Anton Tohill to coach Gaelic football through Spanish in Iberia

By John Harrington

Following in the footsteps of Armagh’s Rory Grugan, Derry footballer Anton Tohill is the latest inter-county player who will take part the International Player Exchange Programme.

On behalf of Gaelic Games Europe and in partnership with the Gaelic Players Association, McKvr Sports, and Modulair, Tohill will spend two months in Iberia this year supporting GAA clubs across the region.

Tohill will travel via Brittany Ferries to Bilbao on Wednesday, April 29, and over the course of his time in Spain and Portugal will visit clubs and schools in Galicia, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Marbella, Porto and Lisbon.

He’ll be in Madrid for Gaelic Games Europe’s ‘Europe Day’ activations when 10 European clubs will host Go Games blitzes in collaboration with the European Commission and will attend the Iberian GAA Finals in A Coruña on Saturday 6th June, which are sponsored by Modulair.

“It'll be fantastic,” says Tohill of his upcoming adventure.

“Culture-wise, getting to go and get exposed to Spain over a period like this, for me as somebody who's always enjoyed going there on holidays and trips, I think is fantastic.

“And getting to see the breadth of the country and hopefully making an impact through something that obviously means a lot to us here in Ireland is immense as well, opportunity-wise.

“I couldn't be looking forward to it much more, I must say."

While playing in the AFL with Collingwood, Tohill studied a diploma in Spanish and his fluency in the language has also been helped by extensive travels throughout Spain.

He’s looking forward to experiencing the variety of cultures on the Iberian peninsula and how Gaelic games there is shaped by them.

“Different areas in the Iberian peninsula are very culturally different so that is going to be quite interesting for me to experience,” says Tohill.

“And then the standard of football....there's expats who are going to be playing throughout Spain, but up in the north of Spain, in Galicia especially, it's predominantly locals that have picked it up and they're interested in the game.

“So, it's going to be very, very interesting to see what the level is and then how you can tailor your coaching.

“It's a fantastic experience for them, I suppose, to have somebody coming over that's obviously played the game, but also for me myself to be able to see how they organise it, what kind of structure they have in place, and to try and improve it.

“It’s incredible to me that in Galicia you have children being exposed to Gaelic games through the schooling system whereas in Northern Ireland we’d have schools where there is no Gaelic football. That’s crazy to me.”

Tohill is currently completing his Medical Degree in Queen’s University and for the last three years has been a facilitator with the Movember ‘Ahead of the Game’ mental health literacy programme which highlights the importance of building mental fitness to deal with the challenges life and sport can throw at anyone.

So as well as sharing his Gaelic football knowledge to the International Player Exchange Programme, he’ll also deliver health and wellbeing workshops at construction sites linked to Modulair and Ireland.

“Modulair are looking to try and get the word out there about mental health so I'll covering probably a few of the men's health issues that I probably face in my time as a medical student and I'll be definitely calling upon a lot of my communication skills from my Movember training and how those are facilitated," says Tohill.

"So, yeah, that should be interesting and enjoyable and hopefully those guys that are given the workshops can take something out of it. And it's another opportunity for me to flex the Spanish language muscles a bit.”