Big day for Wicklow Schools team take on St Peter’s in semi-final

With John-Paul Davis WICKLOW SCHOOLS take on St Peter’s of Wexford today (Wednesday) in the Top Oil Leinster PP Sch Senior football ‘A’ semi-final in St Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy at 1.45pm.

It’s a massive game for Wicklow GAA and a win would propel this Wicklow Schools final into a Leinster Senior ‘A’ final which would be a superb achievement.

They face a very stiff test in the form of Chris Murphy’s St Peter’s side but we got the thoughts of Wicklow Schools manager John-Paul Davis on the challenge that awaits them and their journeyso far.

1 – Big game on Wednesday, how have preparations been going in the camp and how have ye kept the momentum going since the last day out?

We have kept momentum by strengthening our panel over the Christmas period with some new players and also playing Kildare Minors which we beat last Tuesday in our final preparation game.

This has been coupled with three training sessions over the Christmas holidays where we have worked on our tactical approach to our play and how to impose our game plan after throw in on Wednesday.

2 – What do you know about Chris Murphy’s St Peter’s side, their progress to date, and what are the obvious challenges Wicklow Schools face in this game?

It is always difficult to establish a reconnaissance mission on the opposition in schools competitions as the matches are generally played during school hours.

We know that St. Peter’s are one of the favourites to win the competition judging on their performance in the junior competition in 2014/15, where most of the players are still playing in their team.

We have played them twice over the past two years, in the league last year where we were comprehensively beaten and also a challenge game this year in Novemeber a game that we won comfortably, however they had a very young side playing that day.

They are very well organised, they are a physical team and they are very clinical in front of goal if given space.

They are also very confident with some dangerous players at wing back, midfield and corner forward.

They have taken some scalps on their way to this stage in the competition none other than Coláiste Éoin, Stillorgan, who are very good annually in this competition.

3 – Conversely, what challenges do Peter’s face when they come up against Wicklow Schools and where do you believe the Garden County side can do damage?

This Wicklow Schools team is very experienced with most of the team playing in this competition last year.

This team is very hungry for success and have an indomitable spirit that can triumph in close games.

We have some very good individual players who work really hard for each other and have bought into our system of play that they have drove themselves in our tactical sessions.

4 – Can you talk to me about the lead up to this semi-final? Games played, how the team have evolved and developed since ye started?

The semi-final match against St. Peter’s on Wednesday will be our 17th session this Wicklow Schools season.

We have played three championship matches beating Louth Schools, Drogheda Schools and Marist Athlone to make it this far in the competition.

We have had a clear vision of how to approach this season and the players have adapted and developed very well to the ideals of a zonal defence and transitioning from defence to attack as quickly as possible.

We have worked with the players on tactical awareness and the players have taken ownership and have come up with solutions to solve problems, which has been a major part of their development this year.

The players have also had to adapt to the new ‘mark’ rule which was introduced on January 1st this year.

5 – Wicklow would have a poor, albeit brief history in this competition. What would a win on Wednesday mean for Wicklow football?

Leinster Schools ‘A’ competition is the premier competition in Gaelic football for our schools.

Unfortunately, the schools in Wicklow are participating mainly in the Leinster ‘C’ and ‘D’. We have only one school playing in the ‘B’ competition.

We are giving Wicklow players the platform to play at the highest level by entering a Wicklow Schools team in the ‘A’ competition.

This drives up the standards of the players of what is needed to compete at the top level.

A win on Wednesday would mean that Wicklow will have a team playing in a Leinster final of an ‘A’ competition, which hasn’t happened for a long time.

We want Wicklow playing at this standard and the ambition is to have some of our schools autonomously playing at this level.

We also want to use this competition to springboard players a long our pathway in education and football through the GAA sport scholarship programmes in third level.

Currently only two Wicklow players are playing at Sigerson cup level and we are actively trying to improve this by providing a third level bursary scheme and encouraging third level institutions to come watch our players playing at this level.

