A crazy plan

LAST WEEK, Peter Doherty suggested a dramatic plan to bring Derry county football back to glory. It centered around making players happier, and if they were happier they would work harder. And to make them happier managers had to let players work just with their clubs. It’s one of those plans that I hear that sounds so crazy that it just might work. I asked a friend of mine what he thought of the plan and he said that he agreed with it. The only problem was, in his words, “in the GAA we are nosey and we care too much what’s going on next door.” I agree with that. We want to find out what our successful neighbours are doing, and then we want to copy them. The core of the issue, and how to change things for the better, is to get all players on board. Any successful team in the history of the GAA shares one thing – all the players bought into the plan and stuck with it.

RONAN SCOTT

Championship draws bring it home

IT feels like the GAA season was still a fair bit away until the various championship draws were conducted recently. Games are permitted to begin next weekend, it’s all getting very real. It’s incredible to be in this position because a few months ago hurling, football and camogie looked an unlikely occurrence in 2020. Trainings will be ramped up now that championship opposition is known and fields across the country will be buzzing again. Get out and support your club and county (if Covid-19 crowd allowance permits it) because this is a season to be really proud to be a GAA supporter.

NIALL MCCOY

Size matters

IN this week’s paper, Dermot Molloy became the next inductee into Ronan Scott’s fast-tracker stars, those players who improved their skills by playing a year or two ahead of themselves. Colm McFadden, Paddy Bradley, Kevin Madden are other members of this club, and notably Molloy is another forward. In his interview, Molloy explained how he tried to play at a year or two ahead of himself when he was younger. That made him more determined, but playing against those who were bigger and stronger than him helped him to progress as a player. When I consider players fast tracking it makes me think that the system of grouping players by age is a success as it produces stars like Molloy or McFadden. But is the counter argument that age might not always be the best guide for a player’s development. Perhaps allowances should be made for size or strength? Should a player who grows a foot taller than all the other players be allowed to play at his own age group at all? That said, I’ve always been tall, but if I had been thrown into senior football at 16 I would probably have ended up in casualty.

RONAN SCOTT

Rules will lead to some early pandemonium

THIS week I have been chatting to referees, managers and players about the new rules and it’s quite clear that a lot of people will go into the new season not fully understanding the new rules that have been brought into place. It was perhaps unfair to expect clubs to be ready given the short window of preparation, and the end result is going to be a few weeks of pandemonium. My hope is that by the time the club championships roll around most players will have a firm grasp – but expect plenty of head-scratching and yapping in the first few league games.

NIALL MCCOY