RUGBY: AIDAN TYRELL INTERVIEW
Cill Dara RFC appoint new head coach
By Daire Walsh
FOLLOWING their AGM in Beech Park last Thursday evening (18 June), Cill Dara RFC confirmed the appointment of Aidan Tyrell as the new head coach of their senior squad for the 2015/16 season.
Tyrell will be joined in the new coaching set-up by club stalwart Chris Moore, as well as strength & conditioning expert Eoin Stanley, and considering how well respected Moore is throughout the Kildare Town club, the former Guinness RFC supremo was eager to get him on board.
“It was massively important [to have Moore with me]. It was my first real appointment when I went in. Having played against Chris, and known Chris, he knows the DNA of the club and the philosophy,” Tyrell stated.
“It’s very easy as a new coach coming in to have someone of his pedigree side by side with me. The three of us, Eoin Stanley included, we’re a coaching team. We’re a team within a team. We’ll be working hard enough to try and get us back to where we belong.”
The history and pedigree of the club meant that accepting the position was an easy decision for Tyrell, and thanks to his previous involvement with MU Barnhall and Naas, he is also familiar with the rugby scene across Kildare.
“What attracted me to the job was just the pedigree that Cill Dara have over the years. Their ambition sort of suited my ambition, and I know the history of the club. It was really a no-brainer when it came up.”
“I have been involved with both Barnhall and Naas in some capacity. I’ve had a playing career within Naas as well, and just moved on to the coaching end of things. This is the chance that I feel I’ve been waiting for and having done a sort of apprenticeship with some good coaches. They gave me the ambition to improve myself and I think when this opportunity came up, I said I’d go for it.”
As a result of their promotion/relegation play-off defeat at the hands of Gorey in March, Cill Dara will be competing in Division 1B of the Leinster Senior League next term. While Tyrell admitted that returning to the top ranks of junior rugby in the province was part of his ambition, there will also be a focus on implementing playing structures within the club.
“Yeah, that would probably be the target in a sense [to gain promotion to Division 1A], but it’s about trying to get a playing structure in place.”
“Once we get our work done, which we feel [we can do] as a coaching structure with Chris Moore and Eoin Stanley there. If we do that right, I believe that we’ll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.”
Indeed, Cill Dara will be hoping to compete on several fronts over the course of the next 12 months, and before their league campaign gets underway, Tyrell is aiming to make a significant impact in the Hosie Cup.
“Well I think the first priority is the Hosie Cup. That’s going to be the starting point of our season, so whatever form we get out of that cup, we’ll carry it on into the league form and then we’ll look at the cup further down the line.”
“Having known how much the cup means to a lot of clubs in the provincial set-up, I’m not going to put myself here now and say I’m going to win a cup or anything like that. If we can get our structures in place early doors, then we can see what happens in January. We’re not even going to be looking that far ahead,” Tyrell added.