Rain and shine for the NDSL in Galway

 

They started off on the end of a defeat to West Cork after conceding late in the second half, having equalized in the first half to make it 1-1, before coming out of another close encounter with the win as they overcame a tough Mervue United in the lashings of rain by just the one goal to nil.

 

Extratime.ie caught up with Stuart Hayden from the NDSL after their second 2003 Elite match and he said that the victory “was important for the boys’ morale just to lift them today” after their opening game, where he felt they “never really got out of the traps”. He followed on by saying the Mervue United win “was a great performance as well as getting a clean sheet, which I’m happy with. So yeah, good all round performance.”

 

With the recent signing of former Ashbourne United and NDSL player Warren O’Hora to the Bohemians senior squad, as well as fellow NDSL graduate Michael Murphy signing on for Owen Heary’s Shelbourne, Hayden saw this as showing “we’ve a really good academy structure” as well as bringing to light that “there’s a pathway there.”

 

“Hopefully over the next three years, the NDSL can keep players in the academy, and with the pathway link with Bohemians, get them into the League of Ireland.”

 

Keeping them is the tough part, though, with Hayden acknowledging that the NDSL “probably don’t see the fruits of [their work] as stronger leagues and teams will take players away.” However, he was quick to follow-up that “the actual NDSL leagues themselves aren’t as competitive with three teams, or four if you’re lucky, being competitive every year" but he also felt that this was improving with more and more clubs becoming stronger and better in terms of coaching and development.

 

"It’s very, very difficult to keep guys in the league, but hopefully with the new structure that’s coming out this year and the tie-in with Bohs, it’s an incentive to keep players with us.”

 

With the mention of a new structure, Extratime.ie asked whether summer football was on the agenda following the DDSL’s decision to move their soccer calendar recently. Hayden said he believed that the NDSL has voted for it to come in although he admitted that problems such as holidays, exams and summer sports like Gaelic will mean “it’s going to be very, very difficult so judgement’s out on that.”

 

Finally, when asked what he would like to see if the U15 League of Ireland was brought to fruition, he responded that he would like to see the existing interleague (such as NDSL, DDSL, SDFL, etc.) teams put into one elite league as he feels “you could see more talent spread across it.”

 

“Rather than the DDSL having a hundred players trying to get into one team, at least it may spread the pool of players right across. More guys would come through the system and I think it would be easier for the FAI to identify talent for the Emerging Talent Programme as well as look for the late developers. So again, rather than all being grouped into one league, they’re spread across four or five different leagues.”

 

Hayden finished his sentiments on the NDSL and the possible future of the U15 league along the same feelings his NDSL side would have of the next few, hopefully sunny, days: “I’ll be looking forward to it.”