Prosperous Utd has appointed Mal Watson as Senior Coach Director and Player Development at Prosperous Utd AFC. Mal Watson is a UEFA qualified coach and has coached for many years at various football clubs around Ireland but has spent the last six years coaching at grass root premier level at Cherry Orchard. Cherry Orchard is a highly decorated club and the only club in Ireland to win the Milk Cup (Super Cup NI) and as a club has developed the most International Players, most recently known Nathan Collins.
“Coaching is an incredible privilege to help players achieve their potential both as people and as players” says Mal.
In his first year Mal coached his team to win Cherry Orchard’s first league treble since its establishment in 1957. Eight of his Mal’s team also achieved representative squads for Dublin. Mal has also developed many players at Cherry Orchard on to professional level.
“You must first earn a players trust, they must trust that you will put in as much work as they will, treat players with respect, build their confidence and allow them to make mistakes, give them responsibility, encourage match realistic tempo and most importantly let them play.”
With regard to his role of helping coaches coach, Mal had this to say.
“Shared knowledge is crucial to the development of coaches which in turn develops players but it is also a must that coaches keep learning and completing courses with the FAI, at Grass Root level the courses aren’t that expensive and they don’t involve mountains of time. In my previous role as Manager and Coach knowledge was willingly shared with me. Mentors have played a vital role in my coaching life and given me a completely different perspective. I’ve been lucky enough to have had the likes of Terry Carroll, Paul Somers and UEFA Pro licence coach Aaron Callaghan as mentors. These mentors also made it possible for me also to have teachings from Eddie Van Schaick in charge of Youth Development at Ajax and Nick Marshall head of Academy football operations at Liverpool.
The same common thread runs through this exceptional coaches and mentors, transferable game realistic football practices. It will be my goal at Prosperous to make sure coaches develop with the end goal of developing players at Prosperous to an exceptional standard. All it needs is the will and we need more volunteers at the club. Help will be provided to any volunteer willing to get involved no matter how little time you can offer, we will help you achieve FAI licensing and all it takes is 2-3 hours a week and what a difference it would make to your community and you too could play your part in the development of the players here at the club. Get involved."
