Focus firmly on Aughrim next Sunday as Poacher pleased with London experiment

Building a sustainable team for the future is the thought foremost in the mind of Steven Poacher as Leitrim prepare for the opening round of the 2026 Allianz NFL Division 4 campaign next Sunday when the Green & Gold travel to Echelon Aughrim Park to take on Wicklow (2 pm throw-in).

“We had plenty of excuses last year - we've none this year!” laughed Poacher when asked about the difference this year to the start of his debut season with Leitrim in 2025 when there was no pre-season competition and virtually no build-up time due to his late appointment.

But the Leitrim boss quickly turned serious as he stressed the need for the County to build a sustainable  future: “On a serious note, we've obviously got a fair bit of work to do and I know I sound a bit repetitive speaking every week about this, but we want to build a panel that's got a bit of sustainability about it.

“We want to build a panel that's going to be here for four or five years and consistently here  doing the S&C, doing the right training. That does take time but there's a really good group of young lads in this county.”

The importance about keeping a squad of players together is not lost on Leitrim’s manager: “Anthony (McGrath) and I were talking about it on the way home the other night - he was talking about his native Donegal, I'm talking about Down and Down have had that squad together four or five years, very, very few players have left, the nucleus of that squad is there all the time and the same with Donegal.”

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Poacher is also eager to reduce the burden of expectations on young players coming into the squad by retaining players for longer periods of time than is currently the case: “We can go, get everybody on board, all the big names of the day can come in and we get a bounce for a year. 

“Then they can disappear for two and they come in for a year and you get a wee bit of a bounce and then you're back to where you were again. What we're trying to do is get a young group there that really wants this and at the minute we have a young group of players there that really, really want this.

“I'd say we're probably the youngest squad in the country, there's no question about it but what we want is that when young lads come in, they're not coming in with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

“What we want is that they're just coming into a setup that there's a real bit of experience there and there's a good culture and the S&C there and it's just second nature to them, but that's what we're trying to create.”

Last Saturday’s Plate Final clash was a worthwhile exercise according to the Leitrim boss: “We sent the U20 squad tonight along with four or five lads there who we felt needed football and it was great to see those young lads. Some lads are still doing their leaving cert in that team tonight, so obviously I thought that was a brilliant exercise tonight for us.

“We sent the U20 squad up and Enda and the boys managed the team. It was brilliant for him, for the young lads, for an U20 team to come up against a senior county team who were nearly more or less fully loaded and that was a really credible performance. The four or five seniors that got game time there tonight did really well - Oisin McLoughlin had a great game, Ben Guckian starting to find a wee bit of condition, a wee bit of fitness so it was brilliant.”

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Steven was also happy to see the FBD League back: “The pre-season competitions mightn’t be everyone's cup of tea, but I certainly felt it was a worthwhile exercise for us and I think we got a look at the guts of about 50 players there over the FDB league, so yeah, it was good. We learned a lot about London, they had a full team out there tonight - they'll be a formidable challenge obviously in game three, especially over there, always a difficult place to go, but we were delighted with that tonight.

“For me, it's just about trying to build and just keep building and building, it's not about just getting a wee bit of success and then back to square one again. Let's see if we can build something that's going to be for four or five years and, please God, if we can get out of Division 4, whether it's this year or next year, get into Division 3 and stay in three.

“Do what the likes of Clare have done and Westmeath and these counties have done and Louth have done, get that sustainability just, but that takes a group of players to commit to it for a long period of time and it's not easy. It's a massive, massive commitment but again, I know you have a group of lads out there that are really working really hard.”