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Doran driving Kildare hurling's 'Action Plan'

Former Kildare hurler, John Doran, is a Games Development Administrator for Kildare GAA.

Former Kildare hurler, John Doran, is a Games Development Administrator for Kildare GAA.

By John Harrington

John Doran retired from inter-county hurling after helping Kildare win the Christy Ring Cup this year, but his life will still be devoted to the cause of Lilywhite hurling for the foreseeable future.

A Games Development Administrator with Kildare GAA, Doran is heading up the Kildare Hurling Action Plan 2018, the pilot programme for what will hopefully be the engine that drives hurling in the county forward for years to come.

The genesis for the ‘Action Plan’ came about last year when Kildare GAA invited all hurling club delegates to a conference where they were asked to give their feedback on child, youth, and adult hurling in the county and offer suggestions on how the game could be improved at all levels.

“When we broke their feedback down, what was screaming out at us was that they wanted help in the club,” Doran told GAA.ie

“We had done a presentation on what we were doing with county programmes, but they were really looking for direction with clubs.

“We went back and viewed it and what we decided to do next was to develop this plan and make it into an action plan rather than a report that would just sit on a shelf. This is very much club-led.”

The Kildare Hurling Action Plan is divided into three strands – Club Hurling Development, Club-Schools Links, and Building a Club Hurling Profile.

Clubs were asked to give an honest assessment of where they saw themselves within these specific areas and then set realistic goals for measurable improvement.

They were all asked to pick three actions to undertake under each heading this year, with ‘Action Agents’ appointed by each club to oversee their implementation.

Doran and his committee have kept in close contact with all the Action Agents throughout the year, most recently meeting up with them last week for a group meeting on how much progress has been made. This was then followed by a brain-storming session where ideas were suggested and exchanged.

“If there's some great ideas from clubs we share them via e-mail and that way all clubs are being made aware of some great ideas that might work for them too,” said Doran.

“It's very open. Everyone is sharing ideas of what's working well and what's not working well for them.”

'Action Agents' from Kildare's hurling clubs pictured together at a recent progress update meeting. 

'Action Agents' from Kildare's hurling clubs pictured together at a recent progress update meeting. 

Kildare have eight senior hurling clubs so there are very solid foundations for the county to build on.

You could even argue that they have historically underachieved when you look at how a county like Carlow with just four senior clubs and a much smaller population has performed in recent years.

Doran is convinced that Kildare have the potential to go from strength to strength in the coming years.

“Definitely, yeah,” he said. “If you look at the population of Kildare, it's a huge county now,” he said. “The numbers in Kildare clubs are huge so there's huge potenital there for hurling to develop.

“Hurling primarily would be in the north of the county but we are developing the south of the county too. New clubs have started in the last number of years around the Newbridge area in South Kildare who would be very much involved in the action plan.

“Our underage development squad teams are playing now against Tier 1 counties all the time so there's absolutely no reason why we can't push on to the next level.

“To be honest, if you want to go back to the beginning of my playing career with Kildare, we would have been beating the likes of the Carlows, the Westmeaths, but they've pushed on a bit ahead of us since then.

“That would be the key for Kildare really, that when we do push up it's not a yo-yo effect of going up and going down. When we do push on we want to stay there and push on further from there again.”

Kildare celebrate after their Christy Ring Cup Final victory over London.

Kildare celebrate after their Christy Ring Cup Final victory over London.

Raising the profile of hurling in a county with more of a traditional affinity for gaelic football has always been a challenge, but this year’s Christy Ring Cup success has definitely helped with the hearts and minds effort.

“It got a great reaction,” said Doran. “The underage clubs in Kildare were made very much aware of it as we were getting to the Final.

“The timing of it was ideal in that the summer camps were just kicking off when we won the Christy Ring so the Cup would have visited every single hurling camp in the county throughout the summer-time.

“It's gone around to different clubs too and county players have been brilliant at making themselves available to go to clubs to meet kids. It's been massive, to be fair.

“When we won it for the first time in 2014 were were a bit naive in terms of publicising it and getting the word out there, but we've definitely done that better this time around.”

Doran believes that a lack of self-confidence has held Kildare hurling back in the past, but he’s hopeful a corner has now been turned.

“At adult level we have lads who have hurled with Fitzgibbon Cup teams no matter where they are in the country. There are talented hurlers there, no question about it.

“It's probably just showing people that we have the talent, that we have top-level hurlers in the county. We've top-level coaches in the county who could coach anywhere in the country.

“We have top administrators here as well so it's just about showing people that Kildare hurling is here and it's on the crest of a wave at the moment, really.

“There's a great energy there at the moment and the key is to keep driving it and keep it going.”