Short-term exodus good for Neptune’s long game

When Neptune U20s play in this weekend’s National Cup semi-final they’ll be without a couple of players who should be there, and they’ll have a couple of players who may not be there much longer.

“Adam Drummond and Sean Jenkins would be part of the squad but they’re in the States aleady on college scholarships,” says Neptune chairman Paul Barrett.

“They’re there a year and two years, respectively, while Cian Heaphy and Darragh O’Sullivan should be gone next summer - all going well, I don’t want to jinx them ahead of time.”

Barrett acknowledges that from the outside it looks like Neptune’s crop of young stars is being readied for export, but he points out that their sojourn in the States should be an “interruption”, with the players returning to the Cork club in due course.

“Our philosophy for the last few years was to develop players and then to give them their chance.

“We’d have by far the youngest first five of any Superleague team — three of our starting five are 18, 19-years-old.

“The long-term objective would be to have them all back home in time playing for Neptune and dominating, but in order for them to do that they need to go away. They’ll develop over there and come back as Neptune players - it’s an interruption rather than a finish to the project.

“The guys underneath them understand that that means they’ll get their chance too. We have a conveyor belt of quality players that we can look down the line at, and that’s the model we have.

If you’re good enough you’re old enough, and if you work hard with us we’ll stand by you. We don’t go outside the club for outside players, we don’t have to - we sink or swim by Neptune players and it seems to be working out.

And a few years training at a near-professional level in the States means a future crop of mature, experienced players returning to bolster the Superleague side.

“We could never replicate the kind of practice and training they’ll get in the States. They’re going to colleges which are very well funded, the practice schedule begins at 7am, long before school starts - that’s not something in a club setting in Ireland that would be a runner.

“They’ll develop physically as well while they’re there, all of that, so it’s a very good life experience for them all round - an opportunity to get an education, to develop as players, all of that. When they come back they’re bigger, stronger, faster, better players.”

As Barrett explains it, the cycle becomes a self-perpetuating one, with the youngsters in Neptune having an obvious career path to follow thanks to the example of those U20s if they’re so minded.

Obviously basketball is a huge beast in the context of American sport, and the number of fellas who make it to the very top, as a percentage, would shock you.

“In that sense, though, our lads would hold their own and have very good college careers, they’ll probably come back afterwards. We see it as a plus, as a validation of what we’re trying to do as a club.

“And obviously it becomes something for the younger kids in the club to aim for as well when their time comes.

“We have players who’d be more than capable of going to the States, but they’ve chosen not to.”