By John Harrington

Áine Kinsella broke new ground for female Gaelic games coaches and managers when she was appointed team coach with the Wexford men’s senior football team under manager John Hegarty.

The former Carlow footballer had previously worked with the Wexford senior hurlers as a Performance Analyst under Darragh Egan in 2022 and Davy Fitzgerald in 2021 as well as with the Carlow hurlers when Colm Bonnar was manager.

Her new coaching brief with the Wexford footballers will see her work more directly with the players on the training pitch and should be inspirational for female coaches who hope to follow a similar coaching pathway.

That being the case, it’s fitting that Kinsella will also soon be contributing to the upcoming Female Coach Mentorship Programme which will run throughout 2023 with the aim of increasing the participation of female coaches in the upper end of the Gaelic Games Player Pathway.

Expressions of interest are still being sought from interested candidates and can be made via the following form: https://forms.office.com/r/8HkTSeJKNw

GAA.ie spoke to Áine Kinsella about her own coaching pathway, why she believes the Female Coach Mentorship Programme will be hugely beneficial for those who take part, and her own personal tips for female coaches hoping to fulfil their potential.

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GAA.ie: Áine, you played Gaelic football to a high level yourself, but when did you start coaching?

Áine Kinsella: I guess it came out of all of the analysis work that I've been doing. Particularly at club level having been able to take a video analysis session and then help the manager work on that on the pitch. I would have done a lot of work around puck-outs and kick-outs or setting up on opposition kick-outs, that sort of thing. And it all just grew from there.

I would always have been very focused on playing patterns in terms of my analysis. A lot of people think that the numbers are the end point for analysis work, whereas for me they were only the starting point. They allowed me to pick out what was happening but then I always endeavoured to look at the why and the how. I probably coached through the video.

One of the players I would have worked with in the last couple of years, that was his description. He said you just coach through video rather than the traditional view of how coaching happens. I think it evolved quite organically that way.

GAA.ie: So you got into Performance Analysis initially. How did that come about?

AK: My club camogie coach, Pat English, was appointed as Carlow senior hurling manager in, I think, 2014. He had me do tiny little bits for them on game-day. Just logging different things. I wasn't around during the week, just doing tiny bits at the weekend. I was always at games anyway, I was always that person marking stuff on programmes. So he had me doing bits and pieces for him on a really low level.

Then when Colm Bonnar came in, Colm was very good in that he was happy to talk to people who had been around for the previous couple of years and asked me would I be interested in being involved in a larger capacity. Colm was great because he gave me the autonomy to try things myself and grow and develop. Colm never put boundaries on what you could be doing. If you had an idea and you thought it might be helpful he was always open to you dong it with the boys or seeing how it ran, and, if it didn't work how you thought there was no problem. It just evolved that way little bit by little, but Colm was probably the person who gave my big entry-point into analysis and it all took off from there.

GAA.ie: So you were empowered to come to Colm with ideas based on your analysis?

AK: From when I started with Colm I would have been at training every session. Now going into work with teams it's something I would insist upon and if that style didn't suit the manager then maybe I wasn't the best person for them to work with. Because I think it allows you develop relationships with the players and you figure out how different players like to receive information. Some guys can be really detail oriented and they'll want lots of numbers to illustrate the point you're making. Other guys won't want that level of detail at all, they'll just want a little pointer on the pitch about their body shape or what a certain player likes to do.

Other guys will want everything video-based, they need to see the images. So being around all the time allows me to develop those relationships with the players and to know who likes to receive information in what way.

Then the other big thing was having a granular understanding of game-plans. It's very hard as an analyst to sit down and say, 'well, that wasn't right', or, 'that's correct', when you don't actually know what the instruction was. I found five or six years ago doing bits with clubs where you weren't around all the time you were picking out something and saying, 'Look, this doesn't look right to me, I think there's an issue here.'

But then you realise that players were actually told to do that. So you're kind of exposing yourself and you were exposing them when you didn't know what the instructions were. They would be the two big reasons why I would be at training all the time, because it allows me to develop those relationships with players and then also know what's happening on a day to day basis in terms of the coaching.

GAA.ie: What was your next stepping stone after working with the Carlow hurlers?

AK: In 2020 I got involved with Shelmaliers in Wexford, both their football and hurling teams. I wouldn't have gotten involved there only for Covid. When the GAA resumed in June 2020, I was thinking, 'How do I get to a match again?' So getting involved with Shelmaliers was a way I was able to do that. And we were really fortunate in that we won the hurling championship down there that season, so I think that exposed me a little more in terms of the Wexford set-up.

The Wexford senior hurlers then were looking for a new analyst to come up to replace the guy who had stepped away, so I got a call to go in and work with the Wexford senior hurlers in Davy's last season, the 2021 season.

GAA.ie: And you stayed on then with the Wexford hurlers then last year when Darragh Egan became manager?

AK: Yeah, I did. When Darragh came in he would have spoken to some of the players and they would have been quite happy with my work from the 2021 season and he was looking to keep some continuity because as someone coming in from outside of the county he wouldn't have known everyone on the ground. So for him it was important to have some continuity and I was fortunate I got to do a full season with Darragh for 2022.

GAA.ie: You would have previously worked with John Hegarty with the Shelmaliers footballers, is that right?

