INTERVIEW: Donegal’s Declan Coulter and the focus of growing hurling

SUNDAY in Letterkenny was a landmark day in Donegal hurling as Mickey McCann’s side overcame Kerry.

It was the first time Donegal playing Munster hurling opposition in 100 years and the result gives them a chance of maintaining their Division Two status.

Just over 24 hours later the county launched new plans to integrate hurling to clubs at underage level.

The focus is on giving football clubs the chance to integrate hurling to their underage players with the view of growing the game in the county.

Donegal player Declan Coulter, who also hurled for his native Armagh, is a driving force in the Setanta club and teaches in Donegal.

He is part of the new venture to grow hurling in the county and Michael McMullan caught up with him.

M McM: Where did this concept come from?
DC: I got a phone call from Mary Coughlan, our County Chairperson. Mary was setting out her stall for what she wanted and it was very much hurling and football.
There was a development committee being set up for football and she wanted to get heads together for hurling as well which is excellent.
It’s typical of Mary, just doing things right and knowing what is needed.
It was under her direction. Damien Diver is the county coaching officer, Cormac Hartnett is the county board officer for hurling, then you have Declan Bushell, the interim academy role.
The main man behind it all is Marty McGrath. Nobody knows the hurling landscape in Donegal better than Marty.
He’s been involved with the county teams, development squads and he’s been involved in his own club with different academies.
As Conor Garland in his speech last year in Croke Park, there’s only a handful of people on the Donegal panel that Marty hasn’t been directly involved with. He was the link man between the whole lot.
Mary touched base with people in different clubs, so every club is represented.
I’m involved from Setanta’s point of view and with my teacher hat on too.
It’s kind of picking the brains and taking best practice from different clubs and what’s working.
Finding out exactly where everybody’s at was the first thing and then figuring out right where do we need to go.
The win (over Kerry) at the weekend is a brilliant shop window, but, at the minute, the underage structure is not really mirroring where the senior team’s at.
Jarlath Burns hit the nail on the head at the weekend. He talked about the legend of Setanta and every club needs to kind of grab the bull by the horns and give every boy and girl in the country an opportunity
We’re not saying that every child is going to pick up a hurl and play a hurling or a camogie but to give them that opportunity.
In Donegal, being a predominantly football county, you probably have reluctant clubs that are maybe wary of hurling, thinking that it might take away from the development of football.
Our remit is to start introducing hurling into clubs. It’s not as if you’re starting a new club, the infrastructure is there so it’s about introducing and giving opportunities to boys and girls.
They can say well “yes, I’ve tried it” and either it was for them or it wasn’t.

M McM: Is that the key point? Children need to be given the choice to play.
DC: Yes, but with that, there’s obviously a lot of financial investment needed. The grant that they’re doing for start-up might be something that clubs might look at.
The amalgamation thing is definitely something that I think would work in Donegal. With the secondary schools in football, South West Donegal have done quite well and MacRory Cup got to the semi-final this year.
You’ve probably seven or eight clubs in South West Donegal, football clubs, where if you introduce hurling into their academy on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
You could get three or four people from each club coming together as a South West Donegal or a North West Donegal, whatever it is.
That’s where it grows from but it’s having the resources and the provision for that to happen is something that’s on a county board level and even on an Ulster level probably needs to be looked at too.
We are gauging interest and putting forward our thoughts on it and in the hope that there’d be people within those clubs that don’t necessarily have to have a hurling background but a coaching background.
A lot of its fundamentals and transferable skills. That’s one of the main points that came out of the come out of our meetings over the past you know six eight weeks.
The top hurlers on the Donegal panel at the minute. Liam McKinney, dual player, Steven McBride, dual player, Conor Gartland, dual player. Jarly Óg Burns is a dual player, an Ulster Junior Club winner two or three years ago. It’s not to the detriment of football.

M McM: You have the likes of Brendan Rogers and Shane McGuigan too.
DC: Shane McGuigan’s arguably one of the best (football) forwards in the country and he held TJ Reid a point from play in Páirc Esler a couple of years ago.
It’s not to the detriment of football. It should be something that’s celebrated. With traditional football clubs, introducing hurling doesn’t have to be seen as a negative. It can enhance.
It’s all your coordination, your fundamentals, your transferable skills that you know like it’ll probably help football in the long run too you know.

M MCM: Loughmore Castleiney have the same senior manager. Sleacht Néill seniors were having dual sessions last year.
DC: Middletown done it as well for years. Going back 10 years, they appointed Paul Laffin as senior teams’ manager. He was in charge of both teams. There was like a football coach, a hurling coach, the same strength conditioning coach. They trained together rather than having men out of the house four nights a week, they were only out twice.
I suppose there is that understanding but that takes planning and people working together, having a common goal.
In Setanta, we’re a hurling only club. We work very closely obviously with Red Hughes our local football club. We came together a couple of years ago to pick nights so usually there’s no clashes. There will be clashes. With our u-16 team in the minute, we have boys playing county minor football. You have to let them go and do that. They’ve had good experiences in hurling growing up, so, when they’re finished with their inter-county season, they’ll always come back to hurling. That takes clubs working together.

M McM: Is that the key? Coaches and managers need to be on the same page.
DC: If you give somebody an ultimatum, they’re generally going to go against you, so it’s in the club’s best interest.
Growing up playing with Armagh Harps and playing with Cuchullains, they were two individual clubs and it was a bit of crossover. Generally, the managers and the teams that were successful, are the ones that allow the balance of codes.
When somebody gives you an ultimatum and putting pressure on you it’s kind of doesn’t normally end well from my own experience anyway

M McM: What is your message to anyone reading this and thinking about picking up a hurl or introducing hurling?
DC: It comes back to the point at the start, with Jarlath Burns. Give them an opportunity to try it.
Give them that opportunity to say they like it or they don’t or that they like one sport over another.
It’s not just football. It could be athletics, it could be swimming or gymnastics, whatever boys and girls are into.
It’s about giving them the opportunity. That could be in the backyard and that could be at your local club could be in schools.
We’re in a hurling area here in Donegal and there’s kids that only get hurling in school. Then you’ve got my young fella, he never really leaves the hurl down because he enjoys. He comes home from school every day and he’s out in the garden.
It’s about giving opportunities and I think you’d be doing children a disservice by not giving them that opportunity.
I go back to Danny Cullen senior. He was school Principal here for years. He used to always say the two most Irish things you can do is speak the language and play hurling and that’s something we try to promote as much as possible.
I just think that, as Irish people and as GAA people, we would be doing a disservice to the youth of the country by not giving them that opportunity.
That’s something I would feel very strongly about and I suppose that’s why ultimately I got involved.
Those involved are in for the same reasons. You want to see it progressing and you want to see new clubs getting up and going.
You’ll help them and support them. It’s not a case of clubs coming along so you can stick 50 points on them in an u-12 game.
It’s about helping people and nurturing those kids that you know they’re going to be your future county players.