4 Maintaining enthusiasm in a professional sport

When the boys come in they come in bright eyed and when they are eight, nine years of age we've got an unbelievable opportunity to shape the way they think about their futures and about the potential of their professional careers. But you know one of the key things for us to do right at the outset is just to make sure the kids are having fun. We talk a lot about systems and the science behind all of these things but actually the more you systemise the academy environment the more you are in danger of losing the joy of the game and we mustn’t lose sight of that for those players that are starting out.

So I think for me two things when they are absolutely at the start of their academy careers - is there joy? Have they got smiles on their faces? Are they acclimatising themselves in the environment? If so, that’s a great thing. Now add to that a learning environment where we develop the skills of just the sheer ability to learn to be coached and to understand that failing is part of the process of succeeding. And if we develop those early skills we give ourselves a half-decent chance. Now we need parents that understand this. We need coaches that buy into it as well and if we can build that type of environment we give ourselves a fighting chance because down the road what we know is approaching those players that stay in the system are all of those distractions that are going to come when the money comes along, when the agents come along and the sponsors and the like. So we need to build a resilience and a grit and a focus to these young men so that when those distractions do arrive they're in a balanced place and they can deal with them.