AK: Yeah, during that 2020 season I think the players would have been quite positive in terms of their praise for me and the work I would have done. I had never done football analysis prior to that even though football was my own sport growing up. John really took a punt on someone out of nowhere but I guess he was trusting the relationship I had built up with the boys. I had a lot of credibility with them at that point. They were willing to listen to me and work with me.

My relationship with John grew from there and I think the run we had in the Leinster club championship last season allowed us to establish a really strong working relationship. He places huge value on the analysis side of things and is brilliant at taking that onto the pitch and tying the whole thing together. Which probably isn't as common as people think at club level. He has a really lovely way of integrating the whole thing between coaching and the analysis.

When the opportunity to have a broader scope with the footballers came up this year it was a very difficult opportunity for me to turn down. Because I would have a view I guess of wanting to get into management myself. I would be quite conscious that you're quite often perceived in a certain pigeon hole. While I wouldn't see myself in that little pigeon hole, if you want management jobs or something like that you would be. So this allowed me to break out of that narrow focus and do something with a lot more scope to it.

GAA.ie: You say you have a broader scope with the Wexford footballers. So you're doing more than coaching through video analysis now?

AK: It's more hands on now. I'd have input into the session content and I'm more hands on working with the boys on the pitch. So very exciting from that perspective because having that amount of contact with them is new to me. Particularly at an inter-county level. So it's been fantastic the last couple of weeks to get in and get going on that front and feel comfortable that I'm allowed to have this input and that it's sought out and your voice is welcome in that setting. It's been great so far.

The management group there has been fantastic to work with and no-one has any ego whatsoever, we all get on really well. I think that helps the on-pitch dynamic as well because we all just link in. Someone will take one thing and someone else takes another thing and you just step in and step out and it's working really well so far.

GAA.ie: Has your experience as a coach overall been uniformly positive? Or have you come up against some preconceived notions at times?

AK: I have never, ever experienced any negativity from a group I'm working with. The only negativity I would experience is sometimes you'd be going into grounds with a team and there could be a comment about a woman or sometimes if I didn't travel with the team and I was going in before or after them the guy on the gate might assume that you're there to help the physio or something. It's not intended to be disrespectful, and in terms of working with teams I've never, ever experienced anything negative.

Maybe initially before guys might be a little bit more sceptical but that could be just about the analysis side of things in general because at club level in particular a lot of clubs wouldn't be exposed to that in the same way as inter-county. Once groups learn that you do your work and you do it well and that you're consistent and reliable in what you do and you're adding value, that's all they really care about. So I've been incredibly lucky in that I've never experienced any negativity from any group I've been involved with. It's been uniformly positive.

GAA.ie: It sounds like you have a clear-eyed vision of where you want to get to in terms of management. Would that be a benefit of this Female Coach Mentorship Programme, that it would help give over female coaches the vision of following a pathway to coach at the highest level?

AK: I think as women we almost feel like we're less qualified that we are and sometimes we don't put ourselves out there enough even though we have plenty to offer. I think this Female Coach Mentorship Programme is going to be brilliant for that because it's going to allow women to see other women in those capacities and all learn from each other and move forward.

I really believe that women now are going to move into coaching more and more because the sport is getting older, it's maturing. So just like men for the last 50 years have always moved into management, that's going to happen with women now because the emphasis is going to naturally move from just playing and it's going to move into coaching or management and those same skills that are needed and that the men have had for so long, women are only acquiring those now.

The next 10 or 15 years is going to see a massive jump in the numbers of women getting into this space and I only think it can be a positive thing. In the short term Cliodhna's programme is going to be an excellent opportunity for women to see a clearer pathway to how they can do it. There will be women there who are doing it right now and doing it without any negativity coming at them. So it actually is a safe place to be as a woman. Just because it's male dominated doesn't mean you can't find your voice or you can't have a space or that your voice won't be heard or listened to.

GAA.ie: Presumably your ambition is to manage an inter-county team?

AK: Yeah, I would love to. There's no point saying otherwise, I would. How long that takes to happen, I don't know. We're probably a bit away from that in the men's game where you'd have a female inter-county manager. But it's definitely something I'd have a very keen interest in.

I have qualifications in S&C, qualifications in Sports and Exercise Nutrition, as well as having my own Performance Analysis skills. So I think I'm developing quite a rounded coaching/management CV with knowledge of a lot of areas that I hope in time will allow me to move into that more managerial area.

GAA.ie: Would you have any advice for aspiring female coaches about how best to navigate the coaching pathway?

AK: Don't be afraid of it. There's loads of opportunities in clubs, even if it's with underage groups, to get in and to develop your skills as a coach. I see loads of women now signing up to do the different coaching courses available, the foundation one in particular that the GAA run. But they sometimes operate as the back-seat passenger on the coaching group they're involved with, whether it's U-6s, U-8s, U-10s. Don't be afraid to get in and get involved and contribute ideas.

There's loads of resources available in terms of coaching content on Twitter. If someone is stuck for ideas they can get loads of suggestions there. For me it's just get out and get involved. To trust yourself and to be believe that you're just as entitled to be there as anyone else.

I had female coaches growing up and without even realising, that made me think it was possible. So if you're involved coaching U-8, U-10, or U-12 girls, that normalises for them so they feel it's a totally normal thing to do. So, for me, it's just to go out and get involved and back yourself more. As women we sometimes feel like we have to do way more to justify our existence in those male-dominated areas. But very often will find that the men involved are very willing to listen to what we have to say, we just have to air our voice a little bit more.