The Football Development Committee launched the club football pathway manager programme on Friday night in Dunganny. There was a very encouraging crowd at the first night of the launch with most clubs now having made a high-quality appointment. The presentation finished with a lively Q&A session. Feedback from participants has been universally positive.
The purpose of the role to manage the coaching journey of footballers through their underage career into playing adult for the club. The structures discussed will help our footballers to be as good as they possibly can be whether for club or for county.
Paul Garrigan, newly appointed Football Academy Head Coach spoke at length about the extensive coaching supports that will be offered to clubs in close co-ordination with the club pathway managers. Paul spoke about the Meath football coaching curriculum and how that will be extended to club U-13, U-15 and U-17 managers in the short term with plans to extend beyond those ages down the line. Annual coaching plans, along with individual weekly sessions for each age will be provided that will sync and replicate academy work. Paul emphasised that only a small number of academy participants end up playing senior for Meath seniors, whilst quite a number of players never come through academies and end up playing for Meath. Development is nonlinear and it important that there is quality coaching at County AND club.
Barry Horgan introduced the Teambuilder application that will be provided free of charge to participants. Barry spoke about the athletic development pathway that he will oversee. Club pathway managers and club coaches will be able to access the athletic and football programming through PDFs and videos on the app on their phone pitch side, or at home.
The process underlines the commitment to provide our clubs with high quality coaching support from Meath GAA through the work of the Meath Football Development Committee. Those clubs who have not yet signed up should do so because the supports will only be extended through the programme and they risk missing out.
By Meath GAA Sun 12th Feb