6 – What are the challenges and rewards of leading a combined team with players from different schools?

There are many challenges as with all teams but what we have found the major issues being getting the buy in from players and their parents.

As this is a schools competition it means matches are played during school time the semi-final being an example.

Our players also play for their own schools in their competition which increases the number of games.

We feel this is not substantial however with the points race becoming more intense each year, students and parents worry about their subject contact time in school.

We have allayed their fears by taking a lot of the games programmes outside school time and trainings are also outside school time.

For example, this season the players have only played four games during school time.

Communication is also a problem and we have countered this by using the edmodo VLE (virtual learning environment), where we post all the teams communications from logistics, tactics, motivational and other information.

Parents can also monitor this programme which make it a great platform for all stakeholders in the setup.

Finally, logistically traveling to games is always an issue. We generally use a bus to pick up the players in the east of the county from their schools and try to limit the amount of time the players are on the bus.

The west side of the county are usually brought by car to matches with team managers and meet the bus at a designated point on longer away match journeys.

Once the players buy into our team they are very motivated and are looked after very well with training tops, shorts, socks, team meals after games and have the opportunity to win a bursary x 3 to third level education worth €1,000.

7 – This Wicklow Schools team is littered with talented footballers. Does it give you great hope for the future of the game seeing these young men coming through and is it a testament to the work being done in some clubs and what’s needed to kickstart a conveyor belt of talent that will eventually feed into senior level?

We can never be more grateful to the school and club volunteers who help coach and develop these players.

All the teams managers also coach teams in their schools and clubs so they know first hand the effort being put in at these levels.

It is encouraging to see these players arriving to our sessions with high basic football skill levels, which allows us to focus on the tactical side of player development.

As a philosophy we use a strong attribute of the players at this stage in their careers that they are student players and therefore they can be coached as students and players respond to this as coaching and teaching are very similar.

We set out our learning outcomes of each session and the players focus on this during and after each session, this means that the players know exactly what they have done in each session.

There is always more work to be done, we feel the fixtures issue that is getting national press with the CPA also filters down to juvenile level and this needs to be sorted out so that players have clear defined leagues, schedules and training to match ratios.

This is a body of work which can be fixed over a five-year period to strengthen our association and keep the players progressing and developing without frustration setting in.

We need all our talented players playing on all our representative teams and this is still not happening for a number of reasons.

On the positive side a lot more coaches in Wicklow are obtaining their Level 1 and 2 coaching awards from Leinster GAA which will keep improving coaching at club and school level.

8 - Talk to me about the management team behind Wicklow Schools and the dynamic within?

Wicklow schools has a six-person management team. John-Paul Davis (Coláiste Chill Mhantáin, Wicklow Town) is the team manager and former inter-county Senior footballer and Wicklow Junior 2002 All-Ireland winner.

Paul Garrigan (Wicklow GDA, Baltinglass) is team manager and coach. Paul is from Oldcastle in Meath and is from the Blatinglass club, where he played Senior football. He is the Baltinglass Senior team manager and won the Miley Cup last year.

Patrick McWalter (Avondale CC, St. Patrick’s) is one of Wicklow’s most distinguished Senior footballers. He has recently retired from inter-county football after a glittering 10-year career.

Alan Deering (St. Kevin’s, Dunlavin) has been a great addition to the management team this year, he is a current Dunlavin Senior footballer and former Wicklow Vocational Schools player.

The team is backed up by Pat Kelleher and Jim Murphy who are ever present year on year with the Wicklow Schools team.

The management team works very well and it’s important to have as many teachers as possible involved with the team as it is difficult for each teacher to get out of school on the same days that the team is playing and therefore it easier to manage when more teachers are onboard.

Paul Garrigan is vital to the success of the team as he doesn’t have the constraints of the a school timetable which is crucial.

John-Paul manages the logistics and communications and therefore the other team management members can focus on the student players. Jim and Pat are extremely experienced and their advice is vital to the success of the team.