By Cian O’Connell

Eager to invest time and energy developing homegrown talent, GAA clubs in England are making significant strides at underage level.

Last weekend’s well attended Award One coaching course was the latest example, highlighting that people are ready, willing, and able to make important contributions.

London and Hertfordshire GAA collaborated for this initiative with Community Development Administrators Cormac Duffy and Ailish Gaughan spearheading the sessions.

In September Britain GAA’s Coach Education & Volunteer Training programme was launched with this course part of the process. “We had two online webinars across two Friday evenings, one in February and last Friday evening,” Duffy explains.

“Then, we got all of the coaches here in Ruislip on Saturday for the in-person, practical sessions. So, it was done in conjunction between London and Hertfordshire GAA, who linked up together to run the course.

“We also had three coaches from Lancashire, who joined the online part of the course. They are going to do the practical part of the course in Lancashire, just after Easter.

“We had 23 coaches from nine clubs between London and Hertfordshire on Saturday. That is a huge number, it has been a long time since numbers like that on an Award One in Britain. Definitely, the biggest since Covid.”

Nursery programmes and underage coaching is key for the long term sustainability of clubs with Duffy encouraged by recent events. “Fulham Irish started last year, Dulwich Harps had their first underage session recently too, they are trying to get that going,” he says.

“Clubs are realising that maybe in 10 or 20 years down the line, they are going to need their own players coming through to the adult team. They can't just be relying on people like myself, who come over to work.

“People maybe only come over for a couple of years before going home. It isn't really a reliable system to develop your club. They have copped on to that, they realise they need to bring through their own homegrown players.”

Establishing links between clubs and schools is crucial. Duffy carries out extensive coaching work in London and always wants to forge connections. “If I go into a school, we will always try to create a link with whoever the nearest club is,” Duffy says.

“So, if I'm in a school I'll mention when training is. Preferably, we will get flyers out from that club or get them put in a school newsletter. If a child does have an interest, maybe a couple of clubs might be in the locality, but we will figure out the closest to where they live.

“Some clubs are better at it than others, some clubs have really seen success in organising tournaments with schools in their areas.

“A lot of clubs are realising the potential there, especially with Gaelic Football and hurling being summer sports. Kids, who are big into soccer, rugby, and other sports, they like to keep active over the summer.”

Duffy operates across London. Wherever help and assistance is required, Duffy will try to oblige. “You could be anywhere really,” he says.

“Predominantly, the north west is where a lot of the clubs and schools traditionally are. North London Shamrocks, over more towards Tottenham and Arsenal direction is a bit further away, but they are very active in schools. I'll be over there after Easter.

“Thomas MacCurtains, way over in East London, towards Essex are keen to get coaching in schools. Clubs in South London, Dulwich, Fulham, and Round Towers, they are keen too. I'm hoping to recruit a few part-time coaches which would help take the burden of travelling to those places off me.

“You could be anywhere, even Gael Londain, based where London Irish used to train - where the All-Britain Competition takes place this year, in south west London.

"They have four or five schools in that locality where I'm coaching at the minute. It can be fairly spread out.”

Before moving to London, Duffy enjoyed working for Monaghan GAA. Valuable lessons were learned. “I'm coming from Monaghan, where every school you went into or every club, it was number one for everybody,” he says about the GAA’s influence in the county.

“Over here, you're going into a school where kids have never heard of the sport, never mind played it. So, you plan differently, plan ahead, because you're planning for the future. You're trying to increase the number of clubs.

“Every year you want to get more fixtures, trying to get enough games for them, that is always a bit of a problem. You're trying to build that up every year.

“So, you have a lot of different challenges compared to back at home, but it is enjoyable. It pushes you out of your comfort zone in a lot of ways.

“It is enjoyable, even in the year and a half to two years I've been here. Even in that time it has developed. The potential over here is huge.”