A COUPLE of weeks in, Fergal Rogers is still finding his feet – the size and scale of the job sinking in that little bit deeper with each day that passes.
Alongside Brian Morgan, Rogers took up his role as one of Down’s two new GAA participation officers on November 13, with his focus on helping mine some of the county’s untapped areas.
Portaferry club-mate Karol Keating was in the job up until seven years ago, Down and Ballygalget forward Danny Toner stepped in until a wider remit with Ulster GAA took hold. Then nothing.
And it is only through being in primary and secondary schools on a daily basis that Rogers has realised just how much it is needed.
“It’s such a big county.
“You’re trying to encourage schools that aren’t yet strong enough in hurling, especially in the likes of Mourne and Newry areas, getting them a bit more exposure, a bit more of an interest so clubs can come in behind me and get them onboard.
“You’re trying to get development squads up and running, exposure to strength and conditioning side of things, services to clubs as well, upskill coaches…
“Like, I’ve been in Kilkeel and Newry, and the standard of kids in primary schools over there blew me away, to be honest. Then when you’re asking what club they play for, it’s ‘no, I don’t play’.
“It’s a shame because the talent’s there. That’s something we have to change.”
Even on the other side of Strangford Lough, where the caman code has thrived for generations, there are challenges.
Rogers was just 17, at the start of his own senior hurling career, when he started coaching the U8s in Portaferry. That has ramped up over time, especially since hanging up his in 2021 – taking charge of the reserves until getting involved with the Down U20 side who won this year’s All-Ireland B Championship.
Now he is the club’s coaching officer, working closely with juvenile chairman Conor O’Prey – “the driving force behind a lot of it” - to ensure a production line of talent continues to come through the ranks in the years to come.
But it isn’t easy, even in a place where hurling is at the heart of so much.
“Myself and Conor put together a player pathway, and Conor got a skills matrix put in place to get the coaches familiarised with what they should be doing on a daily basis.
“But we do struggle with birth rate - there’s only two primary schools. This year there’s only three P5 hurlers… we don’t have many boys in that year, so what we do at that age group is try and maximise what we have.
“A lot of our guys, if you look from U8, most will have to play an age up to make sure we have some sort of squad to compete. Last year we had 17 players at U16 level, and probably 10 or 11 of those played U14s as well.
“You’re just trying to keep up with the times; making sure you keep it alive.”
Winning helps, of course.
Portaferry completed a Down championship hat-trick by beating Ballygalget last month, with a generation brought up on success having a new crop of heroes to emulate.
Rogers played his part on the field too, soldiering alongside club icons like John Convery, Paul Braniff, Ciaran Coulter, Andy Savage and Keating during the first half of the last decade – a period which saw Portaferry land a first Ulster title with a stunning victory over Cushendall in 2014.
“It was a strange one, to be fair.
“Sean [Young] came in and took then job late, because there was nobody really interested. He was coming off a good minor team, probably wanted to get a bit more experience but found himself in the job earlier than expected.
“We were 12/1 in a two-horse race going into that game against Cushendall, madness, but I remember we were all quietly confident, and we blew them away.
“Eight or nine of us had sort of come through together – it’s funny, every one of us have kids around the same age now, so we’re starting off on the same page, all getting involved in fundamentals and working our way up again with them. Swings and roundabouts.
“But, when I look back, we probably underachieved really. My first year on the senior squad was 2007, Portaferry had won a championship in 2006 and didn’t win another one until 2012, then 2014 happened and it went again until 2020.
“In my mid-20s, I probably didn’t give it as much as I should have. It’s only now you realise how short a time it is that you have playing, so you have those regrets.
“So that’s one thing I always say when I’m coaching, to boys of 18 or 19, hanging about, maybe not putting in as much effort as they should – it’s a short career, it’s over like that.
“If you stand still it flies past. Make the most of it.”
And as Portaferry go back in the hunt for the big one, he finds himself at the coal face once more, with Rogers stepping into the breach when Paul Braniff had to end his involvement with Gerard McGrattan’s management team earlier this year.
Winning Down is always sweet but, after last year’s near miss against Cushendall, there is a bit of added steel and determination going into Sunday’s provincial decider with Sleacht Néill.
Having seen at first hand what the Derry champions have coming through county underage in recent years, Rogers wasn’t at all surprised to see them send Cushendall out the exit door.
A decade down the line, however, it is more than fate that brings Portaferry back to this stage.
“There are some similarities [with the 2014 team]… the likes of CT would be quite similar to the John Convery, skill-wise, the way he leads. Daithi would probably be the closest you’d come to a Paul Braniff.
“But the game has changed massively in the last 10 years. Then it was hitting hard, moving the ball fast, nowadays you’re looking to get your ball players involved, you’re off the shoulder a lot more, it’s a lot more possession-based in terms of getting your shape, and coaching has evolved a lot as well because of that.
“You’re learning all the time… even if you look at the Cushendall-Slaughtneil game, it chopped and changed throughout in terms of how they wanted to play, and what changes they made.
“It’s still a learning process for us. We’ve been to the Ulster championship the last two years - we were heavily beaten by Slaughtneil in 2022, we should’ve won last year, so we’re just trying to build on that experience and see where it takes us.”
