By John Harrington

As weeks go, this is a pretty special one for Cork hurling as they prepare to contest all three All-Ireland Hurling Finals.

On Wednesday, they play Galway in the All-Ireland U-20 Final, on Saturday they play Galway again in the All-Ireland Minor Final, and, at the top of the bill on Sunday, they play Limerick in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final.

Throw into the mix the fact that they won the delayed 2020 All-Ireland Hurling Final last month, and it’s fair to say that Cork hurling is in pretty rude health at the moment.

The county's hurling supporters are understandably giddy, and all the more so because they’ve had relatively little to shout about for quite some time.

It’s 16 years since they last won an All-Ireland senior title, 20 years since they last won an All-Ireland Minor title, while last month’s 2020 U-20 All-Ireland was their first in the grade for 22 years.

So how exactly have Cork gone from that sort of serial underachievement to potentially winning four All-Irelands in one year?

The short answer is a combination of hard work and vision. Cork GAA have put a huge emphasis on underage coaching and development in recent years and now look set to reap the rewards.

The introduction of the ‘Rebel Óg’ Coaching programme with its more club centred fixture programme and formalised development squad structures have quickly proven to be a game-changer for Cork hurling.

Kevin O’Callaghan has been Cork GAA’s Games Manager since 2009 and has played a pivotal role in overhauling the county’s coaching and games development structures in that time.

He gave GAA.ie a very interesting insight into how the county has gone about improving its standards.

GAA.ie: Kevin, you have said in the period from 2005 to 2012 that Cork fell behind other counties in terms of hurling talent development. Were there any warning signs or was it a gradual process?

Kevin O'Callaghan: It was a gradual process and it was the performances on the pitch that just weren't at the level we would have wanted. We weren't as competitive as we should have been in various competitions at both development squad and school level. We had good people putting in great work, but other counties were mobilising quicker than we were in terms of development squads. We weren't as structured or organised as we should have been around that time.

Cork were very competitive at senior level around 2004, 2005, 2006. We were competing in All-Ireland Finals and we probably just took our eye off the ball a little bit. We maybe expected that sort of success to continue without having to mobilise our structures and work as hard as we should have been at it.

GAA.ie: So, in terms of restructuring through the establishment of Rebel Óg, when did that begin?

KOC: Rebel Óg came in to effect in 2012. This allowed our underage structures to move away from a rigid Divisional structure to a softer structure in terms of borders which allowed us to create better competitions. For example, the creation of a Premier Grade competitions allowed us to bring the best 16 clubs in the county together to go toe to toe and you're challenging those players at a level that was appropriate for them as opposed to them winning four or five games easily in their own geographical region. Softening the borders like that and allowing us to match up teams of an equal ability was definitely a big step forward in terms of improving playing standards. Another huge step forward came around our Go Games programme which catered for U8, U9 and U10 players in a blitz style format with a set calendar of activity. 2013 was the first time we had a structure in place for these age groups where boys got games that were participation focused and not results orientated, allowing boys to develop their basic skills in a relaxed atmosphere and this gave many of our current underage stars their start in gaelic games.

In addition to that, then, in terms of development squads, the county board put a task-force together to address some issues there. One of the things that came out of that was that Brian Cuthbert was put in as Chairman of work group that came up with recommendations around the structure of development squads.

Then in 2015 and 2016, Kevin O'Donovan, who was a GDA at the time in West Cork, his role was to oversee that programme and the structures recommended during that period Brian Cuthbert was Chairman of the work group on development squads. Most of Kevin's hours would have been channelled into developing those structures and the administration of the development squad programmes. That really helped the evolution of our squad system and standards went up in terms of player tracking, mentor education, having development squads as part of the overall underage calendar of activity in Cork.

And, to be honest, we're still tweaking our structures to this day, we're still improving them. But, I suppose, one of the key things for us is that we recognise that we're such a big county that we need to increase the base of players that are being exposed to development squads in Cork. That's a critical thing for us, because we realise that in the past we would have had two teams at U14 and that wasn't enough because boys develop through the grades at different rates. U14 is not a reliable age to identify future talent. So now we're catering for a larger pool of players now and we're doing it more locally with eight regional teams and then we're merging them into two teams by the time they get to U16 and then one panel at minor.

We've found that to be very, very beneficial for us. More players are being exposed to the development squads and the players are coming from right across the county so nearly every club in Cork is represented on our development squads now whereas in the past we would have been more narrow in our focus. We are as much about club development now as we are about elite player development and that is very important, especially for our smaller clubs as their best players are getting challenged in a way that they may not be able to do at their club. When they return to their club, they perform better and this is a win for everyone involved.

Another key factor in changing our fortunes was at Post Primary level, school teachers put their shoulder to the wheel and really started to develop and work from first years up. You've nurseries now again. The likes of St. Colman's have gotten exceptionally strong again after being down for a while. You've a couple of teachers in there who are really driving gaelic games on again now and they're competing in the business end of Harty competitions year in, year out. That's not because they look after the Harty teams, it's because they look after the first years when they come in. You could have 60/70 first years hurling in the school every week and they're looking after them all, they're not just picking a panel of 20. A school like St. Colman's is now almost a development squad in itself.

