Schools project should be pursued for good of Leitrim football says Shane Ward

It may have ended in defeat on Wednesday in the Mezzino Connacht PPS Senior A Championship Semi-Final but former Leitrim Senior & U21 manager Shane Ward needs no convincing for the benefits of the County Schools team project for the good of Leitrim football.

St Colman’s Claremorris prevailed 1-12 to 0-10 at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence to advance to the final but for Shane Ward, the bigger pictures means the Schools team has proved to be a great success: “There are a lot of positives and a lot of development work done and good work done. 

“Keeping that group together, especially the group that are between minors and 20s at the minute, that are stepping into maybe an under 19 kind of area and heading for the county 20s this year or next, that's what it's about. As I said to the players there, it's just about exposing them to the higher end games as much as possible. 

“Just looking at this year, between September and March or April, they're playing as many high end games as they are between June and September. That's nearly a full year round for them so they'll learn from tonight.”

In fact, Shane hopes that the Schools team is promoted and developed further: “For me, this is definitely something that should be pursued and this should be something that the county should embrace, schedule properly, manage properly but just give those guys that are in between those minors and 20s that platform to play a high level of football as much as possible.

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“I think the development going on behind the scenes is brilliant. The changes that I've seen in the last five or six years are definitely, definitely giving us a better player to work with and giving us a more all-round player with physique, conditioning, ball skills, ability to play in big games, ability to play and compete with good opposition.

“It definitely is helping and you can see that in the players., they're more confident going out into games. There were times in the Claregalway game, the Jarlath’s game, when we were under pressure and they responded really, really well. That's something that might not have happened in previous years.”

The contest with St Colman’s came down to small margins with Shane agreeing that his troops just weren’t at their very best on the night: “I thought they were a bit unsettled tonight and I didn't think they showed the best of their ability. It just didn't happen tonight and that's the key point there, that's the learning point for them. 

“When you're out there, it's a different level and it's a different intensity and it's a different pace of the game. Watching that game on the sideline and actually playing that game are two totally different things and that's what those boys are figuring out. It bodes well for boys going back to the county minor squad and the county 20 squad that they'll be ready for Championship action in a couple of weeks' time.”

The Leitrim manager paid tribute to the Mayo school for the pressure they put on Leitrim but Shane always felt that a goal could prove the decisive score: “To be fair, St Colmans were very intense in the tackle, very intense in 50-50 battles, intense in breaking balls and they managed us reasonably well in the first half.

“We came away in the first 15 minutes with a good few breaking balls and were on top in that area. But then they dug in and they won a few. They worked really hard in our kickouts and put us under a bit of pressure coming into halftime. I thought our boys managed that well and that they responded and still went in 6-6 at halftime. 

“You'd think going into halftime 6-6 that a goal was going to light the game up and that's exactly what it did. It is ironic that the goal came from one of our passages of play where we normally wouldn't concede possession and we were just caught in the back foot. I thought we managed the goal shots reasonably well up until that point.It really is a clawback and you really have to be on fire to get them four points to level the game.”

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Even a great save from the Colman’s keeper to deny Jack Moolick a first half goal came down to fine margins: “In the previous two or three games that probably went in for us and put us on the front foot straight away and we never looked back after that. 

“Those are the fine margins at this level and they'll learn from that. I'd say if you give them that shot again, Jack would probably take three more steps and just take another play and just pop it. That's the moment that they'll look back on and say, yeah, the next time I get that I'll stick it.”