The interviewee this time has quite an introduction so stick with it! He's only Shamrock Bowl XIX MVP, Dublin Rebels Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, and starting QB; Mr. Andrew Dennehy!
Dennehy has been at the helm of the Dublin Rebels offense for what opposition might feel is an eternity. A student of the game he has pushed the Rebels out of the stone age of Irish American football and firmly into the iron age, skipping the bronze age completely! If he has his way too he won't be done with the team or Irish American football for a long time yet.
Being the consummate football player he has in the past, and undoubtedly will again, forced other Irish teams to up their game and coaching structure through his seemingly unending passion for football knowledge. So settle down and get stuck into this meaty conversation; there's plenty in there to chew on!
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| Andrew Dennehy, QB, Dublin Rebels |
Der Irlander: First off congratulations on another Shamrock Bowl this year, it doesn’t get much more dramatic than a one point victory; it must have been pretty gratifying as a head coach?
Andrew Dennehy: Thanks! Honestly… no, it wasn’t particularly gratifying as a coach. As a coach, I want to win 50-0 every game. I want to score on the opening play and completely dominate, with everyone on the team executing the gameplan, and their individual assignments, perfectly. Coaches spend the offseason burning the midnight oil to develop systems and wrinkles that create a winning edge. All season is spent coaching players up, scouting and installing so that we can succeed. I want all that training, and behind-the-scenes work, to be reflected in our on-field play. If the gameplan falls apart because some players aren’t even getting their fundamentals right – simple movements they’ve repped tens of thousands of times – then I’m not happy. I’m generally not happy, as a coach, unless it’s perfect. And that’s rare.
I’m proud of the team, though. 2011 was probably the most difficult season we’ve ever had. Before our away match to Carrickfergus in April, I thought about the players we had recently lost. I counted 28 players who had left us since the 2010 Bowl. Some left for Germany, some went travelling, some retired, some were injured… and we had even lost about seven of the players we had trained up as replacements for the absentee 2010 players.
We lost even more players after that! Our next away match was in Belfast. On the second play of the game, our only remaining O-Lineman from 2010 suffered a season-ending injury. The only available replacement was a Brazilian guy who we had just met on the bus that morning! We stuck him on the line and he did a great job. Since we were operating with an O-Line of rookies and experienced newbies, we could only run one running play for the whole game. We installed it while waiting for the ambulance, which took our fallen teammate, to return.
A few weeks later, the new Brazilian lineman, who had picked everything up quickly, suffered a season-ending injury. It was just that kind of season. Thankfully, some of our 2010 players returned at the end of the season and we got some players back from injury.
So, as a coach, the Bowl was a huge struggle. Our O-Line had zero training sessions together going into that game. We couldn’t do all the wonderful things I dreamed up during the last offseason. It was just a matter of trying to execute the basics. I couldn’t expect the guys to suddenly achieve a magical level of cohesion – they gave it everything they had, though.
As a player, however, it was pretty gratifying. We knew we had a mountain to climb, and couldn’t rely on smooth execution and pizazz. All we had was grit and determination, and we had just enough of that to win out in the end. There’s also the fact that the one-point margin was somewhat helped by an unforced error – the Vikings’ long-snapper snapped out the back of the endzone for a safety in the 3rd Quarter. Would we have won anyway? I can’t say. Would we have blocked that punt if the snap was sound? Possibly. I choose to view it as a karmic realignment, balancing the long string of bad luck we had throughout the regular season. It was a small gesture by the teasing minx that is Lady Karma, but much appreciated.
DI: Throughout the years the Dublin Rebels have been through spells of dominance, what do you think was the key to those periods of time?
AD: We’ve been very fortunate to always have a good mix of youth and experience. Thanks to this, our new players were well-coached when they first joined the team. As our old experienced players began to retire, we had a new crop of veterans leading the way.
At least that’s how it was at first. After winning in 2005, a good few of our main players/coaches retired. We had a perfect season in 2006… but the ‘hangover’ really hit us in 2007, with us exiting in the playoffs. We knew we had to rebuild or suffer the same fate as many other formerly dominant teams, who either folded or dipped in form for a few years. The other teams in the league had improved and we couldn’t rely on ‘having better players’ or attacking simple, fundamentally unsound things in our opponents anymore.
We set about creating a cohesive approach to coaching, developing a real coaching staff and a well-thought-out approach to training. This was a huge move. There’s an old coaches saying – ‘I stole it from a thief’ – that basically implies coaches are constantly plagiarising. There’s truth in that… but there’s still room for innovation. For us, the innovation was in how we applied what we knew about coaching, and football in general, into the Irish game. Reading books and watching DVDs is great… if you have a team of experienced football players who train six times a week. We worked hard to distill the most useful aspects of ‘best practice’ methods, and invented some of our own concepts, ultimately creating what I believe to be an efficient methodology to our coaching. At our training sessions these days, every player benefits from every second of the session. We’ve created compound drills, often using antagonistic positions, to get the most out of every moment of the few hours we have. We still have to improvise every week, as we often get hit with bad turnouts or coaches who can’t make it… but, by and large, it works. This has really helped us continue to play at a high level, even during our rebuilding cycle.
I do believe we’re still rebuilding, by the way. Probably more than ever this year. So we’ll continue our attempts to innovate to keep ahead of the curve.
DI: Being a Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator and starting QB is a mighty handful, how do you manage to juggle those roles and still be effective?
AD: I also do a lot of work for charity, but don’t like to talk about it. I guess it’s not difficult because that’s how I’ve always done things. You get to see a lot of things from QB, which can help inform your play selection and strategy. I also get to see players execute well, or screw-up, from close range, so I can immediately give them in-game feedback. If I wasn’t on the field, I’d have to relearn how to watch the game in order to see what a coach needs to see from the sideline.
