Fr Mathews coach Keith Daly on the difference between coaching men and women

Coming in to coach Women's Superleague Cork outfit Fr Matthews is a bit more Arne Slot than Eric ten Hag.

Thu, 03 Oct, 2024 - 07:30

Brendan O'Brien

Chemistry. It’s a word Keith Daly returns to more than once as he talks through what will be his first experience as a head coach at Super League level now he has assumed command from Pat Price at Catalyst Fr Mathews.

Most new coaches and managers start when things have gone awry, usually in the form of results on court or the field of play. Daly is taking over a side that reached the National Cup final last year and has a bit of continuity about it approaching opening weekend.

More Arne Slot at Liverpool than Erik Ten Hag at Man Utd.

“Great so far,” he said of his new gig. “Nice little team chemistry already. They have been a group for a while so you’re just adding one or two pieces, which is great. They had some good results under Pat last year already.”

Most of his own body of work has been done at Neptune. He coached the U18 boys side for five years and helped deliver a National Cup title at the grade in 2021. Last season saw him serve as assistant with the Super League team.

There has been work put in with other Cork clubs and with the Basketball Academy as well, but he took this role with his eyes open to the many vagaries and additional responsibilities that come to those at the top of the pyramid.

“A lot more coaching, individual one-on-ones. You are trying to help them confidence-wise, values, setting standards. A lot of the players there are internationals so they have seen the level and that is great.

“It is a high level and they know where we need to get to. It’s just playing with that confidence and getting that team chemistry on the floor. You can put all the talent in the world together but unless they’re gelling it just won’t work.”

Daly isn’t the first coach to move from the men’s game to the women’s, or in the opposite direction. His predecessor Price has gone the opposite route, for example, having moved on to Neptune in the men’s top tier.

Plenty of basics remain the same but, while there is the obvious danger in veering towards cliches and long-since dated generalities here, Daly’s initial impressions of coaching a female team tend to correspond with widely-held takes.

“What I have noticed so far is females like a bit more of the 'why'. Why are we doing this? And that’s great because you get to give them more detail. The flip side is that they can be a bit more hesitant. The guys get the ball and they’re gone, they’re almost like bulls.

“Girls are a bit more problem-solving, a bit slower, so you are trying to speed them up a bit, feed it in to them that it is okay to make mistakes,” he explained. “So same sport but there are huge differences.”

The biggest one this year, apart from the coach, is in the absence of Ariel Johson, the guard out of Loyola Marymount University who was selected to the MissQuote.ie Super League team of the year last year. She now plays in Croatia.

Kyra White, a rookie who played three years of Division One ball at University of Texas at San Antonio, and with University of Southern California in the Pac-12, comes in as a replacement. Daly paints a picture of an intelligent player who will look to collapse defences and open shots for teammates.

Karin Skapkin, a Slovenian who played in Croatia’s top league before a season in Italy’s Serie B, is a player who will help their transition game. Another American, Shannon Brady, is well settled at the club now having settled in Cork and with the club five years ago.

“Eimear Corkery is back as well. She was there two years ago. And Ash McCann. Ash was captain of Killester three or four years ago. She went to Limerick doing medicine. Now she is working in the Mercy [University Hospital] so she is playing with us. So two strong additions.”

First up for them all is the visit of University of Galway Mystics to Cork this Saturday.

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