Any boy who goes into St. Colman's, Midleton CBS, Christians, The Mon AG, are nearly in development squads from first year because there are so many top-class hurlers going there now and they're all playing together. There's a huge amount of players from those schools making our development squads right through to minor and U-20 as well.

GAA.ie: It sounds like there has been a huge investment in coaching coaches with over 8,000 coaches completing courses since 2015. Presumably a lot of those coaches are teachers too which had a positive knock-on effect in schools as well as clubs.

KOC: Yes, we've had quite a number of teachers engage in that process as well, obviously. GDAs support the schools as well by going in and taking sessions and working alongside teachers to make sure sessions are at a high level. With limited GDA resources we need to build volunteer capacity and that capacity can be empowering our teachers. Upskilling them is mission critical going forward so we have plans afoot for education over the winter period to help them in terms of both conditioning for players and designing training sessions as well. We're on the road with that now and will be launching it in September.

GAA.ie: Have you seen club-school links in Cork strengthen in the past number of years as well?

KOC: At post-primary level, clubs and schools work quite closely together. At primary school level definitely there's been a major improvement in Cork on developing the club-school links. I think that has been a very strong element of our programme. We reward clubs through our benchmarking scheme which is basically accrediting clubs for best practice around games development. To get the bronze award first of all they have to complete a club-school link coaching programme for a minimum of six weeks. That's the first thing on the programme and it goes from there to silver and gold awards. We award clubs according to post-primary school links, coach education, the volume of work-shops, and their engagement with different programmes and work-shops with GDAs.

That has helped to focus clubs in terms of signposting best practice around coaching and games.

GAA.ie: Aidan O'Connell was appointed as Cork GAA's High Performance Manager in 2019. Is his role to develop a cohesive strength and conditioning programme for development squads that ensure every player is on the correct pathway and doing the right things?

KOC: That's certainly a part of it, yes. He has a pool of coaches working underneath him to help get those programmes up and running for the players. His role is broader than that however. Aidan has helped develop our curriculum for development squad players across technical, tactical, physcho-social, athletic and lifestyle areas. His knowledge around performance coaching and culture is a huge asset to our coaches at all levels in Cork GAA. His impact probably won't be fully seen for another four or five years down the road. We believe that Aidan's work will stand to the current players four or five years down the line.

GAA.ie: How satisfying for everyone involved with Cork coaching and games development was the recent 2020 All-Ireland U-20 Final win? It was the first underage All-Ireland hurling title win for 22 years and came after two defeats in the previous two finals in the grade so to finally get over the line and have something tangible at All-Ireland level to show for all the hard work put in must have been really satisfying?

KOC: Hugely beneficial. There are people volunteering on a daily and weekly basis around the county, thousands of foot-soldiers and we've been waiting long enough for some success so to finally get over the line has been a great lift to everyone involved. It just gives everyone a feel-good factor and it makes people believe in the process again. What we are doing is working. There are results there now to match the work that we're putting in.

There is renewed optimism around the county that we're back to the top table of hurling again finally and that success at senior level is on the way. Hopefully tonight, Saturday and Sunday will be another step along that road in fostering that feel-good factor.

GAA: You talk about a feel-good factor...playing All-Ireland Minor, U-20, and Senior Hurling Finals in the space of a few days, it doesn't get any better than that. Presumably a week like this justifies all the planning and hard work that has gone in over a period of years by Cork GAA Coaching and Games Development. You have to enjoy a week like this, don't you?

KOC: Yeah, absolutely. We're over the moon and really looking forward to the games and hopefully the results will be positive as well. I would say for the U-17s and U-20s that the journey is as important for them. Even though the public will obviously want to get over the line, the journey of getting to these finals is vital for the players because there is so much development taking place in those boys over the past couple of weeks and months. That's going to stand to them even if the results aren't victories. We have very, very good mentors involved who have done very good work and I think regardless of results at the weekend, I think that will stand to these young men as players and people.

GAA: Hurling is such a big part of Cork's identity as a county, I'd image the sustained period it experienced without success was really tough for everyone involved in the sport. As you say, it looks like Cork hurling is back at the top table now. Has that given everyone in the whole county a big lift? What's the general atmosphere like?

KOC: Yeah, absolutely. The flags are out again and everyone is buying jersies and looking for tickets. There was a period in Cork where boys weren't carrying their hurleys around with them. Whereas in the last two or three weeks every boy you see on the street or on the footpath has his hurley and sliotar out and is pucking ball. You can't put a value on that, it's just priceless. That's where boys will develop, if they're constantly hurling. All the formal training is great, but they have to be doing it themselves in their own time. The unstructured and informal learning is critical. That inspires the next generation of county stars and very good elite club players. That's what it means to us at the moment. It provides us with the role models to bring on the next generation of players and give them something to aspire to.