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Post by Mickmack on Apr 12, 2022 7:34:26 GMT
Declan Bogue
April 12 2022 02:30 AM
With the earliest start of the Ulster Championship ever coming down the tracks, beginning with Tyrone launching their defence of their Ulster and All-Ireland crowns this Saturday against Fermanagh, Red Hand legend Peter Canavan describes the pessimism in his own county.
This is not the usual cute stuff you can expect from other counties long famous for it. Tyrone have always gone their own way in thought and deed and never passed an opportunity to talk themselves up.
With no fewer than seven of last year’s panel having departed either ahead of or during this season, Canavan is hoping some new talents and new leaders emerge, in a way that was vital to their 2021 success.
“At the start of last year, you couldn’t say with any certainty that Cathal McShane would make the impact he did off the bench,” he says. “Or that Darragh (Canavan) would come in, as he was injured. You couldn’t have said that at the start of the year either.
“So you are hoping that there are players who are going to step up. It’s hard to see where they are at the minute but there are plenty of players there on that panel that Feargal (Logan) and Brian (Dooher) are going to have to get the best out of.”
That is debatable. Last year, Tyrone had established players such as Tiernan McCann to come off the bench. Mark Bradley started the Ulster final. Others such as Ronan O’Neill, Paul Donaghy, Michael Cassidy and Lee Brennan raised the standards in training even if they mightn’t have been central figures on match-day.
Coming up against that is the indisputable sense that Ulster football has rarely been so evenly balanced. Tyrone, Armagh, Donegal and Monaghan all survived with varying levels of difficulty in Division 1 this year. With Derry just a referee decision away from promotion themselves, there is little separating five of the teams.
“It’s notoriously tough to win it anyway. But now you have Armagh and Derry emerging as serious competitors. Armagh have proven that in Division 1. A lot of people maybe expected they would be the ones going down, not expecting them to compete for a place in the final on the last game,” says Canavan.
What will hearten Tyrone fans is how they finished the league, with wins over Mayo and Kerry when they were badly needed.
“And again, typical of Tyrone in many regards, when their backs are to the wall they come up with the goods,” he states.
“(They) defeated Mayo and it wasn’t a breathtaking performance. They did enough to get over the line. Kerry was another step up but I think you need to put an asterisk beside that victory because Kerry didn’t need to win it.
“That doesn’t take away from a number of good performances from Tyrone and they didn’t realise they didn’t have to win it but they got the job done, so that was good.”
After Tyrone had four players red-carded for their part in a melee against Armagh on the opening day of the league, Canavan has no issue with headlocks bringing an automatic red card, but has appealed for consistency from referees.
“We have just witnessed in the National League, and it is nothing new, it is just from one referee to another, there is still a big gap in the standard of refereeing. Some referees do it to the letter of the law. Some apply their own outlook on it.
“But if headlocks are a straight red, and it is dangerous to an opponent, then absolutely, I have no problem with that. As long as it is applied consistently.
“There are other issues. The amount of pulling that goes on against key players when they are targeted. This is a problem in the sport, not just Tyrone players, who are targeted off the ball and as soon as the player reacts, or tries to throw an opponent off, he is the one that ends up punished.
“Umpires and officials have got to be doing more to make the job of the referee easier.”
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 13, 2022 8:37:52 GMT
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Post by southward on Apr 13, 2022 8:47:25 GMT
“There are other issues. The amount of pulling that goes on against key players when they are targeted. This is a problem in the sport, not just Tyrone players, who are targeted off the ball and as soon as the player reacts, or tries to throw an opponent off, he is the one that ends up punished.
