This week on the Saturday Panel, we focused on Irish football and how the Irish footballers of tomorrow are being taught to play the game, with John Duggan joined by Republic of Ireland u15 head coach Jason Donohue, FAI Head of Coach Education Niall O'Regan, and Women's Football Development Officer Pearl Slattery.
Jason Donohue recalled being at England's St Georges Park development facility to face their U15 side.
While his young guns were nervous ahead of kickoff at the home of English football they quickly grew into the game.
By the time the halftime whistle came, his coaching team gathered outside the dressing room to talk tactics before joining the team to lay-out their plan.
18 January 2020; Kevin Zefi of Republic of Ireland, centre, celebrates with team-mates Adam Murphy, left, and Alex Nolan, after scoring his side's first goal during the International Friendly match between Republic of Ireland U15 and Australia U17 at FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/SportsfileHowever, by the time they joined the squad the team were already gathered around their tactics board
"We literally had a coffee and let them do it," he told OTB, as he recalled watching them break down the first half and decide how to approach the remainder of the encounter.
"That's a credit to the grassroots coaches, it's a credit to the clubs, that they are graduating through to League of Ireland. Everyone should be taking credit for it.
"They are not my players, they are their players. They are Irish football players that we are trying to get ready to win a World Cup. That should be our goal. The pinnacle of football is to win a World Cup. Let's put that on the top of the pyramid, strip it right back. Let's get the right environment, right from the bottom-up correct so that we can win a World Cup in the next ten or twenty years."
19 January 2019; FAI High Performace Director Ruud Dokter, left, Republic of Ireland U21 manager Stephen Kenny and Republic of Ireland U15 manager Jason Donohue, right, during the U16 International Friendly match between Republic of Ireland and Australia at the FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
He continued, "The philosophy is to make sure we start dominating possession - to make sure we are calm under pressure. Make sure we are going out to win games, not to try not to lose games - not playing for draws. It is 'positive'."
27 September 2017; Republic of Ireland head coach Jason Donohue during the International Friendly match between Republic of Ireland and Brazil at the AUL Complex in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile"When you leave a room when you have Rudd (Ruud Dokter, FAI High-Performance Director), and even all the other international managers talking about football and what we are trying to achieve in the next few years, I mean I just want to run out and start training straight away."
"Now you have Stephen Kenny. You are just leaving the room saying, let's get on with it! Let's get on to the pitch and start playing football again. It is phenomenal what we are trying to achieve at the moment - what Rudd has brought in in terms of how we are all working together is the best thing that I've been involved in as a coach in 30 years," the U15 coach concluded.
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