The toughest part is that I have nobody coaching me as a player. I spend my time coaching others. I do get plenty of reps, but I have to self-correct my technique, which is a slow enough process. The other thing is… a strange one. It’s essential that offensive coaches understand the QB’s assignments and reads. That way, when something goes wrong, they can correctly diagnose the problem and try to fix it. Sometimes the QB gets it right, but the ball is intercepted because a WR got it wrong. I’m just always conscious that when I (as coach) address the REAL problem, it looks like I (as QB) am trying to deflect blame, which QBs shouldn’t do. Even typing this paragraph feels like I’m breaking the unwritten code of QBing.
The inverse is also true. Sometimes I completely screw up and we score a TD. I get patted on the back for making a terrible play – “Great pass!” *High-five* I’m thinking: “No, it was an awful pass into double-coverage but the WR just made an excellent play.” My ‘internal coach’ rips me a new one for those plays. I have to filter out everything my teammates say and just listen to the internal coach. That sucks, because he’s a real asshole.
DI: The UL Vikings have made huge strides in the past five years thanks to their developing coaching staff, a pattern which Trinity College seemed to be emulating until they folded this year whereas you only have one non-playing coach; how have the Rebels managed to be successful with so many player/coaches?
AD: I don’t think player/coaches are that much of a handicap. Not at our level. We can both facilitate and participate in drills every week and get the same amount of time to coach players as a non-playing coach. The only real difference is on gameday, when we’re all on the pitch. But, again, we get to see things that are hard to spot on the sideline, so it balances out. As long as we have a clear vision, solid gameplan and a tactical mind, we can do our jobs well. Generally speaking, when a player has enough experience and knowledge of the game to coach, he’s usually a pretty solid player and therefore an asset on the field.
DI: With the Irish American Football Coaches Association growing in recent years do you foresee all Irish teams taking on full time staff in the next few years?
AD: I think all teams are limited by who they have available. If those people are good players, then let them play and coach. I’ve no idea if there will be more non-playing coaches around… but quite a few of the current player/coaches in the league are getting on in years and will hopefully continue to coach after they retire as players.
DI: The Dublin Rebels were compared to a ‘Hollywood prison team’ due to the number of different characters on the team, how difficult is it to manage all the individuals and get them all working as a cohesive unit?
AD: It’s easy – we just put all the maniacs and weirdoes in management and coaching roles to keep them distracted!
DI: What about an Irish national team, do you think a well organized team could be produced on an international level?
AD: Unquestionably yes! I think we’re ready to bring back a national team. We’ve got enough talented players and coaches around the league to really produce something special. I’m not involved at IAFL Board level, but I’d love to see us capitalize on the fact that there will be a host of NCAA and High School games in Dublin next September, including Notre Dame vs Navy. An exhibition game that weekend involving our national team is the sort of story that would get picked up as a human interest feature on ESPN and would probably draw a huge crowd, when you factor in the Americans who would be travelling over anyway. Based on the Irish teams’ performances in the Atlantic Cup 2009 and 2010, we can definitely hold our own against international opposition. I’d love to see it happen.
DI: There were four former Dublin Rebels playing in the GFL2 this year and another coaching at that level, quite a milestone for the Dublin Rebels and the IAFL; as the former Head Coach for those guys you must have reflected on the talent level being produced by your team?
AD: I couldn’t possibly take any credit for those guys. Mike Kresowaty is a ridiculously talented player, and nothing we did with the Rebels contributed to that! Steve Walsh and Ross McCooey were both blessed with a frame for football and some raw athletic ability. I’d say the coaching they received was only a minor help when they made the jump to GFL. And Darragh? He wasn’t even any good until he LEFT the Rebels? What does that say about our coaching?!?
DI: And now the Berlin Rebels are entering GFL1 with their Irish-born linebacker Ross McCooey, the first time an Irishman will play at Germany’s top level, what will this mean for Irish American football, if anything?
AD: It’ll probably mean a lot more people will start taking credit for teaching him everything he knows. There’s already a queue.
Apart from that, it will hopefully show Irish players that there’s a pathway, if they’re committed enough to follow it. Not every player dreams of making it to The Show. For those that dare to dream, it’s nice to know that it can be done.
One thing, though – those guys need to make sure to come back to Ireland and improve the game from the inside. I don’t care if you’ve hung up your cleats, as long as you give something back to the game. That could be the factor that makes the biggest difference to Irish football in the long-run.
DI: In Ireland the teams are all amateur and rely on imports relocating to Ireland independently, do you think this will change in the near future or is it a ways off?
AD: I hope it doesn’t happen. We’re nowhere near ready for that. Perhaps, one day, when thousands of fans pay to see their team play each week – then it would make sense to get in imports that can increase the quality of the spectacle. There’d be a solid underlying league structure, with money flowing like wine. Then… maybe. For now, I think it would potentially have a negative impact on teams. Imports keep natives on the bench. When the import leaves, who replaces him?
DI: Right now the Irish league is like the Swiss in that there are no limitations on the number of Americans per team, do you see the IAFL shifting to a model more similar to the GFL with regards to import limitations in the future?
AD: Only if there is a catalyst for change, such as a team relying heavily on imports without developing a grassroots programme. At the moment, that’s not the case so there’s no need for such a model.
DI: Being a savvy veteran QB I know you have a number of playing years left in you but whenever you do hang up the cleats will you take on the Head Coaching role for the Rebels full time then?
AD: Ask me again in about ten years.
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