Cahir Speir of Derry celebrates with the Tom Markham Cup after the 2023 Electric Ireland GAA Football All-Ireland Minor Championship final match between Derry and Monaghan at Box-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Any county hoping to improve their level would do well to take a close look at the Derry GAA Coaching and Games Development model.
The county minor footballers contest another All-Ireland semi-final this Saturday and if they go on to win a third All-Ireland title in five years in the grade it wouldn’t be a huge shock such is the quality in their ranks.
The calibre of young footballer that Derry is now routinely producing can be directly linked to the huge work done behind the scenes by Derry GAA staff under the leadership of Coaching and Games Manager, Chris Collins, who has been in the position since 2007.
His first year in the role saw Derry GAA do away with their two district leagues and instead implement a county-wide roll-out of the Go Games programme.
Current senior county players like Paudie McGrogan, Ben McCarron, Conor Doherty, Shea Downey would have been among the first intake of what has proven to be a transformative model.
If that was as significant milestone then so too was the decision to restructure the county’s development squads ten years ago.
Current minor team manager, Damian McErlaine, was involved with that restructure, and the coaches who assist him - Gavin McGeehan, Murtagh O’Brien, and Antoin Moran – have also given great service to the development squads over the years.
In this way the Derry GAA academy hasn’t become best in class when it comes to player development, it also puts a strong emphasis on upskilling and promoting their own coaches from within.
Sometimes you can have a situation in counties where each underage team is an island where the manager does their own thing with little oversight, but that’s not the case in Derry.
Derry footballer, Conor Doherty.
The Derry GAA Coaching and Games Department links in with every development squad as well as the county minor and U20 teams.
Every management team feeds back in to Chris Collins which leads to a hot-house environment for both long-term player and coach development.
“When we restructured our development squads back in 2014 we had won maybe just one game in seven years at minor level which was a complete travesty and down to the work that hadn't been done in the 10 years previous to that,” says Derry GAA Coaching and Games manager Chris Collins.
“But we then got good solid people into the building who all wanted to learn. That's the type of personalities that we wanted involved with the development squads.
“It's not necessarily the biggest names or people on the club coaching circuit, it's people that are showing an attitude to learn and want to be in Owenbeg on a Saturday morning. If you're going to be involved in Derry you need to be committing that 10am to 1pm every Saturday.
“They're happy to put their shoulder to the wheel. Most people that are involved with the development squads we then make minor and U20 management groups from.
“It's a holistic approach. People are willing to work together and we have a brilliant facility that enables us to do that. The football-based coaches, the strength and conditioning coaches, and the nutritionists are all working hand in glove.
“You can't have someone going and doing their own thing. It's about the bigger picture and pushing players forward and we have been successful from a player point of view in doing that.
“Our seniors should have maybe gotten to an All-Ireland Final last year but just came up short against Kerry. I'm confident we're going to have a playing group that is capable of competing at the top level for the next six or seven years and we'll see what comes from that.
“The aim is to win an All-Ireland. You might pull up a wee bit short, but the key thing for us is to be really competitive at the top table again and thankfully we are.
“Every success we get along the way I would text the development squad coaches and the lads who have maybe left the system. Eamonn Burns was involved with this minor group at U-16 level and did a fierce amount of work with them. So I'd text him after ever win just to say thanks because we haven't forgotten his contribution. That's what it's about.”
The Derry manager Damian McErlain celebrate after winning the Electric Ireland Ulster GAA Football Minor Championship final match between Armagh and Derry at O'Neill's Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Philip Fitzpatrick/Sportsfile.
Damien McErlain has now led Derry minor teams to Ulster finals in each of his five seasons as manager, winning four of them, and two All-Ireland Finals, winning one of them.
His time in charge of the Derry senior football team after his first stint as minor manager wasn’t a happy one, but he’s proven himself all over again in his second coming with the minors.
“I think it says a lot about him in terms of just how humble he is as a person,” says Collins. “There's not too many people who would do that but he's reaped the rewards.
"It really was a case of redemption last year when he won the All-Ireland because he had a lot to prove in terms of the Derry public. When you get a knock at senior level people are very quick to disregard you. So I'd say it was a case of redemption last year for Damian.”
The powerbase of Derry football has traditionally been the rural hinterland in the south of the county where you’ll find clubs like Ballinderry, Bellaghy, Slaughtneil, Lavey, Magheralfelt, The Loup, and current kingpins Glen.
But the success of the Go Games programme and significant investment in coaching at club and school level means standards have risen across the board and players from clubs in Derry city and other areas in the north of the county are now routinely featuring on county representative teams.
“What we're starting to see now is that we're seeing less traditional clubs, not just in Derry City but across the board, there's one or two players coming from those clubs every year just because of the sheer number of games that they’re getting at a young level,” says Collins.
“Our secondary school programme is very impressive and we've invested in GPOs in that space in some of our larger schools and that continues to be a breeding ground and then there's our development squad work.
“There's a conveyor belt of talent there and that's largely down to our clubs feeding into our secondary schools and then we're picking boys up around the age of 15 who have a really strong skill-set, a really good desire to do well.
“Our senior team obviously has been knocking on the door for the past few years, we've had serious success at minor level, and that just breeds that hunger among the group and young fellas now are just delighted to be in Owenbeg. They're there every Saturday morning without fail.”
Derry captain James Sargent lifts the cup after the Electric Ireland Ulster GAA Football Minor Championship final match between Armagh and Derry at O'Neill's Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Philip Fitzpatrick/Sportsfile
Derry GAA have invested heavily in Derry City in the last 10 years and there are green shoots now bursting through the soil that could lead to sustained bumper crops in the not too distant future.
2022 All-Ireland Intermediate football champions, Steelstown, are the standard-bearers in the city, but Doire Trasna, Sean Dolans, Doire Colmcille and Na Magha have all developed new homes in recent years that have given them a much stronger foothold in the community.
That in turn has led to an explosion in the number of children playing Gaelic games in the city and a marked increase in the competitiveness of the GAA clubs there at underage level which will translate to the same in the senior grade with time.
“There's a really positive trajectory up there,” says Collins.
“All of those clubs now have their own base for the last four or five years, they've all gotten a GPO in place, numbers are through the roof.
“Doire Trasna have been at it for 10 years properly now and they're starting to see U-14 teams competing. In the past their U-11s and U9s wouldn't have been anywhere near a Glen or a Magherafelt or Lavey or Slaughtneil, but these teams in the city are all on a par now in those age-groups.
“The key for us in Derry city is to improve the coaching because you don't have the same knowledge base and tradition other than maybe people coming into the area. So if we can improve the day to day coaching the kids are receiving from the volunteers then there's no reason why in 10 years time they won't have made huge strides.
“There's 120,000 people in Derry city and it's a very young population. So if we could get Derry city cracked, and I already think it's on its way, then we'll make great gains.
“We're already seeing more players from the city clubs make it on to county teams and as that trend continues then people from the rural clubs in Derry will understand why we're investing so much money up there. It all bodes well.”
Saturday, June 22
Electric Ireland All-Ireland MFC semi-final
Derry v Kerry, TEG Cusack Park, 1.30pm (TG4)
