Lilywhites won’t lack motivation
THE news that Dundalk Head Coach, Vinny Perth was given the opportunity to pick the brains of one of the most innovative coaches of a generation should be welcomed by all Dundalk fans.
Having been granted access to the Irish set-up by coach, Joe Schmidt at Carton House, Perth soaked up as much information as possible, for while some would question the idea that a coach of a soccer team could learn from watching the so called ‘grunt and groan’ men at work and play, the reality is that modern professional sport involves a great deal more than the technical aspects and systems of the individual sport.
Pep Guardiola for example, perhaps the finest coach in the modern game, admitted recently that he was fixated by the idea that rugby players pass the ball backwards but are always scanning what is ahead of them while doing so.
That idea is central to Guardiola’s tiki-taka style of play that he brought to his era defining time at Barcelona and now Manchester City.
Whatever about Guardiola’s playing philosophy of wanting his players passing backwards to players looking forward, there is a lot that coaches like Vinny Perth can learn about exposure to top professional outfits like the Irish set-up and the invitation to the Dundalk Head Coach by Joe Schmidt is indicative of the New Zealander who sees his role not just in serving the IRFU, but the whole of Irish sport.
There are aspects such as diet, training methods, rest time, life style, pre-training and pregame routines, treatment of injuries and video analysis that can easily transfer from one sport to another, as well seeing how players and management deal with pressure and expectation.
Joe Schmidt is, as most followers of sport know, almost fanatical about detail and his post match video analysis on the Monday after a game is uncompromising, and is dreaded by the players, especially those who do not carry out the coach’s instructions on the field of play.
He is rated by an insider in Irish sport, who has coached, and played at the highest level, and who is a frequent commentator on sport, as one of three men who have taken Irish sport to a new level of professionalism in their coaching structures.
The other two, identified by the insider, are Jim Gavin, who has won five All-Ireland football titles with Dublin, and Stephen Kenny, the former Dundalk man- ager, and coach in waiting to the Republic of Ireland senior team.
At Stephen Kenny’s side when he set new levels of achievement at Dundalk and encouraged his players to play more possession football was Vinny Perth and for that reason, and because of his desire to improve his education as evident from his visit to the Irish rugby camp, it is difficult to see how, as one soccer correspondent wrote this week, that the only obstacle to Dundalk’s retaining their League title is the ‘change in the dugout’ at Oriel Park.
‘If Kenny was still around there would be no question marks hanging over the title race’ is the view of the Irish Independent soccer correspondent, Daniel McDonnell in his preview of the new League of Ireland season which starts on Friday with the visit to Sligo Rovers to Oriel Park.
What greater motivation could there be for Vinny Perth and his backroom team, and they will have taken a lot of confidence not just from their President’s Cup win in Cork on Saturday night but significantly from the reception that the Head Coach was given by the sizable army of travelling Dundalk fans after the game.
The Stephen Kenny era may be over, but the Vinny Perth era has begun.
He knows that he has big boots to fill, and that there is a world of difference between the number one and the number two in a coaching structure.
He will need time and the patience of supporters to settle into his new role, and the reception he receives on Friday night when he takes his place in the dugout will be an indication of supporters views on the handover.
Of course Vinny Perth and the remainder of his backroom team know that if things don’t go well from the start that he will become a target with likely references to the fact that Stephen Kenny would do things