Offaly GAA launch ambitious partnership for physical development of young players

OFFALY GAA have launched an ambitious partnership to oversee the physical development of young footballers and hurlers in the county.

The County Board have linked up with the Dublin based Setanta College, who will take charge of programmes for all underage footballers and hurlers in Offaly.

Every player will be invited for an initial assessment and training programmes in the coming weeks and the Offaly U14, 15 and 16 development squads will be selected after this in the new year – players who don't make the development squads will still be able to avail of the training programmes.

The Dublin based Setanta College have worked in other counties, including Galway, Limerick and Longford in recent years and secretary Padraig O'Meara told a County Board meeting on Monday evening that there had been a big drop in football and hurling standards in Offaly and this partnership was a bid to arrest that. “Standards have been slipping and we have to try something different,” he explained.

He revealed that Offaly had a coaching staff of 13 but this is now down to 6 and may be reduced to four in the coming week. The new programme will fill this vacuum and the money will be diverted to it.

Operations Manager John Hackett made a passionate plea for clubs and players to get behind the initiative. He stated that they had two different Heads of Performance and now have none. “What we have done in the past hasn't worked. We have to do something. It is a significant cost but it is an important investment,” he remarked.

Rob Mulcahy of Setanta College explained that they will send personnel into the county twice each week to train and coach the young players as well as monitoring them on an ongoing basis.

They will show them the correct way to do strength and conditioning work, running techique and teach them how to become more injury resilient. He spoke about the recent spate of cruciate injuries in the GAA and said many of them are down to poor decisions in a game, turning the wrong way and creating too much pressure on the knee.

They will also focus on good running mechanics and there will be a nutritional and psychological element to their programmes.

Chairman Tom Parlon described it as an “exciting development” for the county while delegates gave it a warm welcome. Former chairman and Ferbane delegate Padraig Boland recalled that they had tried a similar initiative with Athlone IT during his term as chairman in the 2010s. It hadn't worked out that time and he hoped this new one would get the support of all.