Hurling Pioneers Ned Power, Fr Tommy Maher & Dessie Ferguson, Gomanstown 1970

It’s strange that more has not been published on the pioneering work that was carried out by a small few in the Gormanston training camps from 1965 until the late 1970s.

These camps were set up at the instigation of the GAA president and they were essentially the first attempts at developing coaching in the organisation.

The only proviso, however, was that the word “coach” or “coaching” was not not to be used under any circumstances. This would be too much of a commercial approach and would not be tolerated by the more traditional elements within the organisation – both players and administrators. Furthermore, there were many GAA members who actually believed that hurlers were born and not made.

This, quite frankly, sounds crazy in today’s context where coaches are employed professionally at club level, often getting a couple of hundred euros per session in a bizarre sort-of grey market.

The men of the Gormanston camps had to use the preferred term “training” to describe the revolutionary work that they did.  In the beginning (after the initial footballing camp), there were three: Fr Tommy Maher of Kilkenny, Donie Nealon of Tipperary and Dessie Ferguson of Dublin.  They were joined in the second year by two more including my father Ned Power.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.