Football Development Squads

Football Development Squads


Over the past month or so all football development squads were engaged in preparation for the National Blitz Days which were held last Saturday the 13th of August. Kildare competed in all age groups for the national event, that being U14, U15, U16 and U17, and the details of each blitz are as follows:

U14 Football

This blitz was hosted by Kildare GAA in Ballyteague and saw Kildare play two games over the course of the morning. The results of these games, which follow, are such that Kildare will now be graded in the top group (together with Dublin, Meath & Laois) for the Leinster Blitz on Saturday the 22nd of October.

Kildare 4 - 09 Longford 1 - 03

Kildare 6 - 08 Wexford 2 - 00

Kildare Coaching & Games wish to thank the Ballyteague club for their hospitality on what was a very enjoyable and well organised day.

U15 Football

This blitz was again hosted by Kildare GAA, this time in the Hawkfield Centre of Excellence. Kildare played three games in this blitz with the results being as follows:

Kildare 4 - 06 Down 5 - 01

Kildare 2 - 09 Meath 2 - 07

Kildare 5 - 14 Carlow 0 - 02

U16 Football

The U16 football blitz was held in the Naomh Mearnog club in Portmarnock, Co. Dublin and Kildare again played in three games. The results being as follows:

Kildare 1 - 21 Leitrim 0 - 01

Kildare 1 - 10 Wexford 0 - 10

Kildare 0 - 11 Antrim 0 - 02

U17 Football

The U17 football blitz was held Darvar, Co. Louth and Kildare again played three games over the course of the day. The results being as follows:

Kildare 3 - 07 Louth 0 - 05

Kildare 0 - 05 Tyrone 2 - 10

Kildare 3 - 12 Wicklow 0 - 02

One thing that should be noted about the U17 blitz is that up to 18 players did not travel due to the local Senior, Intermediate and Junior fixtures over the past weekend. This is surely a positive in so far as 18 Kildare 17 year olds played club championship games while a further 24 Kildare 17 year olds played inter county football, winning two from three, over the same weekend.



In summary Kildare's Development Squads won 11 from 12 games played on Saturday and while winning is not everything in the Development Squad system, it is a good indicator of the work being undertaken within the County at this level.

Fair play, some going. Remember hearing about the success of development squads in the likes of Tyrone and Dublin a decade ago. Fingers crossed we are headed in the same direction where we can look forward to being competitive every year, rather than a few seasons here and there. With out population and this commitment, it bodes well. Good on all the players and those behind the scenes who will never get the credit of those at the top but are every bit as important.

overthebar

Why are these games against second or third rate rate counties ? Why not against Cork , Dublin , Kerry etc ? Any particular reason ?

These are very impressive returns from our underage teams.

I can't say I'm surprised considering the level of committment our five development squad officers have put in.

I have witnessed these Cul Camps first hand and am very impressed with there running. My small village who generally have between 14 - 20 seniors training saw over 100 kids at their 1 week camp.

I have also seen the work put into these teams spoken of above and commend the lads and any other helpers they get for there efforts.

I conclude by saying i think its safe to say the future of LilyWhite football is in good hands.

Tadhg, Noel, Declan, James & David keep up the good work!!!

Well done to all involved in these squads, great to see this development

This was a blitz for all leinster teams played at different venues in leinster, also a few other teams from other provinces also played. I think there is a final blitz in october for U-14 development squad in which teams who won there games will be graded into the top section and will play one another, it'll interesting to see how they fair against the so call stronger counties.......... have to say that it looks like there is serious work been done with these development squads........can only be good for the future of football in the county.

Reading things like this is very encouraging but we really need to capitalise on this talent coming through and start regularly attaining silverware at underage level. Because we have no real tradition of success at any age level in recent decades, it makes achieving the breakthrough at senior level all the more difficult. Success breeds success and if we can develop a culture of winning at minor and u21 level it will eventually permeate to the senior team.

It's a real pity we didn't win a Leinster minor title considering the talent that was there in 2009 and 2010. The defeat to Longford last year was a real freak result in many ways and cost us a real chance at an All-Ireland title. Look at how the Dublin minors are steamrolling teams this year with much the same personnel that were beaten twice by the Kildare minors last year.

We have been competitive at u21 level for the past decade but we arguably should have won more than just two Leinsters. We again let a golden opportunity slip this season against Wexford who went on to win the province out. We should be strong again next season though and hopefully that crop can deliver a title.

If we can harness the talent and resources we have in this county we really have a bright future but only if we start consistently producing successful underage teams rather than one or two every ten years.

Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh siad.

another good day for the development squads kildare u/14 beating louth 3-13 to 1-03 and westmeath 4-13 to 1-06. u/15'sbeat wexford and carlow and the u/16's 0-08 wexford0-01. kildare 1-09 kilkenny 0-00.

Indeed considering the conditions a very good days work

Yeah ballyboy have to agree with you, great performance in poor weather conditions, i have attended a number of games and training sessions this year with most of the development squads and the work been put in with these teams is top notch, the future looks bright for football within the county. Have to say the U-14 development squad that played in ballykelly looked the part, they were well drilled and played some outstanding football................keep up the good work lads, top marks to the ballykelly club for there facilities also.

I think McGeeney deserves great credit for the development of Kildare football such as indicated above. I know he's probably not directly involved but I'm sure he's had a hand in putting structures in place.

I'm as big a fan of Geezer's as any man but the development squad system was set up by Bryan Murphy and he continues to oversee it, with the county coaches taking the various squads along with three or four mentors with each team.