“Umpires and officials have got to be doing more to make the job of the referee easier.” ************************************************************************************************
Canavan says it's not just Tyrone who are victims of the dark arts. Lol
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Post by givehimaball on Apr 13, 2022 9:37:24 GMT
Also, i see where Rian oNeill is no longer suspended. Huge positive news for Armagh Yet another example of how weak the GAA disciplinary system is with only 5 suspended between the 2 teams. The fact that O'Neill's suspension was over-turned on a procedural issue really doesn't inspire confidence in those running things.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 13, 2022 21:16:44 GMT
Gaelic Life Mast
Joe Brolly
GET BACK HERE...Tyrone got the better of Kerry in an impressive display in Killarney
The difference between the Red Hands and the Kingdom Posted: 11:01 am April 10, 2022 SHARE
AFTER Sunday, Kerry have been installed as favourites to win Sam, but I am not so sure. I was ridiculed in 2013 for saying the Kerry production line had dried up. Since then, they have won one All-Ireland, in 2014, a fortunate one. Kieran Donaghy rose above the jitters to score the winning goal. Almost a decade on and they are no closer to winning Sam. In 2019, they were two up against 14-man Dublin with five minutes to go and couldn’t drive on. Last year, when it mattered, they wilted against Tyrone in the semi-final. As they showed that day, they are close to a one-man team.
Only David Clifford took the fight to the northern anarchists, putting on one of the greatest ever Croke Park performances in a losing cause. When he got injured from a hospital pass that was that. Tyrone were too serious. Too defiant. Too together. As my brother Proinsias (the air guitar expert) is fond of remarking, “Football in Tyrone is an expression of who they are. That is why they can beat anybody.”
As Kieran McGeary said before last year’s final when he was asked what motivated the group, “You don’t need motivation when you are playing for Tyrone.”
Mayo on the other hand, are not sure who they are or what they stand for. Is playing for them a commercial opportunity? Is it for the good of Mayo? Is there a greater cause? Is glorious failure enough? Are All-Stars and Player of the Year Awards on the mantelpiece sufficient?
‘Winning Time, The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’, airing on Sky Atlantic, charts how a franchise that had become used to losing became winners. Jerry West, the legendary Los Angeles Laker from the ’60s, played in six NBA finals series against the Boston Celtics and lost them all. In the last of those, 1969, he was awarded finals MVP. His autobiography, ‘West on West, My Charmed Tormented Life’, documents how those serial losses wrapped him in a shroud for the rest of his life.
In the TV series, as Lakers head coach (briefly) he is shown going into a terrible rage in his office and smashing his MVP trophy off the walls. As the gold basketball breaks off and rolls along his office floor, he mutters “I’m a f**king loser.” When the extravagant physicist turned entrepreneur Dr Jerry Buss bought the Lakers and Magic Johnson (he picked 19-year-old Magic up at the airport and brought him straight to an orgy at the playboy mansion), West walked straight into Buss’s office and resigned as Head Coach. “I’m a loser. I can’t coach this team. Get someone who can.”
Larry Bird (described by Magic as “the greatest basketballer that ever lived”) said once “I never learned anything by losing.” The usual line is that you learn more from losing. If that were true, Mayo would have won several All-Irelands by now. Perhaps the truth is that losing conditions you to lose. Perhaps losing becomes a habit (like winning) and the longer the losing streak, the more that essential spirit of defiance is eroded. Perhaps losing becomes comfortable and unsurprising. I cannot speak from experience, as I was fortunate to play on winning teams at club and county level.
Like Jerry West, this shroud of losers hangs around Mayo and it was clear long ago that this group is doomed. I said to Kieran McGeary at a MND night in Cargin a few months ago, you must have been delighted when you knew you’d be playing Mayo in the final. He smiled, and said “No comment.” Like Jerry’s Lakers, Mayo have provided great entertainment. Every game is an event. They have played in at least three of the greatest All-Ireland finals and replays ever seen, never mind some of the greatest semi-finals. In this year’s league they have again been very exciting.
But very exciting is as good as it is going to get for them. Perhaps Mayo’s services to Gaelic football are a good enough legacy for some of them. I doubt if it is enough to sustain Lee Keegan or David Clarke or Colm Boyle. Passengers must be culled, as without trust, a winning team cannot be built, but this has never happened. Bird again “Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you’re not giving it all you’ve got.”
