I HAPPENED to be talking to a concerned schoolteacher and coach last week on the current plight of some of our best and most talented footballers. We talked about burn-out, probably something I never considered an issue until recent years.
Personally, I loved football so much while growing up that playing two matches a day, often in addition to a PE session at school, didn’t seem like a chore.
Whether it was a game of soccer or basketball, my enthusiasm and commitment to it was pretty much the same. However, we are in different times.
I am not a PE teacher nor do I do a lot of underage coaching so it can be difficult to form a view on the back of one conversation with someone who experiences player issues and availability at underage level on a daily basis.
There is a school of thought out there which suggests we are driving some of our best footballers at underage level towards burn-out.
Equally, on the other hand, I hear complaints of young players not getting games or opportunities. Additionally, some of the best talents at minor grade are fit to line out at reserve and senior level, however, they are prevented from doing so because of the current rules surrounding age grading.
In such cases, the senior team could be struggling to get a team onto the field and, historically, they had been able to dip into minor teams to make up the numbers.
In many ways, what is now lacking here is good old practical common sense – which isn’t that common. Mickey Walsh was one of the best underage players in Down when I was growing up. Ronan Sexton, who happened to come from the same club, Mayobridge, was also.
The ’Bridge were blessed at that time with underage players who would go on to backbone a senior team who would be serial county championship winners.
Their primary school age team was unbeaten in P6 and P7 grades. I was at the Abbey primary and we would have been very good, but were still no match for Mayobridge. Mickey went on to the Abbey Grammar along with Ronan and myself and we played together in all respective school teams and, indeed, in the year above us.
In first year, Mickey was called up to the third year team – pretty much unheard of.
This was a pattern which would continue in subsequent years, playing three years ahead of himself at times. This continued into college when Mickey and Ronan were in the Jordanstown Sigerson team as Freshers.
I remember Jimmy McGuinness was captain at UUJ at the time and, when we watched the matches, our opinion was that he had perhaps been very fortunate to play in the starting 15 with Ronan in particular making much more of an impact in the games.
UUJ would go on to win the competition with Mickey at centre half-forward leading the line and Ronan coming off the bench to change games. Early in Mickey’s life, because of his talent, he was always a manchild playing ahead of himself at higher grades. Looking back, a blind man could have seen that it was unsustainable.
Added to all this was the fact that Mickey was perhaps the first example of the adoption of a strength and conditioning programme.
Mickey would be plagued with injury and, into his late teens and 20s, his pace was seriously affected.
After series upon series of knee and hamstring problems, the end result of those injuries was a significant factor in what turned out to be a limited inter-county career in comparison to previous.
Ronan was different – growing up with a boxing background, its influence and training style allowed him to become a person more conditioned towards football.
Ronan would thrive at senior level and probably suffered as a result of his selflessness – he would epitomise the definition of a team player and do the things which were not as glamorously discussed as they are now via statistics.
What I am arguing is that Mickey, in my opinion, was a victim of burn-out.
Every one of his coaches and managers wanted him to play because he could win them games and competitions. Coaches at the time did not see the pressure he was under to play for them and the effect it would have on him in later life, mentally or physically.
Ronan could well have gone the same way as Mickey only, luckily for him, he was of a different body composition and trained completely differently.
All things considered, it is human nature to be selfish and, whether we are a player or a coach, let’s be honest, we all want to win for ourselves.
I have heard of current underage players undertaking strength and conditioning sessions at lunchtimes. Then some of these same players have training after school with the school team then again later with their club team that evening.
If, like Mickey and Ronan, they are sometimes playing ahead of themselves, this may be the same every day of school week added to the fact that there are another two sessions on a Saturday or Sunday with the county development squad.
We have seen in the past that bans are ignored and openly flouted. That doesn’t work.
And with rural clubs struggling to get underage teams onto the field, the ban in using players capable of making the step up is having a severe effect on other players’ opportunities.
Fortunately, the science behind the strength and conditioning element of training is much better at underage level now, but unfortunately the pull from a raft of different teams is not.
In actual circumstances, it is probably worse in the sense that development squads did not exist in my time, so, it was only at minor grade where a county call-up potentially effected club and school participation.
They do not share the same season so this protected some of the best players from burn-out.
The issue at the centre of all this are the clubs who nurture and develop talent. In effect, on the back of this, both the school and county set-up avail of their time and effort but often leave the player a shadow of their former selves or compromised and injured in some way.
County underage managers pulling rank and dictating club fixtures and availability is a regular occurrence.
Schools coaches use their own positions in authority to do likewise – after all few pupils will be less likely to openly disobey a teacher, especially ones grading them at the end of the year. Physically, many players suffer injuries – some long-term and some chronic.
Mentally drained and pulled from pillar to post, some suffer exhaustion. Is it any wonder that many go to college and drop out of the game?
In the elitist race by counties to develop winning teams, I fear for the youth in our ranks.
I fear that the education system is failing our most talented athletes – because they are talented at sport.
I fear it will be left to coaches and managers to use common sense when deciding workload on players.
And, in this case, this never ends well.
