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Limerick football is on the right track

Limerick joint captains Iain Corbett, left, and Donal O'Sullivan lift the cup after the McGrath Cup Final match between Cork and Limerick at LIT Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. 

Limerick joint captains Iain Corbett, left, and Donal O'Sullivan lift the cup after the McGrath Cup Final match between Cork and Limerick at LIT Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. 

By John Harrington

A two wins from two start to Division Four of Allianz League coming hot on the heels of winning the McGrath Cup isn’t the only reason why optimism is bubbling in Limerick football circles.

Behind the shop-window of senior inter-county football, a lot of hard work is being carried out on the factory floor to get a conveyor belt of talent moving.

Paul Kinnerk might be better known as the man who coached the Clare and Limerick All-Ireland SHC winning teams of 2013 and 2018, but football is very much part of his sporting DNA too.

Six years ago he established a newly structured Limerick Football Academy and recruited a cadre of former inter-county footballers to coach U-14, U-15, and U16 squads.

Every week those coaches will send him their coaching plan which he’ll rubber-stamp or tweak, and on Saturdays the players and their coaches will convene at Limerick IT technical work on the pitches and S&C coaching with the Academy’s Head of Athletic Performance, James O’Leary.

Former Limerick footballer, Pa Ranahan, was one of the first coaches recruited by Kinnerk, and is very enthusiastic about the work being done in the Academy.

“When you have someone like Paul involved with the name he has now, when he asks people to come on board, then generally they will unless they have very good reasons for not being able to do it,” Ranahan told GAA.ie

“In the GAA world at the minute, Paul is up near the top, so it's great to have someone like him driving the thing.

“At the start of the year he'll gather the coaches and outline what way he would feel the way the sessions would be run and that would definitely be game-based. He believes everything should be taught through mini-games and small-sided games.

“There's very little dissent from the rest of the coaches in that respect. That's the way we're all thinking anyway.

“It's more enjoyable for the players and the coaches get more benefit because you're dealing with smaller numbers each time you go into a session and you can see players getting better.”

Limerick hurling coach, Paul Kinnerk.

Limerick hurling coach, Paul Kinnerk.

Ranahan is Limerick Football’s Post Primary Schools Coaching Officer and also a member of the Limerick Football Review Committee that published a 24-page report last year which laid out 18 recommendations for developing football in the county.

It was a well-crafted document with sensible suggestions such as the appointment of a full-time football development officer in the county, and Ranahan hopes that by the end of 2020 many of those 18 recommendations will have been green-lighted.

“The report reads very well on paper and a lot of effort from some very good people went into it,” he said. “Writing it is one thing, but delivering it is another.

“Things don't always happen overnight in the GAA and sometimes progress can be slower than you might like, but there are definitely positive things happening.

“The report came out last year, so that you'd be hoping that a year to 18 months later that many of the things in the report will be soon in place. I'd be very confident that they would be.

“One of the big ones would be a full-time GDA in Limerick. The committee who put the report together, we really believe that would be a game-changer.

“If you had one person whose designated role was purely football and to get into post-primary schools and to clubs and start to deliver programmes, I think it would be absolutely massive.

“The likes of Anthony Masterston is doing great work in Wexford (as a Football Development Administrator), I'd be chatting to him, and it does seem like they're starting to beat fruit at post-primary schools and other levels.

“Trying to bridge the gap after U-17 level is another priority. Lads have gotten good coaching coming through the Academy and then with the U-17s, but there's such a big step from there to the U-20s and from the U-20s to the seniors that you can lose a lot of players.

“So the ambition is to come up with a system to best look after our emerging talent in those age-groups.”

Former Limerick footballer, Pa Ranahan, is now the county's Post Primary Schools Football Development Officer. 

Former Limerick footballer, Pa Ranahan, is now the county's Post Primary Schools Football Development Officer. 

The first group of players to come through the Limerick Football Academy are now in their late teens.

Ranahan is encouraged by the number of them that are still playing football at a high level, and is hopeful that in the next couple of years many of them will make their way onto the county senior panel.

Competition from hurling, rugby, and soccer will always be stiff in a sporting county like Limerick, but Ranahan doesn’t think that’s an excuse those working to improve the lot of Gaelic Football can fall back on.

“Yeah, Limerick is mad into every sport - hurling, rugby, football, soccer, basketball. It's literally like everyone who plays sport in Limerick feels like they have to play everything.

“I was the same when I was younger, it's just in everyone in Limerick to play a load of different sports.

“So there is lot of competition from other sports, but if you were to tell me that hurling, rugby, and soccer will take 'x' amount of players, I would 100 per cent still think there's enough people playing gaelic football in Limerick who would be good enough to compete at a good level.

“There are really good structures in place now with the Academy and we're doing good work in the post-primary schools to get the whole thing working well together.

“So, even putting aside all of those with a preference for other sports, there are still hundreds of good, athletic, sporty lads who would be good enough to compete at Division 2 League level in senior if you were being aspirational.

“Numbers-wise, there's definitely enough players in the county, it's just a matter of trying to get the most of what's there.”

The Limerick Football Academy is very much focused on holistic development rather than winnin gsilverware, but last year’s All-Ireland Final victory over Antrim in their grade of the competition still felt like a really positive affirmation of the work they’re doing.

Many of those same U-15 Academy footballers invaded the Semple Stadium pitch as supporters to hail their heroes when the Limerick senior footballers shocked Tipperary in the first round of last year’s Munster Senior Football Championship.

Danny Neville of Limerick in action against Cian Kiely, left, and Thomas Clancy of Cork during the McGrath Cup Final match between Cork and Limerick at LIT Gaelic Grounds in Limerick.

Danny Neville of Limerick in action against Cian Kiely, left, and Thomas Clancy of Cork during the McGrath Cup Final match between Cork and Limerick at LIT Gaelic Grounds in Limerick.

The power of a moment like that can’t be underestimated, and it would be another huge shot in the arm for everyone in the country trying to develop the game if the Limerick senior footballers could win promotion from Division Four this year.

“It’s your biggest shop window,” says Ranahan. “Hurling has exploded in the county in the last two years because of the senior team.

“When I was growing up football was never a thing that was really mentioned, but then I started going to matches and there were 20-30 thousand people at them.

“For me, that was massive, I wanted to be a Limerick footballer after going to those matches, that's what drove me on to it. To be honest, up to that point, hurling was probably my number one sport.

“Not that I was exceptionally good at it, but it was the sport I followed. When you have a senior team to follow, it lifts the whole thing.

“Hopefully this year's senior team might have a run at promotion. The Final is in Croke Park and will be on television, things like that would be huge.

“A young Limerick lad watching that on screen might then want to become the next Iain Corbett, Danny Neville or any of these fellas.

“It's hugely important. Obviously the work has to be done before all of that, but I think if you have that as well then it definitely helps.”

The work is most definitely being done on the factory floor. A win over Carlow on Sunday to make it three wins from three in Division Four of the Allianz Football League would help put it in the shop window.