also come in to talk to young players.

In their presentations, McNicholas and Kilkenny gave an update on Mayo’s coaching and underage structures.

McNicholas said the club development officer role, part-funded by clubs and Connacht GAA, now incorporates 21 clubs in the county.

“This programme is absolute gold to us. Ninety percent of the coaching is in primary schools and the coaches link any child who may not be involved with a club into the club. It is a super programme I’d recommend to any club,” he said.

Speaking about the Cúl Camps programme, McNicholas said that in Mayo last year, 6,262 children participated across 54 camps with 200 coaches.

He said a Transition Year programme to train coaches was crucial for the recruitment of Cúl Camp coaches while also outlined their hopes to maintain two sports science internships and a strength and conditioning coach placement.

Kieran Kilkenny said from his experiences at national level, Mayo are ‘way ahead’ of most counties for Go Games Under 12, 10s and 8s with the numbers participating ‘absolutely colossal’ and praised Mayo GAA Children’s Officer Celia Rattigan as ‘one of the best children’s officers in the country’.

Kilkenny gave an update on the academies. Michael Conroy is over the under-19s, John Comer is in charge of the under-16s and Éamonn (Benji) Smyth over the under-15s. Under 14s operate in the four regional divisions only.

He said there are 48 coaches across the four grades, while expressions of interest sought through clubs produced 17 responses.

He said the under-19 academy is ‘a massive help at bridging the gap from minor (under-17) to under-20’. They meet face to face ten times and also have strength and conditioning programmes given, and s&c and skills testing carried out. Defensive and attacking workshops also take place.

He outlined the success their under 16 and under 15 teams had had in the Buncrana Cup and Adam Mangan Cup respectively before adding that they do not just judge the academy teams on results.

For under-16s this year, they had 158 players taking part in regional trials and 215 at under 15 trials.

He said ‘mistakes will be made’ with selection and they have a ‘full open door policy’ and that they will look at a player again if a club wants them to, asking clubs to make that approach through their coaching officers.

He said contrary to what some people had suggested, academy players will never be told they cannot play with their club and that ‘the player will be absolutely central to everything we do’.

Mayo GAA Central Council delegate Con Moynihan added that from his experience, players who did not make the cut still went back to their clubs as better players.

“Only seven or eight percent will play senior inter county,” replied Kilkenny. “But the rest we hope will bring value back to their clubs. Our hope is the rising tide will lift all,” he said.