Screens and transitions: top basketball coach Weldon has 'fingerprints all over' Dingle
James Fleming says James Weldon's "knowledge of basketball and football is second to none". Pic: Oksana Dzadan/Sportsfile
Among a 10-strong backroom team that manager Padraig Corcoran has assembled for Dingle, two new names assume intrigue and significance. Last week’s Kerry SFC semi-final programme listed Aodán Ó Sé and Séamus Ó Béalatún as the team’s trainers this season.
O’Shea is, of course, son of the legendary Jack, a highly-rated footballing coach who was a Kingdom U20 selector this year, and the man who has masterminded Mercy Mounthawk to back-to-back Munster Colleges (SFC) Corn Uí Mhuirí titles, and the 2024 Hogan Cup final.
Then there is Ó Béalatún, or James Weldon, as he would be commonly known outside of his new football home in west Kerry. The Ireland senior basketball head coach from Fossa is a significant cog in the Dingle machine heading into Sunday's county decider against Austin Stacks (1.45pm).
“The big thing for James with Dingle is the way they transition the ball out of defence and into the forward line very, very quickly. They’re always looking for one-on-one situations, and two-v-two,” said Utility Trust St Paul’s head coach, and former Dr Crokes star, James Fleming.
“Even the goal that Conor Geaney got last week, there was a little bit of a screen and then, what we would call, instead of setting the screen, he rolled towards the goal. Then he got the situation where he could side-step, and he took it very well. It was a basketball kind of move.
“It’s all that stuff that’s coming in. It’s written all over it really. James is creating a lot of situations through basketball. It’s 11-v-11 now in football, it’s five-on-five in basketball. If teams try and set up zonal, he’s breaking down where to attack them.”
Fleming will be present at Austin Stack Park Sunday (1.45pm, live TG4) as part of the Dr Crokes side that captured the Bishop Moynihan Cup 25 years ago. He knows Weldon as well as anyone in a sporting sphere, and sees his sprinkling of stardust in the Dingle game-plan.
“People don’t understand that James played football with Kerry at under-16s, and he was probably one of the better players in Fossa up to the time of the Clifford brothers. James is one age with me, and his knowledge of basketball and football is second to none,” he added.
“With basketball presently, spacing is a huge word that the top coaches will use, and the more space you create the more opportunities you have of getting people into isolations, of one-v-one, two-v-two, three-v-three, which Dingle do a lot of. With the firepower they have, James is utilising that.
“With the three-up now, you don’t have 15 fellas behind the ball any more. If you watch teams, even in warm-ups, they’re all doing six-v-six on either side of the field. That’s basketball. How do we find little holes? How do I do little screens without getting caught by the referee?
“Then I’m turning towards the goal, and my team-mate might find me again. There is no better person than the Irish coach, one of the best in the country. At the moment, he’s the head man, he’s a FIBA coach, he’s one of the only fellas qualified in that in Ireland.”
Micheál Flannery, a long-standing member of the Dingle squad, is also full of praise for the impact that Weldon has made. “He’s added a different perspective on things. James is a very smart guy. It’s clear the way that he thinks about things, and the way that he sees different aspects of the game.
“When you’re all football-based, sometimes it’s hard to step out and see something different or whatever, but some of the things that he does with us is crazy. It makes you think in a different way, and the way that the game is gone, you need to be very knowledgeable and very astute.
“I think a lot of the stuff he is implementing probably would have been applicable last year (before the new rules). He’s just an excellent coach, and I think the best coaches simplify things. They make things simple to understand, and to execute, and he’s very good at that,” stressed Flannery.
The last word goes to Fleming on a man who was called into the Kerry senior coaching set-up by Éamonn Fitzmaurice for the 2018 season. “James’ big thing is it’s all about the transition out of defence quickly, where to double, when to double, when they trap.
“It’s all basketball-orientated. His imprint is all over Dingle.”
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