How Do You Really Drive Sporting Standards in a GAA Club?

How Do You Drive Sporting Standards in a GAA Club?

Over the years, working with clubs and counties across Ireland, one recurring question keeps surfacing in my head: “How do we actually push the needle forward in our club?”. It's so hard, it just seems a whole year can pass, and another championship exit happens, and it can leave you wondering.

Here is what I would prioritise to truly change standards, culture, and outcomes in most GAA clubs.

1. Start with Absolute Clarity: What Does Success Look Like Here?

Every club will say they want “success” – but what does that mean in practice? For some, it’s winning senior championships. For others, it’s fielding two teams at every age group. For many, it’s retaining young players into adulthood.

Define it clearly. Is it:

• • A senior team consistently competing in the top tier?

• • Retaining 80%+ of players from U13 to minor?

• • Producing county-standard players every second year?

• • Ensuring LGFA and Camogie have the same development pathways as the boys’ teams?

When everyone knows the actual goals, decision-making becomes clearer.

2. Build an Integrated Coaching and Player Development Plan

One-off workshops or a “guest coach night” won’t cut it. If you want a club to thrive long-term, you need systems thinking. I've written numerous times on this blog about someone with the power to DRIVE change.

• • Map your pathway: From nursery to adult, what does player development look like here? Who owns each stage? What physical, technical, tactical, and psychological standards are expected at each age grade?

• • Coaching development as a pillar, not an afterthought:
    
    • • Have a CPD plan mapped for the year.
    • • Create coaching pods for hurling, football, LGFA, and Camogie coaches to share ideas and align language.
    • • Identify your future lead coaches now and mentor them. We don't do nearly enough mentoring of coaches in the GAA.

If your coaches improve, your players improve. It’s that simple.

3. Appoint GPOs with a Mission – Not Just a Schedule

Too often, GPOs become professional babysitters or administrators. The best ones are empowered to:

• • Shape and monitor underage coaching standards.

• • Liaise with schools strategically – ensuring school coaching complements club development rather than just being “extra PE”.

• • Identify and nurture future talent systematically.

• • Drive innovation in warm-ups, injury prevention, and fundamental skill coaching.

If your GPOs aren’t proactive, integrated, and incentivised, the pathway will stagnate. The incentivised point can't be stressed enough. A GPO should feel wanted and left able to apply some degree of intraprenuership regarding different ideas, etc.

4. Smash Silos Between Codes

Football, hurling, LGFA, and Camogie committees often operate like separate organisations under the same crest. This kills efficiency and dilutes your collective impact.

• • Shared S&C structures, especially for teens and young adults. One respected voice on this.

• • Joint CPD workshops to develop a club coaching language.

• • A unified club philosophy: standards, communication, player management, and coaching principles that transcend codes.

If a talented dual player feels torn between two cultures in the same club, we are failing them.

5. Prioritise Talent Identification – But Don’t Ignore Late Developers

Have a simple, structured approach:

• • Track players physically, technically, and tactically from U13 upwards.

• • Reassess yearly with openness to late bloomers.

• • Encourage multi-sport participation at younger ages but introduce appropriate S&C at transition points to build robustness.

• • Aim for development teams for your subs and players that miss out on the "first teams". As the Kiwis say, to make cream, you need a lot of milk.

Your nursery kids today are your senior county players in a decade. Invest accordingly.

6. Make Your Senior Teams Learning Hubs

If your adult teams train behind closed doors, you’re missing a massive development opportunity. Instead:

• • Bring underage coaches to senior sessions to observe drills, standards, and coaching cues.

• • Have senior players mentor academy groups.

• • Use senior match analysis clips to educate younger squads.

This builds aspiration, knowledge transfer, and cultural alignment.

7. Data-Informed but People-First

GPS vests, gym trackers, and video analysis are brilliant tools – but only if the basics are in place:

• • Are your players sleeping and eating well?

• • Are your coaches coaching the correct fundamentals at each stage?

• • Is everyone fit to train, not just trained to be fit?

Use data to inform decisions, not replace good coaching judgment.

8. Develop a Clear Injury Prevention and Rehab System

Injury destroys momentum faster than anything else. Clubs need:

• • Centralised physiotherapy plans or partnerships, even if modest.

• • Coaches trained in injury prevention warm-ups (GAA 15, Activate, and adapted club versions).

• • Robust return-to-play protocols – not “return when you feel ok”.

It’s no coincidence that the most successful clubs have the fewest soft tissue injuries in the championship season.

9. Create a Culture of High Challenge, High Support

Pushing standards is not about shouting louder or hammering players in January. It’s about:

• • Having clear, communicated expectations.

• • Supporting players with rehab, lifestyle, and mental health structures.

• • Treating your U12 second-team goalkeeper with the same dignity and care as your county senior centre-forward.

People rise to standards when they know you care about them.

10. Build for the Next Decade, Not the Next Game

Finally, great clubs think in decade-long horizons:

• • What coaches are we mentoring now for minor and senior teams in 5-10 years?

• • What will participation look like in 2035, and how do we get ahead of trends?

• • How do we ensure equality of access, opportunity, and standards for LGFA and Camogie – not as an add-on but as central pillars of the club?

My Bottom Line

I’d anchor everything in one simple principle:

“We exist to develop people and create lifelong belonging through Gaelic games.”

When you frame decisions that way, clarity follows:

✅ Investing in coaching education becomes obvious.
✅ Developing systems to track player progress becomes essential.
✅ Smashing silos between codes becomes non-negotiable.
✅ Building a strong club-to-school pipeline becomes a daily mission.
✅ Pushing standards while supporting wellbeing becomes your cultural norm.

The sky is the limit for any club with clear vision, committed people, and a willingness to do the simple things consistently well.

Final Thought

I’ve written this not just as an external critique but as a reminder to myself. In truth, I haven’t always implemented these things as well as I’d like. Writing them down is my call to action to drive standards wherever I work next.

Because Gaelic games don’t thrive on facilities or finances alone. They thrive when enough people care enough to make them better – one session, one player, and one coach at a time.