University Life: Noel Healy

Success in Noel Healy’s life has been hard-fought and well won.  A fan favourite in Cork City FC’s formative years, Healy was involved in the Rebel Army’s inaugural league win in 1993, as well as memorable European games like the 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich. Now Healy is overseeing a different challenge, as he guides UCC into a Collingwood Cup campaign for the fifth time. Life for Healy at Cork’s premier institution has seen great success, as UCC enters a golden era for football. In 2014/15 Healy guided UCC to a first Munster Senior League title, before pushing UCC to the Collingwood Cup and into the quarter finals of the EA Sports Cup. In 2016/16 UCC stepped up their game and completed a league and cup double winning both the Collingwood Cup and the Munster Senior League. In all, things are positive for the former defender-turned coach, as he leads his squad into a crucial month for UCC.“I’m happy with what we have. The squad is really gelling together and we have gone on to some unbelievable run of games. We on this unbelievable run of games were we are eight or nine games undefeated, and we are going into the Maynooth game in the College University Football League quarter finals next Tuesday. We have prepared well. Fitness levels are good.  Spirit levels are good”With this new squad old problems resurface for Healy in UCC’s quest for glory. “It is never an easy job looking after college teams. Every year we lose anything from six to nine players. Last year we lost nine players but we were fortunate enough to get Sean O’Mahony back, but at Christmas we lost eight players. You are building and rebuilding every single year. What we have done over the last six or seven years is raise the standard of college football of UCC as a club. Now we are getting really good players coming in from a high standard to our club and settling in really well. The demands are very different. What people don’t realise is that these guys are coming in after their leaving cert and experiencing college life with the fun side as well as the sporting side of it. Semesterisation changing has caused an awful lot of stress on the guys with mental tiredness around December/May period. It is very hard to manage all that”In training for the three day tournament, Healy faced the ultimate test in reigning in League of Ireland double winners, Cork City FC, at the Mardyke. The game, a tooth and nail 1-1 draw, was ideal preparation for Healy and his side, both on the pitch and off the pitch. “First of all, the Cork City match for us as a club showed how much we progressed as a club over the last number of years. Teams like Cork City are looking at us for preseason, which goes on to show how much the club has moved on over the last number of years. From an exercise point of view it was worthwhile for both sides. For us it was about our build up to the Collingwood for coming up against League of Ireland sides like UCD. We set ourselves up really well. It was a first time experience for a lot of guys in the team, with some never having experienced that level of football and it was great to get that result behind us”Eyes wide open and optimistic, Healy sat excited ahead of the next few weeks. But, for every work of grace and perpetration, cold reality hit as he opened up on the realities of managing UCC. Despite these problems; Healy was quick to stress the importance of institutions such as UCC in developing Irish talent and the need for League of Ireland to strengthen relations with universities.  “It is never an easy job looking after college teams. Every year we lose anything from six to nine players. Last year we lost nine players but we were fortunate enough to get Sean O’Mahony back, but at Christmas we lost eight players. You are building and rebuilding every single year. What we have done over the last six or seven years is raise the standard of college football of UCC as a club. Now we are getting really good players coming in from a high standard to our club and settling in really well. The demands are very different. What people don’t realise is that these guys are coming in after their leaving cert and experiencing college life with the fun side as well as the sporting side of it. Semesterisation changing has caused an awful lot of stress on the guys with mental tiredness around December/May period. It is very hard to manage all that”Despite these problems; Healy was quick to stress the importance of institutions such as UCC in developing Irish talent and the need for League of Ireland to strengthen relations with universities.  “If you look over the last number of months, an awful lot of people have moved on to Championship over in England. Maynooth and St. Pats have a number of players who have really come through the college system. If you look at Sean McLaughlin; three years I met him when he was in the under 19s and felt that the next move was really important for him. For him to get two years playing Munster Senior League and playing in competitive tournaments like the Collingwood,  it was a great guide for him to step up to League of Ireland standard and slot in a lot quicker than he would if he had spent a season or two on the bench. Players are starting to see the benefit of playing competitive university football and Collingwood and for us the Munster Senior League as well”“What we have learned over the last couple of years, people thought in the past that when you are fifteen sixteen seventeen years of age that your days of going across the water are gone. In another two years your days of joining a League of Ireland club are gone. We are seeing the reserve of things with players going over to England. Seani Maguire was 22, Kevin O’Connor was 22. All these guys proved that if you spend a couple of years more in your own local leagues that you benefit more and when you go over to England when you are a little bit older than fifteen sixteen you are more mature. This is standing to a lot of clubs over the last number of seasons”Dundalk’s European successes, Cork City FC’s rise to prominence, and St. Patrick’s Athletic’s late-season surge, have all been the rewards of university football. David McMillan and Ciaran Kilduff made their names known in UCD’s 2010 Collingwood success, while Sean McLaughlin won Player of the Tournament in 2017 for UCC, with former Pats turned Peterborough goalkeeper Conor O’Malley lining out for Maynooth.   Using universities to develop talent is a key tool which Healy believes is the way forward for League of Ireland clubs and Irish football. “A lot of League of Ireland clubs need players to be playing on a regular basis and they can’t afford to sign for a club and sit on the bench and come off without having played a game. The clubs are using it more than the college for getting game time. I think it is a natural progression now because League of Ireland clubs believe that these guys have benefited from playing at university and international games as well such as the Regions Cup. Anyone who has played in Collingwood and played in the College University League over the last number of years have experienced a really good standard of football and it has definitely helped them progress in the long run”Going forward, this ideal system is not without its problems as Healy was quick to note. “I suppose there is a big difference between difference between League of Ireland and our side of things in UCC. Talking about our side of things in UCC, they are a summer league and we have a winter league so we have a bit of a crossover problem with people who are nineteen and coming out of under 19s. With the season finishing in October they cannot register with the college until January which is a big problem. Once those barriers are closed with the season finishing a little bit earlier this year because they are starting earlier this year, then players coming from under 19’s can come out and naturally go into college football and still be associated with the club they played for. Maybe in three to six years’ time; they might not be at the League of Ireland standard now, but if they move on with the college. Now I can see League of Ireland clubs moving closer and working harder with university teams over the next four to six years”