Matt Hutchinson's zeal of the converted

By John Harrington

Matt Hutchinson found Gaelic football by accident, and now it won’t let him go.

The Welsh native is the driving force behind an increase in youth participation in Gloucestershire GAA, but just seven years ago he knew next to nothing about Gaelic games.

After moving to Ras Al Khaimah, a city in the United Arab Emirates, in 2019, the primary school teacher spotted a poster in a bar inviting people to play football with RAK Ropairí GAA club.

It was only when he turned up for his first training session that he realised the football in question was of the Gaelic rather than soccer variety.

Hutchinson decided he’d give it a bash anyway and immediately fell in love with a sport that’s now so central to his life.

“The game was just completely nuts and right away I just really enjoyed that part of it,” says Hutchinson.

“It was just all action. I didn't know anything about the sport but I loved it form the start. I mean, the physicality was brilliant.

“I loved all the charging around. It's kind of reckless, isn't it? It's got a mad freedom to the game. No off-sides, the freedom to go wherever you liked, I just loved it.

“More than anything else though it was the welcome I got from everyone involved with RAK Ropairí that really blew me away.

“I've boxed for years and played soccer and done all sorts, but it the friendliness and the positivity of the people there was brilliant, there was no culture of negativity.

“If you make a mistake, it's okay, we go again. That's something you want to be involved in, a community with that sort of friendly, positive atmosphere. And then my son got involved as well because they had a youth team and he loved it too.”

After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Hutchinson and his family decided it was time to move back home to Wales, and he was determined to continue playing Gaelic football there if it was at all possible.

“To be honest, before we had a place to live, and before we got jobs, I was looking to see if there was a GAA club, and fortunately, there was one - St. Colmcille's in Cardiff," he says.

“That first session when I went it was just four or five of us on the field just like with one guy chucking a ball in the air saying 'catch it!' I was just getting clattered!

“I loved it though and kept going training and playing and then I decided I wanted to go after my coaching badges too.

“I did my foundation, my level one and my level two, and then I ended up becoming the youth officer for the club.”

As a club, St. Colmcilles were very reliant on Irish ex-pats moving to the Welsh capital and joining them.

Hutchinson figured a more sustainable approach would be to also bring through their own players and decided the best way to do this would be to get into local primary schools and start coaching Gaelic football there.

“I’m very lucky, my wife let me take every Wednesday off work so I went around to six different schools in Cardiff and the Bay of Glamorgan doing six-week blocks with the schools there,” he says.

“I've been a teacher for ages, and I've done some supply work, so I had contacts within the local area.

“And I literally just said, 'right, I'm going to contact schools and say, do you want free Gaelic football?'

“From coaching in those six schools I managed to get a group of kids together who represented St. Colmcilles. It was the first time our club has had a youth team for over 10 years.

“We played two games against Bristol Harps, and we won them both with this kind of a rag-tag group of kids who'd never even played Gaelic football together.

“When I started this, there was only about 15 kids registered across Gloucestershire. We've got 127 now. So we've gone from nothing to something really.”

Hutchinson is now working full-time in one of those six schools he brought Gaelic football to, St. Helen’s in Barry.

He coaches the school team every Monday and fans the flames of their growing love of Gaelic football with a Friday lunch-club where they watch highlights of the previous weekend’s inter-county action via his GAA+ subscription together.

“They absolutely love it. Just like it was for me, I think they’ve tapped into this freedom you have in Gaelic football.

“The first question is always, 'is there an offside?' And once they realised there was no offside and they could run with it, pass it with their hands, kick it, bounce it...once they got it, they were brilliant, they really enjoyed it.

“They pick it up really quickly because a lot of the skills they have from playing sports like soccer and rugby are transferable.

“In that game we played in Bristol, some of the goals that the team was scoring were straight off the Barry Town training pitch. I think that's part of the appeal, those transferable skills.”

Hutchinson hopes his own school can become a GAA hub in the area that will assist other schools to follow their lead and in that way develop a network of teams that will feed into St. Colmcille's.

“What I want to do now is establish a cluster of schools in Cardiff and the Vale, this little bit of Wales, where Gaelic football is played," he says.

“Paraic Maddock down in Swansea has got a cluster of maybe four primary schools down there already.

“So hopefully we can start challenging the Swansea schools and have regular league games or a championship.

“Paraic is also the driving force behind the Southern Games taking place in St Joseph’s Primary School on June 19^th, and I’m now the Gloucestershire Youth Officer as well so I’ll be helping him out with that too.

“You’d also be hoping that we can continue to get the kids who are playing in the schools here feeding into St. Colmcille’s and really build that up.

“We need to get more and more coaches trained up so we can have them looking after U10, U11, and U12 teams.

“It's kind of mind-blowing really how much planning would need to take place but right now it's just establishing that interest, saying that this is a sport, it's available to all, and getting the word out there.

"I'd also to hear from any schools or clubs in Ireland who would like to pair up with us."

It’s hard to imagine a more passionate Gaelic games missionary than Hutchinson who goes about his work with the zeal of the converted.

Very few people born and bred in the GAA would commit the sort of time and effort he does to playing, coaching, and promoting the games.

Considering he had never so much as kicked a Gaelic football until seven years ago, why is he so dedicated now to being a GAA evangelist?

“What's driving me? Insanity!” says Hutchinson with a chuckle.

“I have no idea, really. I've got no Irish family whatsoever. There's no Irish blood.

“At the very first training session I did with Cardiff we were coached by Marty Dolan who always says that the GAA is like a drug and you can't quit it.

“It's just really enjoyable and it's about community as well as sport. St. Colmcilles in Cardiff are just the nicest group of people you could meet.

“I also find the whole culture of Gaelic Games fascinating. The volunteerism, the community base, it's just brilliant. The values are wonderful and I wish people would tap into it a bit more.

“I know a guy who had a midlife crisis and bought a bicycle and rode off to Finland. I've ended up playing and coaching Gaelic football instead. I think my wife prefers this option!

“I’m 48 now but I’m still playing. We just had a meeting the other day about the new season, and I signed up for another year of playing.

“I think that God will tell me when it's time to stop! That's my policy! I'll keep going with Cardiff as long as I can.”