New Underage Academy brings Festival of Football to Nenagh
By Gary Culbert
This weekend, twenty top underage teams from all over Ireland will descend on Nenagh for the inaugural Lower Ormond Football Academy Invitational Tournament, sponsored by Slattery’s Garage, Puckane.
Academy sides from the likes of Shamrock Rovers, Athlone Town, and Bohemians will compete against North Tipp and the Midlands best and brightest including Nenagh AFC, BT Harps, and the Lower Ormond FA in the competition for kids born in 2013, 2014, & 2015.
Tournament organiser and owner of the Lower Ormand Football Academy, Andrew McCarthy is encouraging the people of Nenagh and indeed Lower Ormond to come to Brickfields from Friday to Sunday to “see the talent that’s on show, because there will be a lot of talent on show”.
This tournament will be the first that Lower Ormond has organised, but it is not the first that they will be taking part in. Founded in 2025, Lower Ormand FA is a private entity offering extra soccer coaching to kids in the under 11, 12, and 13 age groups.
When asked why the academy has been so well received in its relatively short existence, McCarthy maintains that while tournament football is the big attraction for the kids, the high level of coaching is key to parents continuing to enrol their kids in the programme.
“All our coaches are UEFA licensed,” he revealed.
“For me, kids absolutely love playing tournament football - they get tired of just training, training, training. But with Lower Ormond Football Academy they get to go away on trips with their teammates, for example we recently took teams to Barcelona and Salou for tournaments. The comradery that the away trips bring to the group is what I find most enjoyable. That’s the biggest thing I get from it, is just the camaraderie from all the kids there.”
The goal for McCarthy is not to just build a squad of happy players, he wants to provide a genuine stepping stone for kids from Lower Ormond and the surrounding area to progress their careers in the game.
“We’re only here to support grassroots football within the county,” McCarthy added.
“There’s loads of talent within North Tipperary and the Midlands. I want to give the kids an opportunity to put themselves on show. If they want to break out and play for a League of Ireland team that’s great, that’s my goal with the academy, just to provide opportunities for kids that want to go down that road.”
In his early 50’s, the self-proclaimed “Borrisokane man through and through” has the wherewithal to reflect on a life well lived in football, taking what he has learnt from the eight different clubs he has played for, including in Dublin and the United States, and try to give it back to the academy teams, one of which his son plays for. A central midfielder in his day, it’s no surprise that bravery is a big characteristic that McCarthy looks for in a player.
“I could see a kid that might not have it all in every aspect of the game, but if I could feel that that there is something that I could improve on,” he said.
“The first thing I would look for in any child is bravery, whether that’s on the ball or off it. Is he calling and wanting the ball all the time? Is he brave in the tackle? Those are the first things I would look for, everything else you can improve on, especially at that age.
“We look after the kids up to an age where League of Ireland is available to them, which is the Kennedy Cup year. If I find that a kid is good enough to play League of Ireland, I will definitely point them in the right direction. But at the end of that year, our under 14 age group will dismember and they will have to make their own way in the game” he revealed.
However, he is well aware that if he increased the numbers in his academy, the coaching would become less individualised.
“It’s all nearly one-to-one coaching that the kids get,” he added.
“I had some good opportunities myself as a kid, which I probably didn’t avail of, but I would like to see the kids now given them type of opportunities.”
It has been suggested to McCarthy that he should enter a team into the League of Ireland at under 14 level next season, however, he is adamant that if his players are “interested and good enough to go and play league of Ireland, I’ll introduce them to academy directors they need to be put in front of”.
Andrew McCarthy is the type of person that spots a gap and, instead of accepting defeat, decides to fill it himself. The tournament this weekend came about when he was putting together his academy’s schedule for the upcoming year back in January.
“I found that lot of tournaments in Ireland are more focused on the younger age groups, and I was finding it so hard to get tournaments for our under 13 team, so I said I would make one myself,” he said.
McCarthy was unable to leave out the other two age groups in his academy, under 11 and under 12, meaning there will be three different age groups on show this weekend in Brickfields.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing though, McCarthy admits that “the month of July was probably a bad choice because a lot of teams are in their off-season”.
The tournament also lands on the same weekend as the All-Ireland Hurling final, the World Cup final, and the Open Golf Championship, but McCarthy is able to see the funny side of it all.
However, he is confident that the next big name in North Tipp and Midlands soccer will be lacing up his boots this weekend.
“You will hear of some of the names that are currently involved in the setup making it big, that’s all I’ll say to you. How many? - I can’t tell you. But there will definitely be some there that will make it” he said.
But the reader will have to make their own mind up by coming out this weekend to support this exciting development in North Tipp and Midland soccer. For more information on the tournament and to view the fixtures and results, visit www.tournifyapp.com/live/lowerormondinvitational