Coach's Lab with John Murphy What GAA Coaches Can Learn from Professional Soccer | Shane Keegan
Nov 28, 2025
Shane Keegan, a UEFA Pro Licence coach and former League of Ireland manager, shares his insights on coaching principles that GAA coaches can adopt from professional soccer. The discussion covers effective session design focused on clear objectives and the importance of player communication. Shane emphasizes 'repetition without repetition' for skill development and explores how to use analysis and data to shape training. He also advocates for building strong relationships with players, contrasting one-on-one interactions with traditional team talks.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Coach Who Made Kids Ten Feet Tall
- Noel O'Reilly's coaching made kids feel ten feet tall and inspired Shane to emulate his behaviors.
- Shane learned that warm, personal feedback and simple drills delivered with connection beat clever jargon every time.
Use WholeâPartâWhole Every Session
- Start sessions with a game, work on a part, then finish with the game to transfer learning.
- Use wholeâpartâwhole to highlight the skill in context and reinforce it in match play.
Soccer Led The Game-Based Shift
- Soccer moved away from drill-based coaching earlier than Gaelic games, so game-based practice is more mature there.
- Shane uses short individual ball time then layered small-sided games to develop real-game skills.