Martin Clarke was selected for stardom at a young age

In recent decades, the former giants of the game such as Armagh, Derry and Down, also Galway, Cork, Laois and Kildare – all solid Division One or Two teams – have suffered from an apparent lack of talent.

Some of these counties have county development squads or academies but it is these, together with the underage structure in clubs that coaches must question.

They must ask; should quality players be identified early and worked on long term, rather ‘quality players’ – talent – be selected annually to produce a trophy-winning team that year?

Many coaches claim to be talent identifiers, pointing to their successful U10 or U12 or U14, etc, as proof. Yet they are talent selectors, ie, they are selecting by the culling of players with the current ability to participate and win trophies in that year or near future. They operate as a separate team within their club.

Talent identification, however, is the prediction of future performance based on evaluations of current physical, technical, tactical and mental qualities, ie, seen as a potential future county player. Put simply, talent selection yields great results today while talent identification builds elite players and winning teams for the future.

Counties through their clubs must now consider if they operate a win at all costs youth sports culture as this promotes talent selection.

Why? Parents, or clubs or own ego ‘pressure’ the coach to win.

The coach is forced to pick players to help the team win and not playing those who will not help the team win. Thus enjoyment and development is lost to many, because coaches only looked at current physical, technical, tactical traits to achieve ‘short term success’. Thus the best get to play while the rest get little if any playing time, are told to work harder (little direction), get together, etc, if they want to play more.

The ‘rest’ are yelled at because they can’t get ball quick enough yet, or shoot well enough yet and they’re told this is the pressure they’ll face when older so get used to it now. No surprise then that most of the ‘rest’ quit by 13 years old.

What would a Talent Identifier do? They search for young players who may not be elite yet, Tony Scullion and Peter Canavan did not blossom to post-16, but possess the physical and mental attributes to eventually become one, like Tony and Peter. These type of players show a high level of coach-ability, sensitivity to training and have the motivation to learn.

Identifying talent needs the ability to weigh all the physical, mental and technical components of a player, as well as a measure of ‘GUT INSTINCT; of which youngster has what it takes to become elite and which youngster hasn’t.

Talent identification is a long term approach to player selection and development, focusing on training large numbers of players, and not culling all but the elite. It recognises that many factors affect whether a youngster makes it or not.

Many Gaelic counties are far too focused on talent selection, ie, a ‘win at all costs’ commitment to winning. Some clubs claim these ‘lesser’ players are in ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams but these get fewer games, with less experienced coaches, less committed team mates and an overall lesser experience. Often they are used as fundraisers.

Clubs are not identifying/developing youngsters who are most likely to become elite after puberty. The ones who are already elite are being selected but are later found out not to have the qualities needed for long term elite performance.

Emphasis on winning prior to 13 years old is destroying some counties’ ability to produce senior county players.

How can the GAA fix this?

1. Train up two coaches at least from each club in the county on how to fully teach the basic skills of the game, ie, the skills global parts; teach them in show motion before introducing skill games. Those two coaches can return to their club to train up two more each and so on. Why do we need this? The vast majority of young players rarely receive proper skills coaching and the skill movement is often flawed.

2. Stop Culling players at young ages and develop large numbers of players instead of just the elite ones. Many top players can be lost, eg, late developers, by early culling. I would venture that no culling of players should happen until 17 years.

3. Focus on Developing All Players at the youngest ages. Particular attention should be given to helping the less skilled plaeyrs catch up technically to the stronger ones. Thus, when all have finished their growth spurt, clubs have a larger pool of adequately skilled individuals (who can become elite) to choose from rather than only ‘elite’.

4. Abandon The ‘win at all costs’ competition, eg, U10, U12, U13, both league and championship. Run their coaching sessions from March to October with inter-club rainbow blitzes every four weeks to test the skills taught over those four weeks.

5. Better Educate Our Coaches to understand the difference between selecting and identifying talent, and then teach and encourage them to develop it rather than try to win with it immediately.

6. Ensure That The Best Coaches are coaching the youngest players.

These few measures are just a start, but if these and other changes are made, our clubs/schools will have larger numbers of skilled players to choose form as well as additional healthier and well rounded children.

We will have families less stressed financially and anxiety wise, because their children can be children again having fun and enjoyment in playing the game while unde no pressure to having to win.

Winning is for adulthood. Coaches, too, will now be allowed to actually coach and develop both better people and better players. Talent identification is the way forward for better club and stronger county teams.