James Horan had tough choices to make but he never made them. He is complicit in the creation of this decade of failure.
BOSS…Joe Brolly feels Mayo manager James Horgan is complicit in the creation of this decade of failure.
Winning teams are serious. They make decisive contributions when it matters most. Tyrone’s goals in last year’s semi-final and final. Dublin in every one of their All-Ireland years. Think of the 2016 replay. Mayo were two up. Connolly had been destroyed by Keegan up until that moment (Keegan had actually scored a goal). It didn’t matter. Diarmuid drove the penalty firmly to the corner of the net. The Dubs won by a single point. This is what winners do.
Again, in the 2018 final, Dublin were three behind. Penalty. Mannion was delayed by the Tyrone bucks for three minutes but didn’t let it bother him and calmly drove it to the net. Connolly was asked about that penalty afterwards. He said “We weren’t here to defend Sam Maguire. We were here to attack the game and win it. When I take a penalty I just take a breath, put it in the corner, put it away. That’s all it is.” Creating opportunities and missing them is not an excuse. It is a structural defect.
In 2020, Jim Gavin, referring to the five in-a-row drawn game, said “the team will fall to the level of preparation and training I have put into them. All-Ireland final, a point down, a man down, five in-a-row on the line. How well they perform is how well they have trained. You can make tactical adjustments on the sideline, but in reality you have very little influence. It’s up to the players.”
The manager establishes the culture. He must ruthlessly make decisions based on the good of the team. Diarmuid Connolly, for example, was gone by 2018 and returned a year later, as a bit player who was barely used. In most other counties he would have played until he retired. Kerry don’t look much different than last year to me. They solo run too much. They are heavily reliant on Clifford. They had it all their own way against a really badly organised Mayo team (the last time Clifford was left one v one was in the 2017 minor final against us and he scored 4-4) which is just the way they like it. A week earlier, the Independent Peoples Republic of Tyrone sent their boys down to Kerry and they were too tough and too serious for them.
Glory is great. Winning is closure. My great friend Fergal McCusker summed it up when his club Glen finally won the Derry Senior title in 2021 after 89 years. 89 long years when they were ridiculed as “losers” ( one well known coach labelled them “ the yellowest team I’ve ever seen”) and “chokers”. Out on the pitch, holding his young boy in his arms, beaming, Fergal was asked what this meant. He told the BBC “It means I can go into any bar or club house in Ireland and hold my head up high. It means self respect. No one can ever call us losers again.”
Pat Riley took over as Lakers Head Coach in 1981 and established a ruthless, winning culture. They went on to win five championships. Jerry West still lives with his nightmares. Tyrone will not have to live with theirs.
Will Kerry?
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fitz
Fanatical Member
Red sky at night get off my land
Posts: 1,719
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Post by fitz on Apr 13, 2022 22:00:53 GMT
He is anti-Kerry but pro Clifford. Everything is black or white and he doubles down on the same points repeatedly. Solo too much wtf? Kerry lost Clifford and scored last 4 scores of that semi final. Tyrone were hanging on. His views are always very selective and provocative and that’s how he likes it. Agreed that he a just point about us not being able to win Sam, yet.
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Post by sullyschoice on Apr 13, 2022 22:05:31 GMT
He is an insufferable individual.
The match in Killarney meant nothing in real terms. We had qualified. Would have been nice to win but it didn't matter.
His famous one in a row Derry team didn't exactly create a dynasty.
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Post by brucewayne on Apr 13, 2022 22:07:57 GMT
Saw this.
The only passage that stood out for me was:
Perhaps losing becomes comfortable and unsurprising. I cannot speak from experience, as I was fortunate to play on winning teams at club and county level.
Way to sound like an obnoxious git Joe.
