The FAI has torn up its traditional age-group coaching model and replaced it with something more ambitious — a nine-person full-time coaching structure spread across every international underage team from Under-15 to Under-19.
The headline names are Noel Hunt and Graham Gartland. Hunt, who managed Reading in League One and has worked with Swindon and Waterford, joins as one of five International Lead Coaches. Gartland brings his work from Shamrock Rovers' academy and a stint as assistant at Dundee in the Scottish Premiership. Both men know Irish football's ecosystem from the inside — which is exactly what this kind of long-term development project needs.
What's actually changing
The old system assigned individual coaches to individual age groups in relative isolation. The new one deliberately breaks that down. Five International Lead Coaches — Hunt, Chelsea Noonan, John Cotter, Keith O'Halloran and James Scott — work across the pathway rather than being siloed by age group. Four International Coaches, including Gartland, Conor McCormack, Mark Connors and Richie Smith, operate in the same connected model.
The logic is sound. Player development doesn't reset at each age boundary. A 15-year-old who graduates to the Under-17s shouldn't encounter a completely different football philosophy, different expectations, a different identity. The FAI's stated goal of "greater alignment throughout the pathway" isn't corporate jargon here — it's the actual problem they're trying to fix.
The group itself has genuine depth. McCormack played over 400 League of Ireland games across Shamrock Rovers, Derry City, Cork City and others before moving into coaching. Connors recently steered the Ireland men's Under-17s to qualification for the 2026 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. Noonan joins from Birmingham City Women, where she was assistant head coach as the club won promotion to the WSL. O'Halloran has UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship experience. Scott has run the Women's Under-17s since 2019.
The timing matters
This restructure comes not long after the FAI lost Colin O'Brien — who coached the men's Under-17s at the 2025 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Qatar — in a round of redundancies before Christmas. His assistant John Cotter has been retained in the new setup, which provides some continuity at least.
FAI Technical Director Shane Robinson framed it plainly: "We wanted to build a full-time coaching structure that is more connected, collaborative and aligned across the pathway." The proof will come in the work, not the announcement. But the calibre of coaches recruited and the structural thinking behind the model suggests this is more than a rebrand.
- International Lead Coaches: Noel Hunt, Chelsea Noonan, John Cotter, Keith O'Halloran, James Scott
- International Coaches: Conor McCormack, Graham Gartland, Mark Connors, Richie Smith
Ireland have produced talented underage players for years without consistently converting that into senior results. Whether this structure finally joins those dots is the only question that matters.
