Thank you

WOW lads, 1000+ views in just over a week! Thank you all! I do appreciate it, I'll keep them coming! Dean

AUL predictions

Over the past few days the Cork AUL Predictions have been coming think and fast,

Check it out on foot.ie

http://foot.ie/threads/162071-Cork-AUL-Predictions-2011-12/page8

“I believe the children are our future...”

Randy Watson once sang “I believe the children are our future...” or was that Whitney Houston? Whoever it was they were spot on, if you look around the city and county, or even across the water, clubs need to have a line coming through the club and feeding the “Top” team in the club. Manchester United, Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool they all have players playing first team that came through the youth system. Clubs need this, if they don’t they need a rich Russian or Arab at the other end to buys players. League One and League Two teams need their youth system to produce at least one player a season that they can sell to a bigger club just so they can survive. I’m sure the lower league teams would love to keep onto their players but they just have to sell.

In the Premier the Elite Player Performance Plan was introduced last year to develop a long term strategy for player development, they have six main points:

·    Increase the number and quality of Home Grown Players gaining professional contracts in the clubs and playing first-team football at the highest level
·    Create more time for players to play and be coached
·    Improve coaching provision
·    Implement a system of effective measurement and quality assurance
·    Positively influence strategic investment into the Academy System, demonstrating value for money
·    Seek to implement significant gains in every aspect of player development

These six fundamentals are helped by four main points:

·    Coaching
·    Classification
·    Compensation
·    Education

Altogether these points go hand in hand, but over here we cannot live by these because of  the nature of the amateur sport, but we can cherry pick or choose which points we can use and implement these in our own clubs through academies or our schoolboy/girl section. The main EPPP areas we can use:

·    Allowing clubs to have more coaching time with their young players
·    Helping clubs foster links with local schools in order to help young players get the best out of their football education as well as the academic side
·    Allowing clubs that have earned a top category grading to recruit young talent from further afield than is permitted under the current rules

If clubs implement an academy or train their coaches properly then in the long term we will see huge benefits within the clubs and players, with Castleview you can see this, fantastic youth policy. At least 4 players are regulars with the senior team and more are coming through with our under 19’s recently winning the premier league at their age level. 

So if we pick our own strategy using the EPPP points we can see this:

·    Create more time for players to play and be coached

·    Improve coaching provision

·    Implement a system of effective measurement and quality assurance

If we can hit these goals, the class of player coming through youth systems will be enormous, along with the FAI who are trying to get as many volunteers qualified in coaching we will have alot more coaches within the clubs that will be coaching players properly rather than a run around and a kick about, then players will start to enjoy football even more. 

Who knows, in 10-15 years time we could have a Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard on our hands, only time will tell!

Dean

Smells like...tiger balm?

I don’t know about you, but match day be it AUL 3A or Munster Senior League playing the big boys, you gotta love it! Getting up early on a sunday morning, having a hastily prepared pre-match meal of toast or something stupid that you heard that gives you enough energy for 90 minutes! It’s fantastic, just to be part of the team, entering the room full of guys either still asleep or going a mile a minute from their Redbull or Lucozade. Throwing your gear bag up on the bench rubbing your hands together and a quick walk around the pitch and maybe a chat about yesterday’s results. 

Then it’s time to get ready, banter flying around the dressing, it could range from guys talking about each other’s sisters to some guy’s “football’ jocks! The smell of tiger balm or deep heat starts to fill the air, time for people to dull the pain of the old ‘war’ wounds, then it comes to the team talk. The old dog from last century telling the young pups how to play, what way to take a corner even though he couldn’t cross his legs, how to kick the opposition! One last push towards the door, “Get out there and get at them, hit him to make sure he knows you’re there!”

Well the match finishes, either joy or sadness now fills the dressing room instead of the player’s local anesthetic. Did we win? Did we hit him to make sure he knew we were there? Was the old dog right, did we do him proud? Did we do the mud stained jersey proud? Hopefully! As we gather around to say who will and who won’t be at training next week or remember a part of a match when somebody kicked the ground and blamed the pitch or the goalkeeper that talks a great game but Stevie Wonder would pull off better saves! It’s at this moment that the team spirit is highest! This is one of the greatest feelings ever, it’s as simple as that, i’m sure every sport is like this but no sport is like football! 

The greatest sport ever!

Dean

What a beautiful weekend!

