Football

Brendan Crossan: Player development and competition can go hand in hand

Some of the kids of St Malachy's OB Youth FC Picture: Dee Magennis
Some of the kids of St Malachy's OB Youth FC Picture: Dee Magennis Some of the kids of St Malachy's OB Youth FC Picture: Dee Magennis

YOU can’t knock a governing body for trying to regulate the behaviour of coaches if they perceive it to be a problem.

Last week, the GAA re-iterated its policy on a non-competitive environment for kids under 12. We can safely assume Croke Park didn’t expect the balloon to go up on this issue as it did.

It proved one of the biggest discussion points in the mainstream media and social media for a long time.

We can also safely assume that the GAA’s missive was directed at the over-zealous coaches we regularly see on side-lines all over the country and how the win-at-all-costs mentality has gripped the hearts and minds of so many volunteer coaches.

I coach at U9 and U10 level in soccer for girls.

Over the past three years, I’ve been spat upon by an opposition coach, I’ve been confronted by parents of the opposition after games. I’ve watched two of our girls assaulted in off-the-ball incidents and others were on the receiving end of some horrible tackles.

This went beyond teaching resilience and learning little life lessons between the white lines of a football pitch.

It was during these moments you questioned why you do it. And there were no trophies or no medals at stake.

This was a development programme. For fun. Allegedly.

Where some coaches – not all – lost the run of themselves and probably believed that their unbeaten record meant more to the coach than the kids themselves.

I ended up moving this particular team out of the programme for a number of reasons.

They were playing against boys every week, but some games were simply becoming too physical and dangerous for them.

There was no referee which meant coaches were automatically in the firing line when they called what they perceived to be a foul in a game.

We moved to an all-girls programme and one which had a referee every week.

The stress levels left me like the summer rain. I could enjoy being on a side-line again, enjoy coaching rather than having a knot in my stomach every Saturday or Sunday morning.

As it turned out, the girls had an absolute ball in their new programme.

So, when you consider that backdrop, I fully support when a governing body of a sport re-iterates to its member clubs and coaches the boundaries in which they are expected to observe.

Some clubs will hold themselves to higher account than other clubs. It’s the way of the world.

We can all cite examples of bad behaviour on the side-lines and behind the wire – and where the children are no longer the focus of our attention.

With this much talked about missive, the GAA, we can only assume, is trying to regulate the behaviour of adults here – and maybe this macro-managed approach is the only one open to the association at the end of the day - but should this mean children can’t compete for a cup or a medal at aged 9 or 10? 'We can’t trust the adults, so we’ll stick to Go Games...'

Is what we’re looking at an unintended consequence of GAA policy - to keep the over-animated coach in check?

St Pat’s, Maghera teacher Paul Hughes pointed out in yesterday’s Irish News how the strict adherence to the banning of competition at primary school level could harm the GAA pathway.

“Go Games are a brilliant concept, but do they wear thin when you’re not getting a buzz from them?

“Does it become easier for schools to say they can’t afford another Go Games day because we’ve gone to two or three already?

“There comes a flatness to it, a lack of energy about it, a lack of real passion about it. We have to remember this is a captive audience at primary school age – let’s keep that audience, let’s get them into GAA clubs and retain them.

“My feeling is competition for primary school aged children shouldn’t be regarded as a dirty word.”

Our girls group started with around 12 children.

We retained all these kids despite the ravaging effects of COVID and have since doubled our numbers.

Our role is to try and develop an individual in a team environment. Is there a better way to learn than through being part of a team, a collective?

We have three streams that are tailored for the ability of each child.

Some kids in our group are playing five years; others two months.

The kids who have been playing longer are ready for the next stage of their development.

They are ready for competition.

Indeed, they have played in occasional tournaments for the past two years and will compete in another one on Saturday.

Make no mistake: this tournament is an integral part of their development.

Why? Because they’re ready. The coaches know they’re ready because they know them better than anyone.

Win, lose or draw, the kids will learn a bit more about football, about making more decisions independently of their coaches, they will learn about problem-solving and dealing with bouts of adversity within games, they’ll deepen their understanding of team-work and will also have fun expressing themselves.

The tournament is a learning space.

We’ll have nine players for Saturday’s seven-a-side tournament. Each child will get roughly the same game-time.

If we lift the cup at the end of the day, great.

If we don’t, it won’t matter as the kids will enjoy the experience and spending time with each other between games.

If this was in the GAA, these nine and 10-year-old girls would be playing Go Games for another two years and deprived of a new learning experience.

“If there’s one space that you can have a child fail or not do well in,” said John McEntee, “surely it must be a sporting field as they’re learning things that are going to stand to them outside of the world of sport.”