Freeman Reflects On Young Coaching Career

Suffering a stroke aged 21, Wayne Freeman was forced to retire from playing Gaelic Football, turning to coaching to stay involved in the sport, the 29 year old is just one step away from guiding the Banner to their first All Ireland appearance since 2016.

That year Neil Moynihan guided Clare to contest the All-Ireland final, Freeman is the first “outsider” to manage Clare since, the Kildare native took the role last year and has guided Clare to the Division 3 League Final, the Munster Senior B Title and now they are back in the All Ireland Semi-Finals.

Freeman was given the task of having to pick up where Clare left off in 2022, beaten in the semi-finals by eventual winners Laois, but Freeman says they have three targets in place at the start of the year, two have been achieved, one remains on the radar but they are still taking everything in the present.

“We would have set the three targets at the start of the year, that was all three finals, we hit two and we are on course to hit one, we have a big sixty minutes ahead of us, a huge challenge, we’re out with four weeks to go left in the season, that’s what we want, we’ve always taken it game by game, so we’ve never looked too far ahead, we wanted to stay in the present, because you know it’s very easy to slip up in such a competitive championship, where the majority of the teams involved are quite even, so we never look too far ahead, but  I think we’ll be pretty pleased with where we are this year, overall.” 

Freeman took on the role having succeeded Evan Talty as manager of the Clare side, it was a quick turn around for the young manager however, with the league just months away, he had to plan without some regular big names missing from their panel ahead of the 2023 campaign.

But despite some dejection lingering in the camp from their final four exit last season, Freeman believes they turned a corner this year and have really worked well under a new system that last season, with a fresh look to their panel and management team.

“We had a bit of a turnover in players, I think seven or maybe eight out of that starting 15 against Laois are not with us this year. So maybe the remaining players probably felt that, the dejection and disappointment from the Laois game, them players, they love football and they’re very realistic in that they move on.

It’s the next challenge for them and combined with the fresher faces, different players coming in, different panel, different look, different management, I suppose they were able to move on from the past and and you know start again such you know I look forward to the year ahead, so I’d say that probably was a little bit of it, I think once we got halfway through the league and we started to turn the corner a little bit, we would have set out a plan in place for the league to peak at a particular time and not not go too early, because we were new we wanted to give as many players an opportunity at competitive football and you know we needed to try one or two things early in the league, to see if they would work for us what kind of tactics would suit us as a team. 

You know we cant play the same way everywhere I go, it’s not just one kind of plan that we just bring around with us to every, every team, has to change and then alter depending on the players you have, so we had to try and figure out what works for us and I think you know as the league progressed I think there was a lot of confidence starting to build in the group.”

Clare to their credit have lost just three times in 2023, to Kildare and Wexford in the league, along with the league final loss also to the Lilywhites,  Freeman however feels that Clare getting back to this stage this year, is down to the work both the players and his coaching team have done this year.

I think the Kildare loss down in Cooraclare actually galvanised us a good bit, because we really should have won that game, but it was also an eye opener to go look, we are good enough here, this is you know a clear example of that and I think that probably pushed us on and since then you know we’ve been pretty good, it’s hard to really have too many negatives on us and were highly critical of ourselves, now in fairness the players are highly critical they are very competitive, so we do work very hard, but to think that we are in an All Ireland semi-final, is probably just to the work that we have been doing all year.”

Freeman who was a talented underage footballer hailing from the Monasterevin club, was not always set on a coaching career into his 20’s, following a stroke aged 21, he was forced to hang up the boots as a player, but still having the passion and grá for the sport, he decided to look into the coaching side, where he met Brian Willis, one part of his management team the last five years, taking on roles with both Laois and Kildare.

“I had a stroke at 21, that was the issue, so it forced me into retirement. I suppose the first to be honest, three years I was nearly in denial, I had always had sites on going back and I kind of used coaching just stay involved with it, Gavin Doyle at the time was manager of Laois Minors, which would have been Erone Fitzpatrick’s minor group and I got involved with him, that’s actually where I met Brian and from there we ended up in Kildare with the minor teams there for two years, we won an All Ireland with Kildare, which would have been in Nessa Dooley’s minor team.”

While he still gets the odd notification on the phone from someone asking to come back and tog out, he feels those days are now past him, but yet to blow out the candles on his 30th birthday cake, Freeman has enjoyed his new role as a coach, despite the difficult decision to call time on a playing career.

I suppose even at that point I was still considering, you know, maybe a possibility of going back, but as time progressed and you know, things change, it just wasn’t feasible for me to go back playing football and although I do still get some text messages to try and get me back but I think them days are gone, you know, I’m heading towards 30 now, I haven’t kicked a ball in nine years.

So yeah, it was difficult because I loved playing, you know, It’s my passion, you know I delegate everything around my life to make sure I could play football, working etc, you know it was a big moment in my life, a big change, but coaching, management has filled that void for me very well, it’s completely different because, you learn more about a team ethos when you move into coaching.

As a player, you will be just focused on, you know, your own individual development and doing better yourself and it’s all quite you know individual and a little bit selfish thinking, but when you when you go into coaching you do realise the group is so important and you know all the different dynamics around teammates all pulling in the one direction, how important that is.”

Coaches Lee Hunt and Willis have joined him on his journey over the last five years, his previous role came as manager of Louth, where at 25 years of age, he was handed the role as inter-county manager, three years at the Wee County, they won promotion to Division 3 with a league win, with several appearances also at the quarter final stage, Freeman believes Louth took a gamble on him, but it helped him gain respect in the long term.

“So it’s been great to kind of come through the county system as a player from underage being able to see that and then move into this side of it then on an intercounty level as well, so it’s all been very, very interesting, I’ve really enjoyed it, I’ve really enjoyed all four teams that we’ve been involved with, I was young to start out in fairness and in fairness to Louth, I suppose gambled on me a little bit, who knew a 25 year old could go into senior inter-county management and gain respect and get a team to play the way we wanted

Won a league title there for the first time for Louth, getting them out of Division 4 and getting to three All Ireland Quarter Finals in a row at intermediate level, so it all ground breaking for them and that was great, you know, we formed great relationships down there and this is just the new step on our journey as a coaching team I’ve been with lads for years, like I said we’re good friends and no thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Attention now turns to the challenge of Antrim on Sunday, with a 2pm throw-in time at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, for their All Ireland Semi-Final, the full interview with Wayne is available below.