By John Harrington

It’s going to be a busy week for Paul Flanagan, but nothing new there.

On Sunday he’ll be in action for the Clare hurlers against Galway in the Allianz League, but first there’s the significant date in his diary of an All-Ireland Hurling Final this Thursday.

Along with Niall Moran and Cormac O’Donovan, Flanagan coaches the Ard Scoil Rís team that plays St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny in the Masita All-Ireland Colleges Hogan Cup (SH ‘A’) Final in Croke Park on St. Patrick’s Day.

These days the Ballyea and Clare defender spends almost as much time coaching from the sidelines as he does playing the game.

As well as his involvement with Ard Scoil Rís, he helps out with the Clare U14, U-15 and U-16 teams and also works with a number of other teams as well as individual athletes.

Much of this work makes good use of the Masters Degree in Mental Health, Mental Skills, and Performance Psychology he completed in the University of Limerick in 2020.

“The wheel turns and you keep rolling with it,” says the Irish and PE teacher of his hectic schedule on and off the pitch.

“It's a busy schedule at times and you have to keep everything balanced. I enjoy that side of it, though.

“For anybody that's coaching, it is energy-intensive. With the quality of the other guys we have involved in Ard Scoil Rís I'm lucky that we can share that load a little bit.

“I make bones about it, Cormac and Niall have been exceptional to me in terms of balancing that load out a small bit and it's been really helpful.

“I missed the Harty Final because I was on my way down to Cork for our Allianz League game and that's the nature of it when you're still playing yourself.”

When you’re coaching teenagers, many of whom are in their Leaving Cert year, helping them perform consistently at a high level can be as much a psychological exercise as a physical one.

It’s a side of the game that fascinated Flanagan even before the completed his Masters in the field, and he enjoys implementing both what he learned in UL as well as the University of Life when dealing with his young charges.

“I’ve been involved with lot of teams and seen a lot of trends and seen how guys deal with things and you might spot things now and again and intervene with one or two guys and you're basically trying to put them in the best position to succeed as much as you can,” he says.

“It's more maybe the experience that you've built up over a few years. You probably undervalue the amount of experience you've got with different teams and practical experience that you've got and probably just match that with some of the academic knowledge that was there and that has worked well, I think.

“You really look at things with a big picture. You have to realise that these guys are 18 years of age. You think of the improvement that you can get between 18 and 26 or 27, and sometimes you're obviously thinking of the next game and the next occasion, but sometimes that can be lost in translation a small bit.

“You just want to keep the curve going in the right direction for these guys as much as you can.”

Teenagers who play sport at a high level can often be much too hard on themselves if they fail to make the grade for a certain team.

Flanagan is well placed to give them some solid advice on dealing with that sort of adversity.

A two-time U-21 All-Ireland winner and a member of the 2013 Senior All-Ireland winning Clare team, it wasn’t until 2020 that he finally made his championship debut under current manager Brian Lohan.

“If you were to look at the timeline day of a senior debut in 2014 and not playing championship until 2020, then I suppose you've learned some things the hard way,” says Flanagan.

“I try to pass that on to younger guys whether they're on the panel in Clare or in school, just to say that things aren't black and white, there's always another day to improve.

“And if you can keep the curve moving in the right direction in terms of improving as a player over a five or six year period and anticipate that there will be tough days as well.

“There may be injuries and hard losses in between but you're just trying to keep pushing to improve and doing the simple things to improve every day.

“Sometimes it sounds cliched in a way, but when you're in that zone and you're a younger player you view the world as a little bit black and white.”

Flanagan has been impressed with the mental strength the Ard Scoil Rís players have shown since losing the Harty Cup Final to St. Joseph’s, Tulla.

The Harty Cup has such a cachet that overcoming the disappointment of failing to win it can’t have been easy, but if anything the Ard Scoil players have gone from strength to strength with successive wins over Presentation College Athenry and Good Counsel to qualify for Thursday’s Final against St. Kieran’s College in Croke Park.

“They turned it around hugely and have shown great character over the last few weeks,” says Flanagan.

“We played two games in a week last week and guys had pres (Pre-Leaving Cert exams) in between.

“So there was a lot up in the air and guys dealt superbly with it. Guys are enjoying their hurling as well and having a right cut off this. Someone was talking the other day about how many school days are left in the year and there were 40-odd school days left.

“Guys are embracing the experience and embracing the time they have left together to get as much as they can out of it.

We're looking forward to coming up to Croke Park, building on what we've done the last couple of weeks, and really performing.

“For our guys as a group, they're on their own journey and they want to perform every day they go out. They've improved as they've gone on through the All-Ireland series and we're hoping to improve again a little bit the next day.”

Thursday, March 17

Masita GAA Post Primary Schools Croke Cup (SH 'A') Final

Ard Scoil Rís v St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny, Croke Park, 4pm