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Post by sullyschoice on Apr 13, 2022 23:39:00 GMT
He will turn on Turone again when they do their usual of not winning Back to Back Championships
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Post by Ballyfireside on Apr 14, 2022 3:12:53 GMT
A winning team is the best and Joe tells us what we know, i.e. why they won, and the comment re him being a barrister is more of it.
I am now beginning to see him as a 100% bullsh1tter.
'Football in Tyrone is an expression of who they are' just like any team, and 'that is why they can beat anybody' applies, well to whoever wins.
The only scintilla of Joe fact is that, yes, when Tyrone have the goods they close out games and while they are resilient, much of that is down to leadership. Did Mayo lose games when they were the best - does the scoreboard lie?
Teams find their mojo, that belief, and drive on from there; and whoever has the most physical and mental fuel prevails. Tyrone don't win ever game so they can't just beat anybody.
One thing Joe cannot do is analyse a game objectively and which includes anticipating, say at HT how it might play out.
He nit-picks to the extent that he sounds like he understands what he is talking about, like an 'expert' on anything, tells you everything about a tiny irrelevant aspect.
I enjoy his laughs but Benny Hill and Del Boy are better.
I know many Tyrone, and indeed Derry lads who are most interesting and knowledgeable on all things GAA - Tyrone folk have a different way of looking at teams and it is makes for great auld chats - my Tyrone barber should be on TSG.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 14, 2022 10:43:43 GMT
Brolly doesnt mention the big elephant in the room about Tyrone.
Their panel has been depleted a lot since 2021. There is talk of a number of u20s being called up.
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kerryexile
Fanatical Member
Whether you believe that you can, or that you can't, you are right anyway.
Posts: 1,124
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Post by kerryexile on Apr 14, 2022 16:00:42 GMT
“There are other issues. The amount of pulling that goes on against key players when they are targeted. This is a problem in the sport, not just Tyrone players, who are targeted off the ball and as soon as the player reacts, or tries to throw an opponent off, he is the one that ends up punished.
“Umpires and officials have got to be doing more to make the job of the referee easier.”************************************************************************************************ Canavan says it's not just Tyrone who are victims of the dark arts. Lol ...and the world turns......as Elvis told us.. Canavan now has strong views on minding "key players" who are "targeted off the ball". Some of his own success was built on having Colm Cooper stretched on the pitch for five minutes in an AIF because of an off the ball incident. So now that Canavan Junior has announced himself as a classy corner forward who is about 5' 9" and and eleven stone Canavan senior has got a brain transplant and sees things completely differently.
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exiled
Senior Member
Posts: 313
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Post by exiled on Apr 14, 2022 22:37:38 GMT
Gaelic Life Mast Joe Brolly GET BACK HERE...Tyrone got the better of Kerry in an impressive display in Killarney The difference between the Red Hands and the Kingdom Posted: 11:01 am April 10, 2022 SHARE AFTER Sunday, Kerry have been installed as favourites to win Sam, but I am not so sure. I was ridiculed in 2013 for saying the Kerry production line had dried up. Since then, they have won one All-Ireland, in 2014, a fortunate one. Kieran Donaghy rose above the jitters to score the winning goal. Almost a decade on and they are no closer to winning Sam. In 2019, they were two up against 14-man Dublin with five minutes to go and couldn’t drive on. Last year, when it mattered, they wilted against Tyrone in the semi-final. As they showed that day, they are close to a one-man team. Only David Clifford took the fight to the northern anarchists, putting on one of the greatest ever Croke Park performances in a losing cause. When he got injured from a hospital pass that was that. Tyrone were too serious. Too defiant. Too together. As my brother Proinsias (the air guitar expert) is fond of remarking, “Football in Tyrone is an expression of who they are. That is why they can beat anybody.” As Kieran McGeary said before last year’s final when he was asked what motivated the group, “You don’t need motivation when you are playing for Tyrone.” Mayo on the other