Gary Sice: Kevin Walsh’s clip showed the level of detail in intercounty coaching

ALL IN THE DETAIL: Gary Sice, Galway, shoots to score his side's first goal in the Connacht GAA SFC semi-final against Mayo. Pic: David Maher / SPORTSFILE

Gary Sice can still remember the margin that made all the difference. In 2015 Galway lost to Mayo. In 2016 they beat them. Then manager Kevin Walsh was able to show him post-match why the small details matter.

Speaking on the Irish Examiner Gaelic football podcast, the Corofin footballer detailed Walsh’s approach to coaching while with Galway.

“Huge on ball skills, huge on positioning and timing. I can hear his voice in my head when you talk about where you are when the ball is one kick away. Huge on the wheel.

“I can remember one incident; we played Mayo in Pearse Stadium. I got a goal; I tell David Clarke about it every time I see him. We were going well but we had identified a cross-field ball from Kevin McLaughlin to Andy. I dropped in a split second too late. A metre and a half off, I dived in and missed it,” Sice said.

“We lost on the day. 2016 we played Mayo in Castlebar and beat them. I was where I should have been. He showed me two clips. That is the difference he said. It was that level of detail. Even being aligned, myself and Gary O’Donnell, I was in front of him at the time.” 

Sice recently won Galway Club Footballer of the Year after a 2023 Corofin campaign that saw him collect his 13 SFC medal.

He continued: “The amount of time intercounty coaches get with their players, I know it is a big issue. It is getting worse because they go back later and the league is starting, it is very hard to get that body of detail into players. How people learn is a big one as well. Some lads click. Some lads need visual. Some lads need to experience it. Some lads need to fail first and then get it right.” 

Former Mayo manager James Horan agreed and described his approach to overcoming this obstacle.

“A session is an hour and ten minutes or so. Take away the time on warm-ups, conditioning blocks, specific stuff. There isn’t a whole load of time, so you have to come up with ways to maximise the coaching time you have with players.

“I would have tried to hit them with every sort of medium you can so there is total clarity. We would have sent a simple message the day before the session on the key coaching themes, then when we meet we go through it on a flipchart. Then we have a semi-walkthrough of the key things in the dressing room. We go out and do a full pitch walk-through.

“Then you coach by asking questions. Go through the scenarios. Check their understanding throughout and check in afterwards. Then a hot review afterwards. There are a lot of different ways to get that information across so players are clear.”