Launch of strategic plan by the Co. Board
Ambitious but realistic targets set across seven areas in detailed document
GAA OFFICIALS in Wexford certainly haven’t allowed the grass to grow under their feet during lockdown, with a lot of hard work behind the scenes reflected in the launch of a new strategic plan to cover the years from 2021 to 2025 by Micheál Martin, the new Co. Chairman, last night (Monday).
The Ar Aghaidh Le Chéile (Onwards Together) document maps out a way forward that contains ambitious but realistic targets in seven specific areas.
And the St. John’s Volunteers clubman has hailed it as ‘the most ambitious plan ever launched in the history of Wexford GAA’.
‘The groundwork has been laid in the last four years and we are now in a position where we can confidently set out our vision for the decade ahead across a number of areas and covering a broad spectrum,’ he added.
‘The plan is detailed and will be closely governed by being an agenda item at all County Board meetings.
‘In setting out this plan, we have consulted widely with clubs and have held the first-ever youth forum held by Wexford GAA to gather the views of our 15-17 year-olds.
‘Achieving our targets will require an investment of €5 million over five years.
‘We will launch a Cáirde Loch Garman Premium programme to help us attain our vision of transformational change within Wexford GAA and within every community in our county,’ he added.
‘We have a top-class coaching structure in the county that is recognised by teachers and parents as the best in class.
‘We will further develop this area as we enhance our reputation as the leading organisation for well-being, inclusivity and excellence.’
The first theme in the document is, indeed, coaching and player development, broken down into participation and high performance.
And it goes on to look at Wexford GAA infrastructure; finance and fundraising; games programme and refereeing; culture, community and club development; health, well-being and inclusion; PR and communications.
First up this week, we will focus on some of the main points raised under the topic of coaching and player development, and we plan to run through the issues covered under the rest of the headings in future editions.
The document outlines that a meeting was held with GAA officials in Croke Park four years ago to outline the challenges facing Wexford in terms of worrying participation numbers, especially in urban areas.
That meeting secured the county’s place as part of the East Leinster Scheme, and the production of a 2020 Vision to increase playing numbers was submitted.
Even allowing for the pandemic, significant progress has been made over the last year in achieving the targets set out in this plan.
Quite staggeringly, there has been a 200% increase in player participation numbers under the age of nine since the beginning of the plan.
The staff structure has also changed, with ten additional coaches secured via funding through Croke Park, Leinster Council, and the county’s own fundraising initiatives.
The Games Promotion Officer (GPO) model is similar to that adopted by Dublin GAA 15 years ago, whereby full-time coaches are allocated clubs.
By January of this year, 25 clubs were availing of this facility, and there is a commitment on the County Board’s behalf to continue investing in quality coaching.
The various GPOs are tasked with the following:
1) Ensure that skill development, fun, participation and retention are a central part of their club’s coaching ethos from nursery to Under-17, leading to lifelong participation in Gaelic games;
2) Recruit and upskill volunteers to each assigned club to ensure a self-sufficient structure in each club by 2025;
3) Create a relationship with primary schools through implementation of Hurling 365;
4) Ensure that each assigned club fields teams at Under-8, -9, -10, -11 and participates in the inter-club blitz programme;
5) Co-ordinate programmes to attract families of nonIrish nationalities;
6) Organise, promote and quality assure Easter and summer camps in assigned areas;
7) Co-ordinate summer street leagues with an emphasis on skill development.
The following line from the document will strike a chord with most people watching Wexford teams in action on a regular basis, and resonates with the comments made by Brendan Furlong elsewhere on this centrespread in relation to the physical make-up of our Senior hurling side.
Commenting on the area of post-primary schools and athletic development, the plan’s authors state: ‘One of the glaring inadequacies of our programme in the last ten years has been the physical conditioning of our players.
‘Although a programme existed, it was poorly co-ordinated and players often participated in an athletic development programme at night time, having played with their school earlier that day.
‘We have produced a Wexford GAA Athletic Development Programme and have met the ten main post-primary schools with an agreement in principle that Wexford GAA will fund the Athletic Development training of the players on all school teams.
‘This will broaden the number of players receiving expert training and will reduce the burden on elite players.’
The document goes on to explain that an extensive review of the county’s approach to developing elite players took place in August 2017, and a targeted recruitment programme for mentors was undertaken.
‘This has led to a much-improved structure and feedback from all involved has been very positive.
‘As a unique dual county, we must continue to examine how best to manage the load for players who are required to play in a dual code environment for club, school and county.’
In order to fulfil this objective, a High Performance and Sports Science Steering Group will be appointed.
