Slaughtmanus GAA Club: The fountain of Youth

Five minutes outside of Eglinton and tucked away in the Tamnaherin landscape you’ll find Slaughtmanus GAA club.

The green and red of St Mary’s are colours familiar to all North and South of Derry, from the club formerly known by the road that it resides on – Ervey.

Officially operating under the name of Slaughtmanus since 1958, there is a rich tradition of Gaelic games in the area, and the current generation now hold that flame.

Not only do they have a competitive Division Two senior side, but they are one of few clubs in the city with a ladies’ outfit that continue to climb the ranks just weeks into their new season.

The work at underage is also something that the club have come to pride themselves on.

Without a huge catchment area to choose from, chairman Kevin Watson explains that they have built that structure up from the bottom.

“As of the last five or six years we have been sending volunteers into the local primary schools and that has helped. You’re in a bit of a battle with soccer as well because in that sport they only have to produce one team, but we still have a lot of youngsters who play both,” he explained.

“At under 14’s we would be pushing twenty which is great for a small club. Then you have the 12’s, the 10’s and so on. We’re seeing the reward of our hard work now, even the minor team that won the Championship and the league is proof of that.”

Gregory McCormick is the club’s youth officer, and he agrees that the change in structure has allowed St Mary’s to reap the rewards of a consistent and engaged group of players.

“The youth committee set up a development plan in 2015, and that’s become our bible of what we want to do as a club. The senior committee have approved it and the basis of it is to get as many children up here playing Gaelic football as we can,” admitted McCormick.

“Every coach that comes in is given a coaching manual and a full programme for the season. Under 6 level is more of a parent and child thing, but from under 8’s the plan comes into action so if someone comes in to take them for that year, they get a folder with all the information that they need.”

Watson is one of the longest serving members of the Tamnaherin club, and while he is now in charge of the senior side, he knows how important it is to have that consistency at youth level.

“What we found from a GAA point of view was that different managers were coming in and doing different things. Kids are moving up the age ranks and they’re having to deal with different methods of coaching every time so we decided that up to under 16 level we wanted consistency in how we play the game,” said the chairman.

“It’s already produced success. From our underage structure, we are probably punching above our weight when you consider we are squashed in between Faughanvale, Claudy and Ardmore. We’re a very small club trying to compete with those guys on an annual basis.”

Another part of the ethos is the tagline that victory is not everything.

“Our whole structure is based around the fact that it isn’t all about winning,” insisted McCormick.

“What we want to do at Slaughtmanus is develop players for our minor and senior team, but at underage and with the system that we have in place we can still compete with the best of them. We don’t put a huge emphasis on winning but it’s still nice to see us holding our own against much bigger clubs at the youth level.”

Next to the local chapel, it’s clear that the GAA club is a hub for the community – with tin whistle classes and bingo in the hall just some of the activities going on around the football. It’s something that Watson agrees they are proud of.

“When you’re standing in the ground you realise that this is it. You’re looking at everything we have. It’s a huge focal point for the community and for our youngsters. If you come up at any stage in the summertime, you’ll see the field full of them. It’s the only area that they’ve got and its well respected by the youngsters of the community as well.”

He continued: “If we lose even one player at underage it’s a massive blow for us. If you get one or two minors every year coming into the senior set-up then you’re doing extremely well. We’re just about holding our own with that because it fluctuates from year to year. We have been very conscious about trying to keep players playing throughout the underage structure.”

As their youth system continues to blossom, McCormick believes that the future is bright for the Ervey Road club, and he says that for them it continues to be about getting numbers through the gates.

“We were also very lucky this year that Ulster GAA introduced a link programme between the club and schools which we were successful in after applying. It allowed one of us to go to Broadbridge, Mullabuoy and schools like that and build up that relationship.

“We get our minor lads to come with a few coaches to start introducing primary ones and twos to the sport, and it gets the parents in as well. They recognise the colours, and it becomes an association. Our secret from a young point of view is getting them in, and once they are here it looks after itself,” he concluded.