Declan Bogue

LAST WEDNESDAY, THE GAA’s Director-General Tom Ryan made a rare foray into public life to issue an email to each county board, to be forwarded thereon to club secretaries.

It concerned the Go Games model, for playing games between clubs up to and including U12 levels. It outlined the basic principles, which is as it says on the tin: each child playing Gaelic football, camogie and hurling gets a chance to play for the entire game, every game.

This scheme has been in place since 2007, yet the point keeps getting lost. While Go Games is meant to have fun and participation at the centre of everything, the competitive instinct is a tough habit to kick, for many.

Tournaments have sprung up all around the country. Often times, they carry the names of deceased members. Within the hosting club, they can spark incredible levels of support and volunteering. The vast majority of them pass off without incident. Some can get a bit hairy.

“In 2023 the programme policy was relaunched which outlines that there is no provision made to publish scores, to play on a knock-out basis nor to include finals, or to present trophies, cups, etc,” continued Ryan’s email.

“In conjunction with the Camogie Association and the LGFA, the GAA is working to ensure there is a greater understanding and compliance in relation to the policy including the non-competitive nature of Go Games. Putting ALL children at the centre of what we do is paramount for the three Associations.”

So the hammer came down. The next question to ask is what exactly can be done, if clubs wish to continue on with tournaments that are already established in the local calendars?

Ryan mentioned sanctions in a roundabout way, saying it wouldn’t be something they would like to do, but still the analogical hand was raised. Sanctions for hosting tournaments were noted.

GAA Director-General, Tom Ryan. Andrew Paton / INPHO Andrew Paton / INPHO / INPHO

There are many that will ask what harm this is doing. Many more feel it is unreasonable to expect U12 players to remain playing in an uncompetitive environment.

Lower than that, however, the Go Games model, properly implemented, is the most suitable environment for underage participation.

In any underage team, children will fall into a few different brackets. There will be a few that are competitive animals. The lure of medals and trophies for them can be strong. Coupled with a misguided coach, it can create an environment whereby players from the age of six up to 10 are put under too much pressure for their emotional maturity.

The anecdotes and stories emerging from various underage tournaments are numerous. A quick survey of people across the country produced predictable horror stories.

Like one blitz in Cork when one team lost their semi-final. Upon the final whistle, many started bawling crying. They refused to stand in for the team picture and threw off their jerseys.

In Ulster a couple of years back, one underage coach responsible for an U10 group at a tournament told this writer that all that development and nurturing stuff was all well and good, but that his club had a serious need to start winning silverware. Two hours later, he was being asked to leave the premises, having spent the morning swearing at referees.

The GAA cannot police everything. They can only issue guidelines, such as the ‘Silent Sideline’ initiative. But no amount of signs around a pitch will stop some parents projecting their own self-loathing onto their children when they are trying to play a game that, well, should be about fun.

As impressive as the overall levels of volunteerism is in the GAA, there can quite often be a shortfall in those willing to become underage coaches.

One of the major factors is the sheer workload involved. Many clubs see children not much more than infants as being part of an academy system. A great number want children from eight out training at least twice a week. Some clubs go for ten months of the year, others seek to go all year round.

Generally, coaching roles are performed by parents of children at that age grade. Enthusiasm is initially wonderful, but when it is not backed up by coach education and even safeguarding, then it becomes an issue. A background in playing and a love for the club is well and good. Coaching though needs many skills and they rarely come natural.

The study and research conducted by the GAA, and the proliferation of coaching courses available are not respected as they should be.

Coaching children is difficult.

The skill of developing children lies on the training ground, where best practice has a ball for each child, 100 touches in the first ten minutes, drills based around acquiring skills, and mini-games of 3 v 3 or 4 v 4, with execution of the skills practised rewarded to reinforce the message.

Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO

That approach brings on the younger, or weaker kids that have not grown into their bodies. It does not come with guarantees, but nothing does.

Arranging a Go Games or attending a tournament is actually much easier. Make a call to a club to arrange a time and venue. Drop a message into the team group with said arrangements, and off you go.

When they are exposed to nothing but games, then even the recommended 7 v 7 games can be dominated by two or three players from each side. The rest become bystanders.

And this is the pinch point, the one thing that tests relationships between players, parents and coaches. Often times they can be fraught and this received attention from GAA President Larry McCarthy at GAA Congress in 2023, referring to a case where a Dublin family took a case against the Fingallians club in Swords to the High Court over an incident at an U9 tournament in Newry.

“It is disconcerting to see a parent sue a club because of lack of playing time for a child,” said McCarthy.

“I accept totally that such behaviour is a complete outlier but when you realise that lack of playing time was the complaint most often received by Children’s Officers in 30 of 32 counties last Autumn, it suggests that we may have an underlying issue that needs to be addressed . . . 

“The over-emphasis on winning at such a young age is totally anathema to the philosophy of Go Games, is damaging to children, and deters people from involvement in the Association. Fun is good.”

Fun is good. It also leads to great participation. In 2010, Derry were dumped out of the All-Ireland backdoor by Kildare, then managed by Kieran McGeeney, by 11 points at Celtic Park.

The week after, the Derry coaching and games manager, Chris Collins, sent an email to each club urging them to keep the faith in a direction they were pursuing with their coaching.

“We have very much over the past couple of years fostered the idea that every young players should play and develop their technical skills at their own rate. I am convinced this will reap the benefits in years to come. I would however like all underage coaches, particularly U12 coaches, to concentrate working on the weak side to develop more two sided players,” he wrote.

“At Under 8 level it should be about getting the kids out playing our games, enjoying them and developing that sense of club with them.

“At Under 10 level it should be about skill development, focus most be on developing all the skills with the young players moving into under 12 level.

“At Under 12 level it should be about skill refinement and executing the skills under pressure. There should be much more decision making in your coaching sessions for the players also.”

A lot of things went wrong with the Derry senior team in the meantime, of course, before they started to go right.

And underneath that, they have become outrageously successful at underage over the last number of years.

Those breaking onto the senior team at the age of 20, 21 now, would have been six and seven when Collins wrote his email.

And the message was not about games, or trophies, or squeezing an U10 blitz out of here or there.

It was about skills acquisition and development.