'Perfect storm' is producing a gifted generation of Tyrone footballers

By John Harrington

If Tyrone beat Kerry in Saturday’s Dalata Hotel Group All-Ireland U20 Football Final it will be the third year in a row they’ve won the competition and fourth time in five years.

That would be a remarkable achievement that’s only been done once before in the history of the Association, by Kerry (1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977).

Such consistency of high achievement doesn’t happen by accident.

Paul Devlin has so far delivered six Ulster titles and three All-Ireland U20 titles as Tyrone manager and his steady hand on the tiller is a big part of the story.

Devlin himself has benefited from a throughput of well-rounded footballers who have had their skills honed by Tyrone minor manager, Gerard Donnelly. He’s led the county to three Ulster titles and one All-Ireland in five years and will hope to deliver a fourth provincial crown tomorrow.

Drill down even further and you’ll find that both Donnelly and Devlin are building handsomely on rock-solid foundations put in place by Tyrone’s very well-organised Coaching and Games Development Department which is headed by their Games Development Manager, Brian Laverty.

The GAA has developed the Thrive Development Programme for players and coaches which will be used as a guiding document for county academy squads from 2027.

When you read through it you can’t help but be struck by how much its core recommendation of adopting a holistic player-centred approach that integrates physical, technical, tactical, psychological, and social development elements, whilst also prioritising long-term potential over immediate success, tallies very much with what Tyrone GAA already have in place.

“We don't build ourselves up that winning underage titles is the main goal,” explains Tyrone Games Development Manager, Brian Laverty.

“The priority for Academy is that we want our players to be better club players because 90 per cent of these lads when they come through an U15 or U16 Academy squad generally won't get to play senior inter-county football for Tyrone.

“But we want that 90 per cent to be going back as better footballers to the club and that has the knock-on effect that it brings up the players around them as well.

“Our Academy is very much club-focused and that's incorporated in our academy badge. It's not just a simple Red Hand. It's a Red Hand with the colours of every club within Tyrone in it.

“That was done in 2014. We did an Academy rebrand and had a rethink of where we were going and from that then we got a lot of reinvigorated coaches coming back on board. We have a real good level of coaching in our squads at the minute and that's led up by Ryan Keenan.”

An interesting facet of the Tyrone GAA underage Academy is that they don’t bring together a squad at U14 level.

They believe talent identification at that age is far too inexact a science and there’s more to be gained by letting U14 players focus totally on playing for their club.

“We've noticed that some lads often cruised through the age-groups from U8 to U14 because of their physical size but then other lads start jumping up around them and they no longer dominate to the extent they once did,” says Laverty.

“So we take them in at U15 level and we do a six week trial basis of initially skill testing lads just to see where they are at and then go through a games based process, starting with small-sided games and then into a bigger sided games and then have almost your traditional trial matches where they play 15 on 15."

Tyrone U20 manager, Paul Devlin, has always said that the club championships in Tyrone are the ultimate proving ground when it comes to determining what players to call into his panel.

Previous achievements don’t count for nearly as much current form, which is why this year’s Tyrone U20 team includes many players who weren’t mapped at minor level three years ago.

A similar policy exists in the Academy squads where a lot of consideration is given to the fact that different players mature at different times so talent identification is constant work in progress.

The squads are always in a state of flux and very much determined by how well players perform for their clubs.

“The club scene is huge and that drives what we do in the Academy,” says Laverty.

“For example, our U15 Academy management would be at all the Féile games.

“Members of the management team would have been at venues around the county and they were there with a notepad and dotting players that caught their eye.

“They'll be looking out both for players currently with the U15 squad and those who are not.

“If a current panellist didn't stand out for his club or showed a poor attitude then they'll have a word with them just to remind them that you need to get to a certain standard of what's required.

“You're always doing your best to produce the most skilful, well-adjusted players. I think that's the goal of every Academy in Ireland.

“Sometimes you hear that Academy teams do get a bad touch for being elitist but I always try to defend them and showcase their importance. Really, it's just getting a group of players together as a team and improving them.

“At the start of the year we’re not trying to win Cups, it’s about making sure that these lads can become better club footballers and also be prepared as best as possible to hopefully play county minor football.”