Well what a weekend! Everton become only the third team this season to beat Swansea at the Liberty Stadium with a lovely 2-0 win, Castleview complete a league double over UCC with a 1-0 win out in The Farm and me old flame Wycombe grab a late draw against MK dons.

After watching the Everton match a new confidence grew in me for tuesday night’s replay against Sunderland, now I know Sunderland beat QPR and the Stadium of light isn’t an easy place to go, but after watching Everton outplay the best passing team in the premier league at the moment I knew David Moyes gave his players his own version of the ‘hairdryer’ after the midweek game against Arsenal. I watched the game and thought Leighton Baines hasn’t been the same all season, his corners aren’t deadly anymore but with Pienaar in front of him the old partnership is blossoming once again and his freekick was nothing short of perfect. So I look forward to tomorrow night and hopefully a date with the enemy at Wembley.

I didn’t make it to the Castleview UCC game on Saturday but the lads came away with a fantastic result and puts us right back in with a shout of promotion to the Premier league and gives us great confidence going into the cup this weekend!

So over this week, I’m going to try and put a piece together on Messi and his career so far, so stay tuned!

Dean

Cork AUL Predictions

Hi lads,

So i will be posting the results of the Cork AUL Predictions from Foot.ie on this aswell.

Not many people picked up points over the weekend but Six-Yard-Box is going very well and has been close to the top since day one:

six-yard-box 37

Skippy 36

Radiostar 34

Innishvilla 34

Douglas Local 30

sharpshooter 28

donaldihno 28

footiefanatic 27

Oldlegs 23

Horse24 23

the Owl 23

Thebooboys 22

Bluey 17

offside rule 13

John Giles Foundation Walk of Dreams

Fantastic cause lads, get out and support!

John Giles Foundation.
The John Giles Foundation Walk of Dreams will take place on Monday 7th May. Due to the outstanding success of last year’s inaugural Walk the FAI have decided to extend the event and will be organising 3 Walks in Cork this year.
In addition to the Cork City Walk, which will probably take place on the Monahan Road Circuit, a Walk will take place in North Cork which will be held in Mallow, and in West Cork with the Walk taking place in Dunmanway
About The John Giles Foundation
The John Giles Foundation funds community projects to increase sporting participation enhance community cohesion; improve health and education for all. These objectives will be achieved by supporting community programmes, personnel and facilities.
Walk of Dreams Benefits:
All clubs taking part in the “Walk of Dreams” fundraise in their local communities through sponsorship cards with 50% of monies raised going directly to the club and 50% to the John Giles Foundation which will be reinvested in the community.
North Cork Walk:
To launch the Walk in North Cork, John Giles recently honoured as the Grand Marshal of the Dublin St. Patrick’ Day Parade, will attend the Hibernian Hotel in Mallow on Monday next 26th March commencing at 7 pm.
The organisers of the North Cork Walk are headed up by Eddie McEvoy, of Mallow United, who will be assisted by Members of Buttevant Club including Liam Foley, and the Los Zarcos Club from Millstreet including Ronan Galvin. The organising Committee are expecting representatives from all Schoolboy and Adult Clubs in North Cork to attend Monday’s meeting.

The weekend ahead

With the mad months coming up in the league there is still slot to play for! With my own team Castleview, we have a massive game against UCC in the final push for promotion. Having already beat them this season 1-0 they will be weary of us. At the same time they are top and going very well with their loss to us being there only one in the league this season. In training last night we focused mainly on passing, simply because UCC are probably the fittest team in the league so if we play around them they may struggle but the passing game suits us down to the ground.

Across the water there are some huge games, especially the north London derby between Chelsea and Spurs, which might also be a dress rehearsal for the FA cup semi final, but Chelsea will also have one eye on the champions league next tuesday. My own team Everton will be playing newly promoted Swansea, who have been great for the league, simply because they have stuck to their game and look at home in the premier league. 

If anybody has any opinions please drop it into the blog and we can get a bit of conversation going,

Dean

Grassroots to Blue Skys

Growing up most of us wanted to make it across the water, playing FA cup finals, winning league medals and living the lifestyle of a footballer. I was different, I wanted to know how those players played so well together!

I grew up looking at top managers and over the years we all have grown accustomed to them appearing in our living room as friends but through the TV! But I wanted to know what they did on a daily basis, so I went down the coaching route(no thanks to a dodgy knee), so this will be an insight into want a coach does, what to miss and most of all just share my thoughts on football from the grassroots to the champions league final!!!