The development squad structure was actually put in place by Syl Merrins and he appointed Bryan Murphy to oversee the whole processes. There is a county coach attached to oversee each squad and then each off these squads have 4-5 coaches from various clubs. All coaches are expected to have the foundation and level 1 courses done, if not they are sent to do them. There is also a funding system in place which is under pressure at present due to lack of public support for obvious reasons

Murphy must take a lot of the credit for the structures in place syl merrins to for the vison to put it in place. geezer has had little or no input at this stage.

When the development squads were initiated, Bryan Murphy had nothing to do with them, the strucutres were put in palce before he got involved, I am sure they may have been improved over the years, so I do not know where ye got that from, re Brians involvement. Bryan has worked with the Minors for the past couple of years and gets on well at that level. McGeeney does not get involved at all, he has not (or rarely) met with the minors, at least not in the past 3 years. I am not saying he should. As regards development squads from one under 14 squad a number of years ago only 30 - 35% made it at minor level, a promising under 14-15 may not make it to county minor standard. Many of the counties who have not performed well in the squad tournaments have gone on to win county minor and under 21 recently, Kildare are not in that cohort. That said many lads get a opportunity to wear the county jersey and that can only be good for their confidence and self esteem. The success to our underage squads are the players themselves, their coaches at school and club level and the 5 or so county coaches, kildare has some of the better full time coaches in the country.

Watched the u14 development squad on saturday in Ballykelly. Its a big panel, with some fine footballers and physcial too. They were much too strong for louth and westmeath.

Bān go Lēir wrote:

Watched the u14 development squad on saturday in Ballykelly. Its a big panel, with some fine footballers and physcial too. They were much too strong for louth and westmeath.

I've heard great things about this u14 team but again the question has to be asked, why are they playing the likes of louth and westmeath instead of teams like Dublin and the other stronger counties?

TheBigFullForward wrote:

Bān go Lēir wrote:

Watched the u14 development squad on saturday in Ballykelly. Its a big panel, with some fine footballers and physcial too. They were much too strong for louth and westmeath.

I've heard great things about this u14 team but again the question has to be asked, why are they playing the likes of louth and westmeath instead of teams like Dublin and the other stronger counties?

Seemly the teams in this blitz had qualified to be there, so therefore were the strongest teams?? Louth had beaten Dublin!! The question is how serious do other counties take their underage teams!! Dublin fielded a weak team against Louth, so did they under esitmate tham or were they just not bothered in partaking in the blitz??

thegaels wrote:

When the development squads were initiated, Bryan Murphy had nothing to do with them, the strucutres were put in palce before he got involved, I am sure they may have been improved over the years, so I do not know where ye got that from, re Brians involvement. Bryan has worked with the Minors for the past couple of years and gets on well at that level. McGeeney does not get involved at all, he has not (or rarely) met with the minors, at least not in the past 3 years.

To the best of my knowledge Bord na nOg has had the developments squads (u-14 to u-16) in place for upwards of 10 years, pre-dating Syl Merrins tenure as Chairman of the Co. Board. I think Andrew O'Sullivan was Chairman at the time and Padraig Ashe was Chairman of Bord na nOg. The main co-ordinator for these squads as far as I remember was Gerry Moran from Moorefield.

Well in any case lads it seems a lot of people have done great work and hopefully football in Kildare will reap the benefits. From the people who started the process to those who continued it and those who are constantly helping it to evolve.

The development squads in their present form started in 05-06, there has always been county underage teams, but never at the level its at now. Lads like Gerry Moran and others like him were involved for years but the level of support was criminal at times. Once in the blue moon you would get a good squad together but that depended on the coaches involved. The current system retains the coaches and recycles them back in at u14-15 so you get continuity, the squads also remain open ended and are reviewed approx every 6 weeks or so. Three is a constant eye kept on the club competitions and when a player comes on the radar he is brought in and assessed. You cannot coach pure talent but you can fine tune it, there is also a big emphasis on coaching lifestyle, personal fitness and strength. You will still have fallers but not as many

The competitions running at present are run by Leinster, the u14 squad finished top, the u16 squad qualified for the national competition, at the moment they have beaten every team in Leinster bar Dublin who won't play them. They beat Galway the weekend before last, Meath the week before that, they played Kerry 3 weeks ago, where they were beaten by a late goal. All the squads are flat out at the moment now that the club competitions are over

If these structures were in place when I was a young lad I think I would have made it. I remember going to an u14 trial with about 60 other lads and getting about 5 minutes playing time. It seemed that if you were not from a big club or known or if you didn't have someone from your club involved then you had no chance. I was a great footballer and would have blossomed in an elite environment but maybe I was just before my time, at least very talented young lads nowadays are not being left behind.

All counties run these squads differently, some on a regional basis (Galway) others on an A. B and C basis (Kildare), based on what the selectors think. While it is nice to win, it does not pit the best lads in that age group against each other, it certainly does not predict how a minor team will perform. Some lads are 'overlooked', there are examples of lads never making a development squad and playing minor/under 21 etc, that can happen, it is not an exact science, some 'selectors' are better at seeing real talent than others, there are some who feel their club should have better representation on panels. As ye know minor teams contain lads of mixed ages 15 - 18, development squads are restricted to that age only, there is a world of a difference.

thegaels you a right its not an exact science, some lads develop later than others, some not at all. You can have a guy who looks a super star with his club and then fail or does not want to bring it to the next level Selectors are generally in it for the right reasons, ironically more often than not they get accused of bias by people who don't have one of their own on involved. Up to u17 they are restricted to age groups, this allow's the maximum number of players gain access to the development squad system at their age level. At minor, which is the blue ribbon underage competition, it opens up to the best players eligible to play. Their is talk at the moment of an u16 intercounty championship, I would not be in favour because it would be another kick in the nuts for clubs

Why would you not be in favour ballyboy? surely it would be a great competition to be involved in,
If it was played this time of the Year, why would it bother the clubs?
Are the current competions not going on at present?