The national underage leagues commence this weekend with Galway United head of academy Johnny Glynn simply delighted that competitive action will resume.
Following all the planning and plotting for the new campaign Glynn is delighted that football is back on the agenda for players and coaches.
The off season can be a demanding spell. “It wouldn't exactly be my favourite time of the year because once the season finishes it becomes a little bit chaotic,” Glynn says.
“I prefer it when we get started, when we have a structure, when everyone is focused on their games and players. In the off season a lot of things are going on that are outside of our control.”
Glynn is encouraged about how Galway United is faring in national competition. “We are learning as we go along, we are looking to improve every year we have been in the league,” he replies.
“We have four squads now which is fantastic, we really have a great standard of coaching in the club. We have standards to meet, we are looking forward to challenging the players, challenging the coaches to see what we can achieve in the year.”
Significant debate and deliberation surrounds the controversial move to suspend the U14 campaign which does not start until the summer. It is an unsatisfactory situation.
“I can understand the difficulty for schoolboy clubs because our calendars clash,” Glynn says. “Every year it is a challenging time, but we are just delighted to have all of our U14s signed. We have been doing a lot of work pre-academy for the last few years to try to ensure we have a good pathway into Galway United, that people understand our academy structure.
“We have a great partnership now with the Galway Football Association - we are working together with the age group below the national league levels. Also at U16 we have a joined up squad where we are trying to work with the boys that are in between U15s and U17s. So a lot of good things are going on. With the U14s we were just about to announce our squad on December 1 when it was announced about the official league not starting until July.
“That certainly was very upsetting for everyone involved in the U14 set-up in our club and every club in the national league, particularly when there was no consultation whatsoever. We are firing ahead, all the national league clubs are working together, we have a league starting for U14s so we are looking forward to that too.”
Aligning the local and national scenarios has been mooted by some to avoid further issues in the future. “We have tried to align the seasons, but that is very difficult for everybody and it doesn't suit everybody,” Glynn replies.
“You have to understand the needs of the schoolboy clubs, for the schoolboy clubs to develop further I understand the difficulty they have with a summer league and clashing with other sports. We have managed it quite well at all of the age groups, apart from the U14s.
“We have signed 15 boys in our U14 squad from the Galway League, we have two from the Mayo League, and two from the Clare League. There are approximately 700 boys playing soccer in Galway at the U14 age group, we have signed 15. I think it is a fantastic opportunity for more boys to get exposed to high level football.
“Another group of boys will go to the Kennedy Cup to represent Galway this year and another group of coaches will represent Galway this year. The importance of that in terms of developing more players is very important.”
Players drifting out of the national league squads is another issue with United eager to work closely with local outfits and coaches. An U16 training squad is being stitched together to continue to monitor emerging footballers.
“We were talking about doing it over the last two years. It is quite difficult to fit in the time and to fit it into the schedule,” he says. “This year David Silke and Gerry Martin have formed a coaching team. Over the mid term break they had two coaching sessions with the 2006 boys, who would be in between U15s and U17s.
“Those boys were in the national league before be it U15 or U14, but some were not. Boys are developing at every age group and it is great for us to see if we can get some new lads through that system that we can identify for our national league U17 squad next year that is great. It is great to keep more lads in the system.”
Ultimately promising players are being crafted with David Tarmey, who starred for Martin Devlin’s Galway United U17s in 2021, cited as a ‘perfect example’ by Glynn of a player who came into the national underage leagues later than others, but who has impressed hugely.
“A guy we had not identified, another one of our players, Ger O'Riordan, his father, who coaches in Cregmore recommended him,” Glynn says.
“He came in for a trial and did really well, a few other boys did really well. David was selected, we needed a striker because one of our centre forwards was injured for the season - Tom Daly - he is back now thankfully and another centre forward left us to go to Treaty.
“We were down on strikers when Dave Tarmey came in, he had a fantastic year, it was great for everybody really, now Dave is signed for our U19s, and he is doing really well there too.”
**Listen to the full interview with Galway United head of academy Johnny Glynn on this week’s ‘Cian on Sport’ podcast available on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
