Derry have revamped their underage hurling squads to begin atu-14.Former county star Benny Ward is among those back coaching to put something back into the county. He spoke to Michael McMullan

BENNY Ward’s phone buzzed last autumn. It was Kieran McKeever, a man he both soldiered with in county colours and against at club level.

After the initial small talk, McKeever cut to the chase. Derry wanted Ward’s time and to tap into his years of hurling at a high level.

Having walked into battle with McKeever, it was a conversation that led down an important path.

The county were drawing up revised plans for a hurling academy that would bring underage players in at u-14 level. Ward was interested enough to take a spin to Owenbeg. He’d hear what they were selling.

McKeever, Derry games administrator Breige O’Neill and coaching and games development manager Chris Collins made their collective pitch.

Rather than waiting until u-15 when football squads were beginning, the plan was to invite every u-14 hurler to put their hand up for a pathway they might want to follow in the long term.

After a year of development, players would have the choice at least. Stick with hurling, swap for football or, better still, plough their efforts into both the big and small ball. The key concept was giving them the choice.

“We talked over a couple of things and it seemed interesting,” said Ward. “I liked the idea. I’m a hurling man, I’m a GAA man and I like to see things progress.”

If he was going to give it a go, he’d put his shoulder to the wheel. The promises were made. Hurlers would get the same gear as their football equivalents. There’d be games down the country. There would be grub and transport.

His Lavey colleague Mickey Collins was going to oversee the u-15 and u-16 level. Danny McGrellis would stay as minor manager.

Before he knew it, Ward was deep into the process for trials. The wheels were in motion.

Within days, he put out feelers for help among other club coaches around the county. Ciaran Clarke, John Wallace, Nicky Murphy and James Forrester agreed to come on board. And away they went.

“You’ve got good men there,” Ward said of those who worked alongside him.

“Briege sent out a message around all the hurling clubs, to anybody that was in their last year of u-14. I think we had over 100 players coming for trials.”

Trial games were setup and they began to sift through until they drew up a final panel for the season ahead.

“We invited all the 35 players, plus their parents, up to Owenbeg,” Ward said of their starting point.

Chris Collins and chairman John Keenan were there to present the county’s ambitions. Underage hurling needed to be developed. It was lifting the standard.

Then, it was time for the coaches to get to work. Every Saturday morning, alongside u-15 and u-16 footballers and hurlers, Derry’s u-14 hurlers were present at Owenbeg. Everybody was treated the same.

While an extra year of coaching is important to raise the hurling skills, there is the realisation that as players get older the demands on their time will increase. Three All-Ireland Minor football titles in recent years pushed football further forward in the shop window.

“Generally we find that the good hurlers are generally good footballers, and if they played soccer, they’d be good soccer players too,” Ward points out.

“You can almost guarantee that there’ll be boys on our panel that will be selected for the u-15 football next year.”

A year of hurling will make them weigh up a set of options that previously didn’t include hurling. Being a dual player is an option.

“I was speaking to the Meath lads,” Ward adds. “their boys are committed to dual until at least minor.

“The minor football will maybe make them choose but until they get to that age, the boys are dual players until such time as they decide themselves otherwise.”

Derry u-14s hurled away on Saturday mornings with a break for Christmas factored in before getting back up and running.

“We followed the same pattern as the footballers,” said Ward of their schedule.

The tricky thing was getting enough games factored in. When Ward asked his squad for feedback, it was mostly positive. The one factor needing a deeper look is getting a wider range of games. It’s a geography issue with Antrim the only other Ulster county with an u-14 squad.

When they have their end of season debrief, it will be something to discuss. So to, getting a strength and conditioning programme in place for u-15 level. Another point is having an evening free from club u-14 fixtures ahead of county u-14 games.

These are the small things needing tidied up. As for the rest, it was a positive experience. Ward sees way more pros than cons.

“We went down to the GAA Centre of Excellence in Dublin,” Ward said of the games organised by Central Council.

“We played Westmeath and Wicklow…we were down twice and played Meath in Dunganny, their GAA Centre of Excellence.

“We had also arranged to play Antrim over in Dunsilly in a challenge match and played Armagh u-15’s development squad, whenever they were doing their trials. The lads also played Offaly.

“It’s difficult to get challenge games and that’s something we are going forward as feedback.

“You need to be a game every five weeks or so, be it a club game going down to Dublin.

“In fairness the county board, they said if there’s anything that they could do, they would.”

Ahead of the Meath game, an idea was floated of taking the squad on to Croke Park for the Kilkenny v Clare All-Ireland semi-final.

Selector Nicky Murphy, a Kilkenny native living in Sleacht Néill, pushed the proposal and arrangements were put in place.

“Before you knew it, all the players that travelled got in to watch the All-Ireland semi-final,” Ward said, “it was a fantastic experience for players.”

These are the extras that can be added in. Hurling is different in that Ulster is away from the top counties. Getting access is that bit harder. Ward hints as twinning challenge games with Derry’s Christy Ring Cup games to give players a wider range of opponent.

“We have to be also realistic,” Ward said.

“I was speaking to the Meath manager and they have 17 or 18 hurling clubs. That’s more than double what we have.

“I keep on repeating to the players, the skills are the exactly same, it’s just the number of players and whenever you have more numbers, more will be more quality coming through.

“There’s certainly a lot of quality in that development squad, but where that goes to now over the next two or three years, who knows.”

Ward questions whether a player is better placed being a panellist in football or a regular starter on the hurling team.

“It’s a difficult choice,” he accepts. “We’re also aware that football at the minute is very successful, it’s in the crest of a wave and that’s very appealing for young lads.”

“We’ve just won three (minor football) All-Irelands in the last five years and anybody with ambition would be enticed by that.”

The consistent theme of Ward’s conversation is about controlling what he can. Sitting back isn’t going to be any different. It all comes back to the same.

Roll out a year of u-14 hurling, have an enjoyable coaching environment where players will polish their skills.

“Unless we try it, we don’t find out,” Ward again stresses.

“For the longer term, you want to give the players a challenge. You’ve got to take the fear factor away from them.

“If you only play one of the bigger teams whenever you come 17, 18, you’re going to be daunted by it.

“If you’ve been playing that same opposition since you’ve been 13, 14, 15 or 16, it’s going to be a challenge to you and you’ll be wanting to take it on.”

He can tap into his own playing days. The back-to-back Ulster winning team of 2000 and 2001 was backboned by players who won Ulster Minor titles.

Other indicators of success are the retention rate. Are the same 30 players there by the end of the season? Is there an even standard across the panel or a drop off?

“You want to get as many boys to the same level as possible,” Ward said of the big picture.

He takes it a step further by ensuring there is a link to the local schools. Can there be a greater Derry presence in the Mageean Cup?

He references Gaelcholáiste Dhoire or St Mary’s Magherafelt. Like the underage county squads, getting as many school teams operating at the highest level possible is the foundation. Then, the wider the base, the taller the pyramid.

The Derry underage players were back at Owenbeg on Wednesday night for their end of year presentation evening. A bite to eat, a debrief and thoughts about the next step.

In recent years, the Derry success at the u-17 Celtic Challenge level has morphed into Ulster and All-Ireland u-20 titles.

With a group of u-14s having tasted what is required a year earlier than most, it’s a positive start. There are many more corners, but there is now an u-14 a cohort who have climbed the first rung of the ladder.