Coaching the coaches in the county is a huge priority for Tyrone GAA’s Coaching and Games Development department, and they’re very much pushing an open door in that regard.

Such is the passion for Gaelic games in the county that there’s a huge hunger for learning in both clubs and schools in terms of how best to coach the games.

This has raised standards which in turn has raised competitiveness. A large percentage of the county’s playing population now benefits from regular high-level matches throughout the player pathway, which is why Tyrone minor and U20 teams are such consistent high-achievers.

“Yes, the county in a good place from the bottom up,” says Laverty.

“We have a really good buy-in from the clubs at the Go Games level. We have our 10 rounds of Go Games and all clubs will participate in those as well as arranging more games outside of that.

“Players of eight, nine, ten are getting a lot of football and that's supported too by Cumann na mBunscol.

“Then they go to post-primary school and U14 club level where they're getting a consistent level of games for the first part of the season with their school and the second part of the season with their club.

“We're blessed really with the perfect storm really in so far as how we have club, school, and county all competitive and wanting to keep pushing on.

“The clubs really drive the Academy and we also have a really strong schools GAA culture in the county.

“Every year we'll have three to four teams competing at the MacRory level and we'll have smaller schools competing at 'B', 'C', and 'D' level and performing really well. That just drives a competitive culture of lads looking to be better and we're more than happy to facilitate that in whatever way we can.

“Our staff will promote primary schools but we'll also support post-primary schools with after-school coaching which we haven't always been able to do as much of, but this year we've taken more of a grasp on it and are trying to promote post-primary schools a bit more.”

When Kerry won four All-Ireland U21 titles in five years in the 1970s that generation of players went on to form the core of the legendary senior side that won eight All-Ireland titles in a 12-year period.

Success in the U20 grade is no guarantee of the same at senior level, but Tyrone’s conveyor belt of young talent is so productive right now that it’s hard to believe it won’t eventually translate into high achievement in the senior grade.

Six of the team that beat Roscommon last Sunday are recent All-Ireland winners in the U20 grade, so the throughput of talent is already apparent.

Laverty is confident this generation of players will bring the Sam Maguire Cup back to the county in the not too distant future, but he hopes the Tyrone public will appreciate it’ll take the some time to fully realise their potential rather than over-burden them with expectancy.

“In the last 25 years since Tyrone have been at the top table there's always been an expectancy which can bring pressure sometimes that is unneeded, but also it is needed because lads have to aspire to compete at that standard," he says.

“We've always been competing consistently at U17 and U20 and it's reasonable to believe that can grow into the senior grade.

“The problem with expectancy is that people expect that success to follow immediately at senior level. Niall Devlin from my own club was captain of the Tyrone U20 team that won in 2022 and the likes of him, Ruairí (Canavan), and Michael McGleenan came straight into the senior set-up and people were expecting big things of them and to just turn their U20 form into the same at senior inter-county.

“It wasn't until last year or the year before though that Niall Devlin really became the leader he now is at senior and, while Ruairí has had his struggles with injuries, when he's playing he's now a go to player for the team.

“That doesn't happen overnight and we need to give these players who have come through the U20 grade in recent years some time to develop into the senior footballers they can become.

“Eoin McElholm has been involved for the past couple of years and Sunday's game against Roscommon was a wee bit of a statement from him that he's, I won't say arrived because there's plenty more to come from him, but that he's now looking like a senior inter-county footballer of real quality who's ready to step up.

“There's a lot more young players from that group, the likes of Ruairí McCullagh and Conor O'Neill who are part of both the county U20 and seniors this year, who you would hope would make that same sort of step when they only have the county senior team to focus on next year.

“We have a lot of really talented players coming through in the county but I would just ask people to give them a wee bit of time. They're not just going to slot in straight away.

“It's just giving lads time and with that bit of time they will produce. I have no doubt that Tyrone will be in an All-Ireland Final in the next three to four years.

“They weren't far off last year but I think the semi-final showed up that Kerry were a couple of steps ahead. But I have no doubt that, given time, the U20 group of the last five years will produce at senior level.”