Welcome Niall Cully
Niall Cully, the Argyle Academy’s newest coaching recruit, says that challenging himself in a new environment was central to his decision to head to Home Park.
Dubliner Niall has swapped Ireland for Devon, and has been appointed as Argyle Under-13s lead coach, as well as assisting Under-18s manager Jamie Lowry.
Niall’s footballing journey, until now, has been in his homeland, but the highly qualified young coach is excited to take the opportunity to progress with Argyle.
“From a personal point of view, it's something completely different,” he told Argyle TV. “Outside of my comfort zone, leaving everything at home to come over. I think it was important to come and challenge myself.
“I started coaching quite young, around 16 or 17. I started at Crumlin United, went to St. Pat's, in the schoolboy section, then on to Cherry Orchard, which would have been a big schoolboy club. Along the way I was starting to do my coaching badges, and then got an opportunity to move to Drogheda United, in the League of Ireland, in the Academy section, under-17s.
“I completed my B Licence, A Licence, UEFA Licence, the whole way up. I got the opportunity to go to St Pat's Under-19s. I supported St Pat’s as a kid growing up; it's the only club I support.
“I got an opportunity to work there, and that's been amazing for the last six years. A lot of good players have played in the first team. Some boys have moved away to the likes of Udinese, Tottenham, Sheffield United, Bristol City.
“Some lads have gone on and done really well and progressed their career. We played in the UEFA Youth League, against Red Star Belgrade, in 2021. That was a fantastic experience. We probably should have won it over the two legs, but didn't.”
Cully’s decision to hop over the Irish Sea is obliviously a big one in his life, but he likened it to what the mind goes through for a young player when facing the reality that making it as a player might not be viable.
“I suppose you get to an age where you see whether you're good enough to be a professional,” he said. “I wasn't, so I wanted to be good enough to be a coach and learn from that. I got an opportunity to go in as an under-8s coach and that's probably still the hardest job that I've done in coaching!
“I’m in a privileged position to be able to do something that I love doing every day. I can't take that for granted. I'm not carrying cement blocks around or anything like that. It's just football every day; thinking of football, thinking of training sessions, watching games back. What's not to love, I suppose?
“[Plymouth] is not a million miles away from home. I'm not on the other side of the world or anything like that. It's a new experience, one that I'm really grateful to the club for giving me. I really want to progress here and be good, day-to-day.
“The people are brilliant; really nice, really welcoming, open. Nothing's been too much for anybody, which is good. The quality of the work that goes in, the commitment that goes in, you can see that, certainly from the coaches, the people above in the club as well. People genuinely care; that's been a real standout thing for me.
“And then the quality of the players as well. You can see they are technically very good from a young age, going and competing, with an appetite to win matches as well.
“I think it naturally challenges you because at under-13s [level], it's really important that they're coming to training smiling and enjoying it, and that they have a love for football.
“Not that that leaves them at under-18s - it shouldn't - but obviously there's that added pressure, I suppose, to be a really good young professional, to go and have a crack at the first team and sustain a career."
The full interview with Niall Cully can be watched now on Argyle TV
