*Former CDSL PRO Jim Madden, Aaron Kelly, Ruairí Price and Colin Curran. Photograph: Joe Buckley
RUAIRI PRICE has stepped down as manager of the Clare Youths.
Shannon native Price spent four seasons as manager of the County Youths side and has confirmed to The Clare Echo he will not be seeking another year in the role.
Assistant manager, Darren Keane and goalkeeper coach Gary Cooke have also left their roles. Both Mark Culbert and Denis Hynes had served as coaches at different stages during Ruairi’s tenure.
Clare reached the semi-finals in Ruairi’s first season but the competition never concluded due to an FAI ruling. The second season saw no action take place with the Inter-League Cup interrupted by COVID-19 while successive campaigns saw the county unable to emerge past the group stages.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Ruairi said the FAI are not showing sufficient interest in the Inter-League Cup. “The job itself is an honour to do it, it’s just the way the competition is ran, it was okay initially but there is room for improvement, the last two years the FAI took their eye off the ball and were not doing enough to promote the competition or provide a player pathway. They only seem to care about one thing and that the League of Ireland”.
Changes to the structure of the competition have not helped, he argued and admitted such concerns have been raised with the Clare District Soccer League. “It was always two would get out of the group and then they watered it down to one, it is not fair and a lot of effort goes into preparing teams, you lose the first game and you’re effectively gone even though you have more games to play”.
He continued, “It is disappointing how the competition is ran considering the time and effort that goes into it, people don’t see the driving to matches, watching games and organising training, it is pretty much full-time preparing and getting the teams coached, it is a pity it is not ran like Kennedy Cup where all counties enter, only eight or nine counties are entering which isn’t enough”.
Closer to home, the former Shannon Olympic goalkeeper felt there was a lot of work for the CDSL to do at U17 and Youths level. “The biggest thing I felt last year was the way Youths and U17s was ran, the CDSL need to look at fixtures and seriously prioritise these age groups”. He pointed to the example of Bridge Utd’s Youths who played two games over the course of seven months and said teams such as Lifford, Shannon Hibs and Ennis Town “folded” and withdrew from the competition due to waiting months for games and losing players.
Player retention must also be reviewed, Ruairi stated. “There are five Shannon players playing with Pike, we’re haemorrhaging players to Limerick, we are not doing enough to retain our best players, that has a knock-on effect for all clubs. Look at the success of Newmarket Celtic in the FAI Junior Cup, we need to be building on that and not losing our best players and building up the Limerick league”.
No immediate coaching gigs are on the horizon for Ruairi who was formerly involved with Ballynanty for two years when managed by Donal Magee. “I’m helping out with the Shannon Town U11s until September and I’ll be taking a break then. I have a young family, I have a two year old daughter and I want to be able to give her a lot more time. I want to get back out on the golf course too so I will reset and see what the next challenge is”.
The CDSL are expected to advertise the position in the near future to try find Price’s successor.
