Limerick Under 19 boss Tommy Barrett believes that while results matter to a degree, the bigger picture is about progressing players into senior football. Barrett is a familiar face to those who follow Limerick sport and is the man charged with brin
Limerick Under 19 boss Tommy Barrett believes that while results matter to a degree, the bigger picture is about progressing players into senior football. Barrett is a familiar face to those who follow Limerick sport and is the man charged with bringing underage players through to the highest level of club football in the country - as The Blues aim to promote from within. Speaking about the success of the U19 league, Barrett said: "It's very competitive. The players - quality-wise - there's a lot of good players in the league. Look at Conor McCarthy for Cork; he's knocking about the first team. You look at UCD's teams with the likes of Ben Hanrahan - he's in their first team. "Even our own lads, Barry Cotter has been in the first team. Killian Brouder's been around the first team. Tommy Holland has played for the first team. Paudie O'Connor went to Leeds. Even if you look at lads that left us last year. Jack Lynch has played a lot for Waterford, Yoyo Mahdy has featured for UCD. Shane Lowth has played regularly for Cobh and Liam McCartan just signed for Athlone. "We're getting players through regularly which is a good sign. I take pride in seeing the players going to senior level." The Moyross native firmly believes that the Under 19 stage of development is crucial and that Limerick are seeing a return on the work they put in. "It's massive for the lads. You need to play 19s before you play senior level. The Under 15s and Under 13s will help massively. We'll get way more contact hours with the players and they'll probably be better players when they get to Under 19 level because of that. "We can coach all we want, but you can over-coach at times. Players learn by playing. They learn by playing with older lads and experienced boys. That teaches them more than a thousand hours of coaching," he explained. Going forward, the former Limerick and Shamrock Rovers midfielder feels that this year is about finishing in the top four again, but doesn't mind too much once players progress in their careers. "There's great work being done here. The introduction of the underage leagues will be brilliant for Irish football. Jamie McGrath is an example. He's done really well and came on for Dundalk against Rosenborg. He played against us in a semi-final in Hogan Park. It was a tight game and he was the difference. "The quality is really good and most of the teams want to play. It's about the developing players at the end of the day and I think we've been successful at that. Taking just last year's team, we've five or six of those playing senior football. That's a massive turnover because in England you're talking about maybe one or two players getting through. "We're always hoping to be in the top four. That's the main aim for us but like I said, it's all about development," he said.
