Here and now is all that matters when it comes to County Final day

Having been burnt too many times to count, I've been trying to avoid framing next Sunday's Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final as a potential changing of the guard in club football in this county because all I know for certain is that we can't predict what is coming down the line.

Whatever the result of next Sunday's fascinating clash of Mohill and St Mary's Kiltoghert is, there's a temptation to state, quite boldly, that the Carrick men have all the hallmarks of a soon-t0-be superpower, a team maybe capable of emulating Glencar Manorhamilton's superb four in a row of triumphs from 2008 to 2011.

THERE'S NO PERFECT WAY TO LOSE

THE LAST POINT

That's a big statement to make but unfortunately it is pretty easy too - the ridiculously young age profile of the St Mary's team suggests they are a coming force and anyone looking at underage results in this county over the last five or six years can't but have noticed the Carrick club's growing dominance at all age groups.

That doesn't guarantee success by any manner of means and neither does the population resources they boast, but their performances, the quality of young footballers being produced year in, year out, speaks of superb work being done in the club's underage structures for the past decade.

For a long, long time, the talk around the county was how St Mary's weren't making the most of their population. Now they are, and maybe, just maybe, they have their fellow parishioners Leitrim Gaels to thank for that because the Gaels arrived on the scene like a tornado, blowing everything around them away and establishing themselves a real force in this county.

Once they got over the shock of seeing players that would have naturally donned the St Mary's jersey lining out in Purple & Green, St Mary's reorganised and they're reaping the rewards now, so, as strange as this sounds, Leitrim Gaels'  emergence  has probably been the best thing that ever happened to St Mary's Kiltoghert!

But it's not easy work - it takes long-term planning, patience and perseverance to install a culture and an ethos in a modern society not accepting of that sort of long-term thinking right now. We all want everything here and now  and when it comes to any juvenile sport, the temptation is to think that the future will take care of itself and to go for burst right now. 

Time to split the split season

THE LAST POINT

Glencar Manorhamilton started the same development process some years ago  and the results are there on the field of play at underage level - their men's senior team is going through what, for them, is regarded as a rough patch, but the coaching structures in Boggaun are churning out quality footballers in big numbers in both men's and ladies football - just look at Manor's Senior Ladies last Sunday and marvel at the fact that Muireann Devaney is only 19 years old and many of her teammates are the same age!

Investing in youth is the only way to go and Intermediate finalists Annaduff are doing the same - the last 15 years have seen a huge influx into their catchment area but they've started the work to capitalise on that - you look at the skills their senior team are producing in matches and see it replicated in all their underage teams - that is all down to good coaching work.

But none of this is a  guarantee of success and we all know of clubs who were seemingly set to dominate for years only for titles to elude them - Melvin Gaels won a County title in 2012 with a team that looked set to compete for the coming decade but they have been relegated to Intermediate this year.

The emerging young players that powered Allen Gaels to the Fenagh Cup in 2001 & 2002  faded away and the expected long-term dominance never materialised. I'm not picking on Allen Gaels - the same could be said for the Melvin Gaels, Glencar Manorhamilton and St Mary's teams of that era but those young Allen Gaels players were special all the same.

Mohill's success has been built on making the very most of two or three or four different generations of wonderfully talented and well coached juvenile teams coming through and contributing handsomely to a golden era for the club. Yet it wouldn't have happened without someone like Matt Gaffey guiding their development at underage level.

Most clubs live in the hope of a golden generation coming along and providing five or six keystone players for their adult team and those players remain the heartbeat of that effort for a decade or more - think Fenagh or Kiltubrid, Bornacoola or Annaduff in the 2000s and you see that pattern replicated time and time again.

A split second can change everything

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Fenagh St Caillins and Leitrim Gaels are  a mix of both approaches - both are sprinkled with players from a golden generation but the work done in their underage structures sees a steady stream of young talented footballers  challenging for a starting place and driving the clubs on even further.

More than a few clubs have seen so-called golden generations of hugely impressive underage teams fail to produce the goods on a Senior stage so I suppose the message is strike while the iron is hot! You won't get success without a coherent long-term plan but once you get there, you've got to strike because you never know when the chance is going to come around again.

You only have to hear about the legions of young footballers, male and  female, leaving these shores in recent weeks in search of work and adventure to know that nothing is guaranteed in this life.

A good start IS half the battle

THE LAST POINT

The 10,000-hour rule might be the go-to philosophy for some but recent evidence suggests that late specialisation and multi-disciplinary practice is what produces the great champions

What seemed like a team with limitless potential is gutted when one or two players head overseas and today's young teams emerging on the scene might find their Great White Hopes playing on the fields of Chicago, New York, Sydney and Melbourne rather than Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada.

So for anybody contesting a Final, you never know when you'll have this chance again. Not everything is about winning but when you get there, the here and now is all that matters!