Opinion: What is being done to improve schools football in Cavan?

Opinion

Results and anecdotal evidence suggest that secondary schools football in Cavan is in a slump. How did we get here and what is being done to address it, asks DAMIEN DONOHOE.

Confidence and experience are a big part of developing a Gaelic footballer's ability. That confidence is something a player learns as he or she grows up in their teenage years, and secondary school football is their first opportunity to experience playing against players from other counties. By fostering talent and cultivating a winning mindset through schools’ competitions, counties can build a strong foundation for future success on the senior stage.

The secondary schools to inter-county pathway is well-established; when Cavan football was at its strongest and the county was winning senior All-Irelands, the team was backboned by graduates of St Patrick’s College and, seven decades and more on, the same persists around the country.

We only have to look at some of the leading players in the game for proof – All-Ireland-winning sides at senior level always have a healthy representation of players who learned their trade at school. Sometimes, they are stars at that level; other times, they bloom later but the apprenticeship they have served with their school is  priceless.

In the baking of a successful senior inter-county footballer, it could be argued, exposure to the best possible level of schools football in their teenage years is the yeast. And yeast is what makes bread rise.

Look at Derry, who have been very strong at Ulster schools level over the last number of years, have and how they have seen the benefits of this success with club teams winning All-Ireland titles and their county seniors lifting the Anglo Celt Cup on two of the last three occasions. Two of their schools have won five of the last 10 MacRory Cups, the top prize in Ulster schools football.

If you take a look at Tyrone as another example in Ulster football over the last couple of decades, a number of their secondary schools have consistently been competing at the top level in Ulster schools football.

Three different Tyrone schools have been in six of the last 10 MacRory finals and they have contributed players to the county team that have won three of the last 10 Ulster senior championships and the All-Ireland in 2021.

Our neighbours and probably greatest rivals, Monaghan, will play Division 2 football for the first time in almost a decade next year and have been consistently competitive in the championship over that. The population of Monaghan is 65,288 which is smaller than Cavan’s population of 81,704 and the Farney county have 10 fewer Gaelic football clubs than Cavan so how are they doing better than Cavan consistently on the field?

A startling incident occurred last week in schools football in Cavan. St Patrick's College senior team (U19) play in the MacRory Cup with their first team but have also entered a second team in the third-tier Markey Cup. The restrictions placed on St Pat’s for the Markey Cup were that they must name 15 players that cannot play this competition, and any other players who take the field in the MacRory Cup becomes ineligible.

This meant that when St Pats' second team took to the field last week against Virginia College, the next highest-ranked secondary school team in Cavan, they were playing without 26 of their panel available. Remarkably, St Pat’s came away with a two-point victory.

Virginia College has a rich tradition of football and has in the past won vocational schools' Ulster A competitions and All-Irelands. They won the Markey Cup in 2020 with a team which produced a number of players who went on to wear the blue of Cavan.

While underage football is always cyclical and St Pat’s has a large pick of boys, this was a result which raised eyebrows and sparked a debate. Has something gone wrong in schools football in this county?

And that begs the follow-on questions: has this been identified and what is being done to improve things?

If we take a look at the top two senior boys' divisions in Ulster schools football — the MacRory Cup and the McLarnon Cup — it's clear that Cavan are under-represented. Of the 29 schools competing in these two divisions, Cavan and Fermanagh are bottom of the pile as the only two counties with one school representing the county across both divisions. And, it should be noted, the one top-tier school in Fermanagh have won five MacRory Cups in the last 25 years.

Antrim have five schools ,which is a relatively new development. Tyrone also have five, while Down and Derry both have four schools each. Armagh, Donegal and Monaghan each have three schools representing their county in these top two divisions.

If you compare Cavan directly with Monaghan at senior Ulster schools' level, our neighbours are out-performing us consistently.

They, like Cavan, have nine schools competing in Ulster schools' competitions. Two of them compete in the top divisions compared to one from Cavan; they have one team competing in Division 2 compared to none from Cavan.

They have no teams competing in Division 3 compared to two from Cavan, one of them being St Pats' second team. Monaghan have three teams competing in the fourth division compared to four from Cavan and three teams competing in the fifth division compared to two from Cavan.

From talking with a number of teachers who are at the coalface of schools football in Cavan, it appears there are a number of issues. Some believe the sense of pride in representing their school has diminished and it is now more of a burden than a privilege to train and tog out for schools teams. For a lot of schools players, it costs their parents financially to have their children on a schools panel. Buses and gear aren’t covered by most of the schools and teachers are sometimes not enthusiastic about putting in the extra hours to prepare the teams.

The question has to be asked, how can we get more of our schools competing at a higher level? Facilities is an obstacle too in some schools so clubs need to be willing to allow their pitches be used by the local schools to prepare teams and play matches when needed.

In the era of instant gratification we live in, now even young players need the likes and the recognition for doing something that stands out. Schools need to publicise each team’s results as much as possible in the local and social media. This might help with the players’ desire to line out and as we’ve seen with Loreto College and with St Pat’s who get the most publicity, they have no problem getting players and keeping them playing.

The county board has a role to play but unfortunately they have been neglecting that over the last number of years.

The contact time with county board coaches in schools is next to none.

There currently aren’t enough coaches employed by Cavan GAA to get properly involved with schools teams around the county but support for the teachers who are coaching could be improved.

Our conveyor belt has stalled at underage county level over the last decade, and when it was exhaustively examined by an outside-led workgroup whose report was published in 2021, the recommendations were not fully implemented.

Our schools teams are on their knees and we need to do something to improve their fortunes if we want our minor and U20 teams to become more competitive again which will give our county senior team a better chance down the line.

It's time for accountability. Is it too much to ask that we, as a county where football is the number one sport, start to put the focus back on developing players for a change?