Paying coaches at amateur level.

Shelflife

I was chatting to a club player lately from a smallish club. 2 senior teams, one in J1A the other in J2 that struggles to get a team out every week.

I was surprised to hear that the first team coach was paid at least 5K and up to 10K depending on reports.

Club is not flush with cash by a long way, plenty of underage players, coach not very successful either.

Is it normal for clubs to pay their coaches? Where do you draw the line?

Losty Dublin

From my experience, it's par for the course to have a paid coach at junior level these days. How much they get paid is a matter of who you obtain to coach, their duties and their circumstances. €10k sounds like a lot and it is in budgetary terms but if the coach is directing club operarations and that, it's not a lot for the hours that they put into the club.

Thomas D

Seems crazy at amateur level. Are senior clubs still paying players?

sydthebeat

depends on the coaches experience really....

most, if not all, will be paid some kind of expense rate. I know of a J1 team paying more than 10k

The Lost Sheep

A large proportion of clubs will pay their coaches and/or players(some) something. Will depend on experience of coach, if coach is an "outsider" or not.

Plenty of clubs are def still paying players and always will be a few doing it regardless of what rules are in place from IRFU

The Lost Sheep

A large proportion of clubs will pay their coaches and/or players(some) something. Will depend on experience of coach, if coach is an "outsider" or not.

Plenty of clubs are def still paying players and always will be a few doing it regardless of what rules are in place from IRFU

justsomebloke

The reason it is so high is probably due to the tax implications. As most coaches will have a primary job they will get hit hard by tax. So to make it in any way beneficial they will have to be given a good base pay.

Shelflife

But there are plenty other coaches in the club that give up their time and give a lot of their time too.

I just found it odd that a J1 team would require a paid coach, I know I wouldn't he happy paying subs if I knew the coach was pocketing 10k.

Just to be clear, there's no senior team attached to the club, it's just a big standard junior team.

Have to say I was shocked when I heard it.

boredatwork82

I think most J1A coaches get between 10-15k in a brown envelope.
If they are local guys they might get less as the travel and expenses will be far less.
In reality, if you want a coach to drive 1 and a half to and from training twice a week and also to a match.

Assuming drive time of an hour

Tuesday & Thursday nights 1 hour driving to training , 30 mins prep, 1.5 hrs training, 15-20 mins tidy up and chat to players, 1 hour drive home

That is about 4.3 hours per night x 2 = 8.6 hrs.

Match day = 1 hour drive(sometimes more or less based on location /home/away)
30 min prep, 1 hour warm up, game 2 hours, tidy up chat, after match civilities say 1 hour, drive home 1 hour. That totals 6.5 hours.

Add into that selection discussions with management and chatting to players re:injurie, feedback,selection etc. add in another 3 hours a week.

These are all at the lower end of the scale, and based on my own experience.

This totals 18 hours a week, numourous phone bills, fuel bills. based on 9 month season, works out at €14 an hour before you have paid for fuel, phone, and other expenses (washing your coaching gear etc.)

10k does not really go very far. I have never been paid, but I have turned down paid gigs, because the money does not actually go that far. It pretty much just breaks even if there is any length of travel between home and the club.

Lets not begrudge guys. Many clubs don't have the expertise within the club to develop, and if you get a good coach in he can have positive repercussions through a club for years in the future.

The Lost Sheep

Shelflife wrote: »

But there are plenty other coaches in the club that give up their time and give a lot of their time too.

I just found it odd that a J1 team would require a paid coach, I know I wouldn't he happy paying subs if I knew the coach was pocketing 10k.

Just to be clear, there's no senior team attached to the club, it's just a big standard junior team.

Have to say I was shocked when I heard it.

Of course there is other coaches but the j1 team in junior club is main team and if team is aiming for promotion to senior ranks then they will want to get the best as its long season for promotion as there's 14-18 games in league(more or less depending on province).
High ranking j1 teams are same level or better than lower level senior teams in 2B and put in same work. Wouldn't be shocked about it..

Losty Dublin

Shelflife wrote: »

But there are plenty other coaches in the club that give up their time and give a lot of their time too.

I just found it odd that a J1 team would require a paid coach, I know I wouldn't he happy paying subs if I knew the coach was pocketing 10k.

Just to be clear, there's no senior team attached to the club, it's just a big standard junior team.

Have to say I was shocked when I heard it.

It's not all about the level of the teams, to be fair. For most clubs it's about moving the game within the club to a higher level as a whole. If your junior clubs wants the players to become more skilful, to be educated about the game better, to become better athletes as a whole and to be able to play the game better and to maximise enjoyent, sooner or later a club will need to look for better trained coaches or players who played the game at a higher level or fitness coaches. Most junior clubs don't have players or coaches within their membership so we need to look outside; I know my club hasn't got this luxury.

astonaidan

boredatwork82 wrote: »

I think most J1A coaches get between 10-15k in a brown envelope.
If they are local guys they might get less as the travel and expenses will be far less.
In reality, if you want a coach to drive 1 and a half to and from training twice a week and also to a match.

Assuming drive time of an hour

Tuesday & Thursday nights 1 hour driving to training , 30 mins prep, 1.5 hrs training, 15-20 mins tidy up and chat to players, 1 hour drive home

That is about 4.3 hours per night x 2 = 8.6 hrs.

Match day = 1 hour drive(sometimes more or less based on location /home/away)
30 min prep, 1 hour warm up, game 2 hours, tidy up chat, after match civilities say 1 hour, drive home 1 hour. That totals 6.5 hours.

Add into that selection discussions with management and chatting to players re:injurie, feedback,selection etc. add in another 3 hours a week.

These are all at the lower end of the scale, and based on my own experience.

This totals 18 hours a week, numourous phone bills, fuel bills. based on 9 month season, works out at €14 an hour before you have paid for fuel, phone, and other expenses (washing your coaching gear etc.)

10k does not really go very far. I have never been paid, but I have turned down paid gigs, because the money does not actually go that far. It pretty much just breaks even if there is any length of travel between home and the club.

Lets not begrudge guys. Many clubs don't have the expertise within the club to develop, and if you get a good coach in he can have positive repercussions through a club for years in the future.

100% agree, I had planned on not playing for my local team this year if they had done what they did last year when we had a local lad in charge of the club it became a buddies team.
New lad came in this year, young lads all playing, a lot of older players have left as they werent going to be 100% starters.
New coach telling lads to try reffing if they show interest in game, coaching etc, never would have happened last year