hand, are not sure who they are or what they stand for. Is playing for them a commercial opportunity? Is it for the good of Mayo? Is there a greater cause? Is glorious failure enough? Are All-Stars and Player of the Year Awards on the mantelpiece sufficient? ‘Winning Time, The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’, airing on Sky Atlantic, charts how a franchise that had become used to losing became winners. Jerry West, the legendary Los Angeles Laker from the ’60s, played in six NBA finals series against the Boston Celtics and lost them all. In the last of those, 1969, he was awarded finals MVP. His autobiography, ‘West on West, My Charmed Tormented Life’, documents how those serial losses wrapped him in a shroud for the rest of his life. In the TV series, as Lakers head coach (briefly) he is shown going into a terrible rage in his office and smashing his MVP trophy off the walls. As the gold basketball breaks off and rolls along his office floor, he mutters “I’m a f**king loser.” When the extravagant physicist turned entrepreneur Dr Jerry Buss bought the Lakers and Magic Johnson (he picked 19-year-old Magic up at the airport and brought him straight to an orgy at the playboy mansion), West walked straight into Buss’s office and resigned as Head Coach. “I’m a loser. I can’t coach this team. Get someone who can.” Larry Bird (described by Magic as “the greatest basketballer that ever lived”) said once “I never learned anything by losing.” The usual line is that you learn more from losing. If that were true, Mayo would have won several All-Irelands by now. Perhaps the truth is that losing conditions you to lose. Perhaps losing becomes a habit (like winning) and the longer the losing streak, the more that essential spirit of defiance is eroded. Perhaps losing becomes comfortable and unsurprising. I cannot speak from experience, as I was fortunate to play on winning teams at club and county level. Like Jerry West, this shroud of losers hangs around Mayo and it was clear long ago that this group is doomed. I said to Kieran McGeary at a MND night in Cargin a few months ago, you must have been delighted when you knew you’d be playing Mayo in the final. He smiled, and said “No comment.” Like Jerry’s Lakers, Mayo have provided great entertainment. Every game is an event. They have played in at least three of the greatest All-Ireland finals and replays ever seen, never mind some of the greatest semi-finals. In this year’s league they have again been very exciting. But very exciting is as good as it is going to get for them. Perhaps Mayo’s services to Gaelic football are a good enough legacy for some of them. I doubt if it is enough to sustain Lee Keegan or David Clarke or Colm Boyle. Passengers must be culled, as without trust, a winning team cannot be built, but this has never happened. Bird again “Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you’re not giving it all you’ve got.” James Horan had tough choices to make but he never made them. He is complicit in the creation of this decade of failure. BOSS…Joe Brolly feels Mayo manager James Horgan is complicit in the creation of this decade of failure. Winning teams are serious. They make decisive contributions when it matters most. Tyrone’s goals in last year’s semi-final and final. Dublin in every one of their All-Ireland years. Think of the 2016 replay. Mayo were two up. Connolly had been destroyed by Keegan up until that moment (Keegan had actually scored a goal). It didn’t matter. Diarmuid drove the penalty firmly to the corner of the net. The Dubs won by a single point. This is what winners do. Again, in the 2018 final, Dublin were three behind. Penalty. Mannion was delayed by the Tyrone bucks for three minutes but didn’t let it bother him and calmly drove it to the net. Connolly was asked about that penalty afterwards. He said “We weren’t here to defend Sam Maguire. We were here to attack the game and win it. When I take a penalty I just take a breath, put it in the corner, put it away. That’s all it is.” Creating opportunities and missing them is not an excuse. It is a structural defect. In 2020, Jim Gavin, referring to the five in-a-row drawn game, said “the team will fall to the level of preparation and training I have put into them. All-Ireland final, a point down, a man down, five in-a-row on the line. How well they perform is how well they have trained. You can make tactical adjustments on the sideline, but in reality you have very little influence. It’s up to the players.” The manager establishes the culture. He must ruthlessly make decisions based on the good of the team. Diarmuid Connolly, for example, was gone by 2018 and returned a year later, as a bit