Another group will be established with the task of ascertaining whether or not the changes in under-age categories to Under-11, -13, -15 and -17 – made after a review in the autumn of 2017 – have helped or hindered the development of young players.
This will involve a root and branch review of the county’s Coiste na nOg competitions ‘to ensure the best possible structure in enabling young players to thrive’.
It won’t surprise close observers of the under-age scene to be reminded that the county’s youth forum ‘highlighted a lack of playing opportunities as a key factor in drop out’.
One of the most notable aspects of ‘Ar Aghaidh Le Chéile’ is the publication of completion dates for all identified actions.
Various well-intentioned development documents ended up gathering dust in the past because of the lack of emphasis on a timeframe to actually get the work done.
In that respect, it’s refreshing to see that every plan has to be carried out within a specific time.
The two immediate coaching targets for the first quarter of 2021 are the creation and publication of a skill development pathway with benchmarks for coaches and children, plus the unveiling of the Wexford GAA player development philosophy that will be reviewed annually.
By the end of quarter three, it is envisaged that the Wexford Way Performance Plan will have been developed by the High Performance and Sports Science committee.
The root and branch review of all games activities, led by Coaching Officer Tommy Cousins (Kilmore) and Coiste na nOg Chairman John Kenny (Horeswood), will be done by the close of the year and will have as its goal the development of a ‘Wexford-specific games programme which puts player development and the skill of the game at its core’.
The integration of the athletic development programmes for all post-primary schools and inter-county teams is pencilled in for completion by the end of the third quarter of 2021.
The Coaching Officer and Coaching and Games Develentrally opment Manager will also be centrally involved in the roll-out of a best practice nursery programme in all clubs to achieve 100% participation, with a minimum target of 1,000 new Une der-9 players each year for the period of this strategic plan.
The target is to have 20 clubs fully operational in this
regard in 2021, 30 in 2022, and all 49 in 2023.
A longer-term goal, again under the remit of the Coaching Officer and the Coaching and Games Development Manager, is to expand the current GPO scheme to cater for 75% of the clubs in the county by quarter one of 2023.
Various other programmes are ongoing, notably the delivery of club-based Level 1 coaches with a target of eight to ten coaches per club.
A programme of coaching workshops will be organised with this goal in mind, while support expertise will be provided to club coaches on a ratio of six clubs to every one supporting coach.
In the area of child safeguarding, the GAA’s ‘Code of Behaviour’ and ‘Maintaining Appropriate Levels of Behaviour in our work with Children and Young People’ documents will be rigidly adhered to at all times.
And in conjunction with the GAA National Children’s Office, the County Board will comply with the Children First Act 2015 by ensuring that they carry out child safeguarding risk assessments and display child safeguarding statements at both club and county level.
Some interesting participation targets have been laid out in the document, with the following goals outlined:
1) To have 50% of all five- to twelve-year-olds in urban areas playing for a GAA club;
2) To have 40% of all 13- to 17-year-olds in urban areas playing for a GAA club;
3) To have 95 primary schools participating in the Hurling 365 programme;
4) To have 250 first year pupils per year participating in the School of Excellence Hub programme;
5) To have two players from disadvantaged areas on all under-age county panels from Under-14 to Under-21;
6) To have a minimum of 20% of all representational panels populated by players from urban areas;
7) For the well-being programme to reach 50,000 youths and adults over ten years.
Three specific performance targets have also been published to cover both codes.
In football, the aims are:
1) To be consistently competitive at Minor level while ensuring the emphasis is on holistic player development;
2) To be in the top four in the province on an annual basis at Under-20 level from 2025;
3) To be a top tier football county from 2025 competing in Division 2 or higher of the National League annually. On the hurling side of things, the goals are:
1) To be consistently competitive at Minor level while ensuring the emphasis is on holistic player development;
2) To be in the top two in the province on an annual basis at Under-20 level from 2023;
3) To consistently challenge for top honours every year from 2021 to 2025.
Readers are informed that a ‘specific plan has been developed to help us reach these targets’, to be shared with ‘relevant stakeholders’.
Ar Aghaidh Le Chéile was launched virtually via Microsoft Teams last night (Monday), with all club Chairpersons, Secretaries and County Board delegates invited to attend.
And a follow-up Teams event, to be attended by Wexford Senior hurling joint captain Matthew O’Hanlon, Senior football manager Shane Roche, and Co. Chairman Micheál Martin, will be held today (Tuesday) from 12.15 p.m.
Next week we will look at some of the other themes dealt with in this thought-provoking document which clearly outlines the vision for Wexford GAA in the years to come.