Many let down as B panel is named

It's been a week when the domestic game's great national question reared its ugly head again. When, we were left to ponder once more, will a player from one of our own clubs ever get to wear the green shirt? There may have been precious few, the same sort of percentage that you tend to get in left-wing politics, who believed that the big day was just around the corner, but a good many more will have felt a little let down by the Senior B panel which Mick McCarthy named for next Wednesday's game with Northern Ireland at Tolka Park.There wasn't too much to argue about overall and we can hardly begrudge some of those trapped in the wilderness of reserve team football across the water their break from the monotony. Nevertheless it seems a little hard to take that players like Colin Hawkins and Dessie Baker have been overlooked again. The explanation appears to have been that most of the players that have caught the collective eye of the international set up are eligible to play under-21 and that Ian Evans is attempting to organise a session with National league players in this category.Still, many of those called up are young and it seems mystifying to argue that more can be learned by watching Damien Duff play in a game like next Wednesday's (against a side, incidently, which will not include a single locally based player either) than, if there is a strong belief that it is a considerably higher level, by attempting to ascertain whether some of the better young players based here could cope.At underage level, Irish manager Brian Kerr (he was a year in his new job on Sunday and celebrated by seeing part or all of six schoolboy games in Dublin) accepts that supporters here are frustrated by the lack of recognition given to National League players but feels that little is likely to change in the immediate future.Last week he selected the under-16 side which beat Scotland from a 22 strong panel of youngsters, 12 of whom are currently with clubs in England and several more of whom are already committed to going there when they turn 16 and the rules allow.If National League clubs had good coaching structures in place and could get hold of the best players at this stage then in the long term everybody would probably be better off but, he points out: "The fact is that the lads who do go away do benefit from being around other good players and being coached well while the ones who get left behind tend to get dispirited because they haven't gone away. Until that situation changes there isn't a lot of point moaning about the fact that players from clubs here aren't getting into the Irish team."There has been some progress made by clubs here over the past couple of years. Two clubs, Galway United and Monaghan United, were represented at Richmond Park last Wednesday, and clubs like St Patrick's Athletic, Bray Wanderers and Limerick have all put a considerable amount of effort into developing schoolboy structures of one kind or another.As in so many areas, though, National League clubs have to do battle with far better resourced competitors from across the water and with every season that passes, it seems that we are losing more and more ground.The piecemeal approach stands little hope of success, says Kerr who feels that a radical overhaul of the youth development structures here is required if serious progress is to be made. A system which combines the provision of a third-leveleducation and advanced coaching while the player is registered with the FAI and loaned out to clubs is one possible model which could perhaps be looked at."Whatever the solution is we have to find an alternative to the current situation, and I think that if people sat down together around a table an alternative can be found," he says.Ironically, Kerr concedes that, unsatisfactory as the present situation is, it is likely to provide the National League with a steady stream of quality young recruits over the next few years. After an explosion in the number of youngsters heading away we are, he predicts, about to see a boom in the numbers of those returning home.Some may find it difficult to readjust after spending the latter part of their teenage years away but many are likely to settle back into the upper echelons of the National League which will be generally improved as a result of the technical abilities and tactical understanding they have acquired on their travels.That, in turn, should help clubs here to alter the current and widely-held view that the National League (with the odd honourable exception like UCD) is no place for youngsters. The process has already been started by Shelbourne and St Patrick's, who have shown themselves to be willing to throw their young talent into the fray, and there is an encouraging number of locally-developed youngsters coming through at clubs like Dundalk, Cork and Derry. There remains, however, a perception that these players, whether they've done their time away or not, are at a disadvantage to those at clubs in England and Scotland, regardless of the level of their success, and that could do with being addressed too.Last week, Mick McCarthy could have taken a first step towards publicly recognising that situation, but chose not to. Given the difficulty of the European Championship draw he was handed recently, he is entitled to claim to be just a little preoccupied at the moment.