player who was barely used. In most other counties he would have played until he retired. Kerry don’t look much different than last year to me. They solo run too much. They are heavily reliant on Clifford. They had it all their own way against a really badly organised Mayo team (the last time Clifford was left one v one was in the 2017 minor final against us and he scored 4-4) which is just the way they like it. A week earlier, the Independent Peoples Republic of Tyrone sent their boys down to Kerry and they were too tough and too serious for them. Glory is great. Winning is closure. My great friend Fergal McCusker summed it up when his club Glen finally won the Derry Senior title in 2021 after 89 years. 89 long years when they were ridiculed as “losers” ( one well known coach labelled them “ the yellowest team I’ve ever seen”) and “chokers”. Out on the pitch, holding his young boy in his arms, beaming, Fergal was asked what this meant. He told the BBC “It means I can go into any bar or club house in Ireland and hold my head up high. It means self respect. No one can ever call us losers again.” Pat Riley took over as Lakers Head Coach in 1981 and established a ruthless, winning culture. They went on to win five championships. Jerry West still lives with his nightmares. Tyrone will not have to live with theirs. Will Kerry? I'm not a fan of Brolly as a pundit but sometimes he makes good points and until we win Sam again it's hard to argue against his point. Are you sure you haven't changed sides. And you think Cork players are right to refuse to not play except Pairc ui Rinn.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 14, 2022 22:54:43 GMT
What is the goal? Bigger, better, faster, stronger?
Acclaimed fitness coach Joe O'Connor has witnessed first hand the trends and techniques use in preparing elite GAA teams over the past decade
THU, 14 APR, 2022 - 22:00 CATHAL DENNEHY How big is too big? How fast is too fast? And where, in the recipe for building a champion player, does an intercounty strength and conditioning coach strike the right balance?
Joe O’Connor has spent two decades trying to figure that out, working with a who’s-who of top-level GAA talent, from the Kerry footballers of 2011 to the All-Ireland-winning Clare hurlers of 2013 to the Limerick hurlers of 2018 – building the all-round athletes who are as renowned for their strength and speed as they are for their skill.
These days, O’Connor is “semi-retired” from intercounty GAA work, though he still trains some individuals alongside his day job as a lecturer at Munster Technological University (MTU) and the running of his Tralee-based company, Nisus Fitness. Having been at the coalface of GAA strength and conditioning for 17 years, how has he seen the pendulum swing between speed and strength in that time?
“It’s gone in circles,” says O’Connor. “For a period hurling and football came closer together and then moved further apart. Where we’re back to now is that rather than focusing on size and bulk, we’re getting back to the fundamentals of functions.
“There was a period teams were focusing on mass, then they were focused on speed. But we’ve progressed by stepping back and asking: What are the demands of the sport? We’ve realised: strength and conditioning is not the be-all and end-all. It’s a supplementary part of your preparation that allows you to play the sport injury-free at a high level.”
O’Connor noticed the “bigger is better” trend across both codes from 2010 to 2015, while he believes hurling has become particularly obsessed with the need for speed. O’Connor counts himself “very lucky” to have worked under Limerick coach Paul Kinnerk who “always went with the integrated approach”, with the prime objective of getting clear outcomes from a session and the secondary objective of making the volume as low as possible.
“It’s a cliche, but going for the minimal effective dose,” says O’Connor. “Sometimes players spend too much time on strength and conditioning.”
Several teams have utilised sprints coaches over the last decade to improve players’ running mechanics, and while O’Connor’s background is in athletics he’s sceptical of how much benefit it provides on the pitch.
“My attitude with speed is that you have to be fast enough,” he says. “What I mean is if you’ve a really, really fast forward, but they go so fast they can’t decelerate or change direction, it kind of defeats the purpose. When you look at GPS data, players might make 40-50 sprints in the game in zone-four speed but you don’t hit max velocity that often. If you do hit max velocity, you probably outrun the pass or run out of space or are going so fast that you can’t execute the skills of the game.”
