{"id":467710,"date":"2026-05-26T11:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/467710\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T11:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:53:08","slug":"former-ireland-striker-noel-hunt-appointed-among-fai-underage-coaching-restructure-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/467710\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ireland striker Noel Hunt appointed among FAI underage coaching restructure \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/republic-of-ireland-mnt\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/republic-of-ireland-mnt\">Republic of Ireland<\/a> international Noel Hunt is one of nine full-time coaches listed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/football-association-of-ireland-fai\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/football-association-of-ireland-fai\">FAI\u2019s<\/a> new underage coaching structure. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Hunt won three caps for Ireland before managerial roles at Swindon Town and Reading. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe innovative model will see five full-time international lead coaches \u2013 Noel Hunt, Chelsea Noonan, John Cotter, Keith O\u2019Halloran and James Scott \u2013 working alongside four full-time international coaches \u2013 Conor McCormack, Graham Gartland, Mark Connors and Richie Smith \u2013 across all teams, from under-15 up to under-19,\u201d read an FAI statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe structure has been designed to transition away from a traditional age-group model and instead create a more connected coaching team working across development phases, supporting player development and ensuring greater alignment throughout the pathway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Hunt is appointed alongside Noonan, who recently coached Birmingham City to promotion to the English Women\u2019s Super League, and League of Ireland stalwarts McCormack and Gartland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe wanted to build a full-time coaching structure that is more connected, collaborative and aligned across the pathway,\u201d said Shane Robinson, the FAI technical director. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">To avoid coaches stagnating with one underage team, as had been the case historically, the new appointments are operating on two-year contracts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe want our young players to experience a clear identity and level of support throughout their journey with our national teams, regardless of the age group,\u201d said John Martin, the FAI director of football. \u201cThrough these appointments, we\u2019ve brought together coaches with strong experience across the game and we believe this structure will create a stronger environment for both players and staff as we continue to strengthen the pathway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Republic of Ireland international Noel Hunt is one of nine full-time coaches listed in the FAI\u2019s new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13446,61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-467710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}