A curious aspect of the dialogue in recent months and years around Irish youth and schoolboy football has been the completely unchallenged contention that the structures we have relied upon for the lion’s share of our internationals, are in fact, successful.

An absolute insistence on the wild success of the traditional powerhouses of juvenile football in Ireland, comes with a dearth of evidence.

In addition to that, attention has long been drawn to the development gap evident between players crossing the Irish Sea and those already trained in the English system and further afield.

The sheer volume of players passing through schoolboy clubs that are sent across the water was always likely to result in a small number making the grade. The problem inherent in this model however, is a tendency to ignore senior football completely, which only reinforces the theory that the ultimate development of the players is far from a priority… and that unless it involves monetary return on investment that can be used to continue the cycle, little value is placed upon it.