PESS PhD researcher Fionn Fitzgerald is pleased to share his third PhD publication, which explores coaches’ perceptions of growth and maturation in player development.
Key Takeaways
🧠 Coaches demonstrated awareness of how growth and maturation influence player development, performance and selection.
⚖️ Coaches recognised that player selection can be influenced by maturity-related biases, with early developers often advantaged and late developers at greater risk of being overlooked.
🛠️ Despite this awareness, many coaches lacked the practical strategies and confidence to consistently support players at different stages of maturation.
🎓 Every coach highlighted the need for greater education and practical guidance to better identify, develop and retain players across the maturation spectrum.
Turning Knowledge into Action
As Fionn highlights:
“Knowing about maturation isn’t enough — coaches also need practical, context-specific tools to turn that knowledge into effective action.”
Acknowledgements
Fionn extends his gratitude to his supervisory team—Dr Mark Campbell, Dr Phil Kearney and Professor Sean Cumming—for their continued support throughout his PhD.
He also offers a sincere thank you to Jason McGahan and all of the academy coaches from Kerry GAA, who generously shared their experiences and insights to make this research possible.
Read the Publication
The publication is available as open access.
🔗 Read the full paper here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17479541261460816
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