Episode 7 - The Current Landscape of Underage Soccer in Ireland.

Ollie Cahill and myself sat down with Antonio Mantero in early 2025 to discuss all things grassroots football. I revisited the conversation over the recent Christmas break and there are some great insights to share including...responsibility of the coach to his/her players, what coaches get out of coaching at this level, commitment required whether as a volunteer or a paid coach, league structures in Ireland, and loads more! Antonio is a wealth of knowledge with huge passion for developing players. It was a pleasure to meet him and to now share the conversation. Its a long listen, but well worth staying with it. If you'd like to share some feedback, please email me at [email protected]

In this second episode we chat to Mitch Whitty from Maximum Performance Academy (MPA) about his methods for coaching young footballers. Mitch focusses a lot on counter attacking, so if counter attacking is your thing, this could be the episode for you. Check out www.thegrassrootscoach.org for the session planner for Mitch's favourite counter attack session.

Ollie Cahill, former professional football, Paul Smyth former FAI Development Officer and myself discuss coaching approaches that work for us and the conversation leads us into what works best during half time team talks for young players. We also discuss the importance of using language that young players understand. Check out www.thegrassrootscoach.org for session plans.

Part 1 of a two part conversation with Remy Tang of Bohemians FC and formerly of Liverpool FC, where we discuss young player performance, dealing with the growth spurt and areas of focus in the short time we have as coaches with young players.

Due to the popularity of Coaching Tips & Coaching Nuggets Part 1, this episode is a collection of the tips and nuggets from many of the contributors to the podcast so far...a greatest hits so to speak. If you would like to suggest a future topic do so on this link. Contributions on Part 2 from Martin Russell, Aaron Callaghan, Laura Cusack, Megan Smith Lynch, Paul Smith, Johnny McDonnell, John Morling and Pat Cleary. Thanks to all for your support on this passion project. We'd appreciate your support by clicking Here