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‘I can’t make any of them miss a gym session’
April 03, 2021
Kevin McCrystal, Tyrone’s senior manager for women. Image courtesy of Tyrone LGFA.
By DECLAN ROONEY
Seventeen years after his first opportunity as a senior intercountry manager, Tyrone’s new boss, Kevin McCrystal, says he is delighted to have the opportunity to lead the Red Hands once again.
Still just 40 years old, McCrystal has stepped into the gap following Gerry Moane’s tenure in charge of the county, but a deep understanding of the development and underage players in the county has armed club man Charraig Mhór for another shot at paper.
Currently managing a county senior team of a staggering 71 players, the scale of the job clearly doesn’t unnerve McCrystal, but he’s certainly focused on unearthing every eligible and talented footballer in the county.
“Listen, we started with 116 girls when we got here,” said McCrystal, who has spent the past three years in charge of the Tyrone Youth Academy.
“We have 71 girls now on the Senior team at the moment. They are doing their own thing.
“I can’t make any of them miss a gym session. I can’t get any of them not to do their show that was designed by S&C man Mattie Brady. Everyone is eager to give it a try and once we get back on the field they will be even more eager.
“Any girl who wants to walk away for whatever reason, or if she doesn’t make it to the panel, I will personally contact them directly, telling them that they have not done the panel and that the door will be left open.
“They may have to work on their fitness or skills, but that door will always be open. Whenever they return, that door will be open for three years. “
Managing such a large senior panel may seem like a momentous challenge, but it is a small matter for McCrystal. Coach of the 2019 All-Ireland Under-14 Gold Championship winning team, he had 253 players under his direction. Another U15 development team featured 118 players.
“It was a great challenge, but I heard a lot from William Harmon [LGFA National Development Officer] and its philosophy and the way the LGFA would have liked to execute it. I respected their attitudes in what we were doing.
“We never turn down any girl. We had 253 girls who did U13 development. For 12 weeks I never sent anyone home, no matter their skill level, I kept them all from the first to the last day. Then I passed them to be chosen for the U14 team.
“Previously, in a U-15 development team you would have been lucky to have chosen 15 or 16 girls the day before, but we involved good coaches, people who wanted to go watch games, we went looking for them instead of them looking for us.
“We tried to give it a little fun, so the girls would come up and have fun. If they hit us, they hit us; it’s not about winning all the time.
“From U15 to U17 two years ago, we had 118 girls when we started. People swoon, they have exams and things like that, but we brought almost 50 girls to Abbotstown for U17 Academy Lightning Day. We had them for nine weeks and we didn’t care what their soccer ability was, we gave all the girls soccer that day.
“We made it to the All-Ireland final in Abbotstown, but no matter what your ability was, we gave those girls the belief that they were good enough to get a chance to do it.
“Of that 71 on our current Senior panel, there are 13 or 14 girls from that U17 squad coming in. It is brilliant.”
The player development strategy is very clear in the county: invite all interested players to a tryout, give them elite training and give them fair playing time. How that carries over to the senior team under McCrystal will be very interesting in the coming seasons, but it’s not like he’s starting from scratch either.
With Moane, Tyrone won the 2018 TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship, and has the benefit of two seasons as a senior team behind them. The 2020 Championship was a major disappointment for the county, and their 12-point loss to Armagh was followed by a 25-point cut by Mayo. The new manager knows there is a lot of work to do.
“It has been hurt that they received three strong defeats, from Armagh in the Ulster Championship, and then Armagh again in the All-Ireland (series) and then May. But they didn’t become a bad team overnight just because they were defeated.
“They were in great shape going into the national league with Gerry (Moane) and Barry (Grimes) and they were doing well. Covid didn’t mean anything about football and that set them back, but I think the girls have learned that they didn’t do their own work in the background. Football came back pretty quickly and they weren’t ready for it.
“It’s a big jump from intermediate to senior, but now they have to work on that, which we have done. Knowing that distress is important. You almost have to know the ins and outs of Senior and learn from him. The girls of the 2020 team will have learned a lot and where they were not. They have seen that level now and they know they have to reach it.
“But as a coach I can’t ask more of the squad that is there and the work they are doing right now. They are doing everything we ask of them, they are actually exaggerating.
“We really want to get back on the field and get going. With this week’s announcement, we’ll be back on that date, and we’ll be ready to go and ready to rock and roll. “
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