Originally Posted by
Thunderblaster
With all due respects, the answer to that is no. However, it was worse some years ago when Westport teams plummeted to the bottom divisions at underage level.
Since 2000, only one Westport United player made the Mayo Kennedy Cup squad and no player in that time, to my knowledge, have had trials in England. Most of the FAI Junior Cup squad played in the Kennedy Cup. In the last seven years, scouts have been attracted to Mayo footballers like bees to a honeypot and there has been a serious number of schoolboy international footballers coming from clubs as diverse as Ballina Town, Ballinrobe Town, Ballyglass, Castlebar Celtic, Erris United, Kiltimagh/Knock United and Manulla. Castlebar Celtic are starting from 6 years of age and are reapng the rewards for their underage policy, one of the big three in the province alongside Mervue United and Salthill Devon.
An excellent underage structure would be the twelve year plan, from 6-18 year olds, in which a system is put in place with the appropriate coaches to implement sessions that are consistent to the age category under the FAI Technical Plan. Phase 1 is the FUNdamental Phase from 6-9 years of age, implemented by Kick Start One coaches. Phase 2 is the Learning to Train Phase from 9-12 years of age, implemented by Kick Start Two coaches. Phase 3 is the Training to Train Phase from 12-16 years of age and Phase 4, the Training to Compete Phase from 16-18 years of age. Both these phases are implemented by Youth Cert coaches. Phase 5, the Training to Win Phase covers adult footballers, which is the graduation of the underage talent into the senior set-up. Phase 6 is the retainment phase and this can apply to underage to help them develop skills in coaching/administration/refereeing.