As such, his approach is to develop “sport-specific, position-specific speed.”
The key target is not maximal speed but optimal speed for skill execution. “Can you do this fast and maintain very high levels of skill?”
With intercounty teams he integrated running mechanics training into every warm-up. “You’d do 80-100 sessions a year so my philosophy was: if I do six to eight minutes of mechanics, speed-based work in every session, that’s a hell of a lot over a season. If you do that with a player over two to three years, you can have a massive impact.”
When it comes to strength, O’Connor followed a similar long-term plan. When a player joined a senior panel around the age of 20, O’Connor always asked them to think of physical development as an Olympic cycle – laying out a four-year plan to progress strength, speed and power metrics.
The number one goal was not a hulking chest or arms that could wallop an opponent into next week.
“For me strength training is about function, injury-prevention and thirdly performance. We start with good movement quality. The athlete has to move well before you start adding strength, mass or power.”
O’Connor knows hamstring tears remain the most common injury so his focus was on posterior chain work like deadlifts and hip thrusts in the off-season because “it prevents injury, and also because there’s a direct correlation between posterior chain strength and horizontal displacement, which is the key to acceleration.”
When players became obsessed with a certain metric – like better acceleration or upper-body strength – O’Connor got them to imagine their development like a DJ’s decks: “You’ve all the dials and if you push one to the max, it’ll mess up everything. You can’t have outliers and just focus on strength or speed or injury-prevention – they have to tie together.”
By using DEXA scans to monitor players’ relative skeletal muscle index (RSMI), they’d identify what players could benefit from putting on mass, their gym and nutrition programmes lining up to achieve that.
“But you’re looking at all ingredients from a helicopter view, as opposed to obsessing over one.” Of course, a player’s S&C programme always depends on their needs, and with the Waterford hurlers in 2010, O’Connor’s work with elder statesmen like Dan Shanahan, Ken McGrath, Tony Browne and John Mullane was not about speed, power or explosiveness, but maintaining longevity.
When he looks at Limerick – the towering trendsetters of hurling, with its seemingly endless production line of top-tier players – O’Connor cites the influence of Darragh Droog, the head of youth athletic performance.
“He does phenomenal work developing players athletically from when they come in at 14 all the way through. He sees the long-term picture, looks at their growth maturity levels, trains and prepares them for when they’re ready. It’s not just strength and conditioning Darragh influences, it’s the culture in terms of timekeeping, hydration. It’s not a shock for young players when they step into the senior or U21 setup.”
As such, it seems unlikely the success of O’Connor’s native county will stop anytime soon.
As for the future of strength and conditioning in GAA, O’Connor knows it’s a different world to what he grew up in.
“For young players, the gym is the new night club,” he says. “That’s both a positive and something we need to be aware of. I’d be very conscious of the influence of social media and the information that’s put out to young players by people that are clearly not regulated. The gym culture is very positive, but we have to be careful we don’t overdo it. It’s very much supplementary to the core technical and tactical attributes of the sport. It’s not the shortcut to the top.”
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 16, 2022 20:33:50 GMT
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Post by taggert on Apr 17, 2022 8:17:09 GMT
What is the goal? Bigger, better, faster, stronger? Acclaimed fitness coach Joe O'Connor has witnessed first hand the trends and techniques use in preparing elite GAA teams over the past decade THU, 14 APR, 2022 - 22:00 CATHAL DENNEHY How big is too big? How fast is too fast? And where, in the recipe for building a champion player, does an intercounty strength and conditioning coach strike the right balance? Joe O’Connor has spent two decades trying to figure that out, working with a who’s-who of top-level GAA talent, from the Kerry footballers of 2011 to the All-Ireland-winning Clare hurlers of 2013 to the Limerick hurlers of 2018 – building the all-round athletes who are as renowned for their strength and speed as they are for their skill. These days, O’Connor is “semi-retired” from intercounty GAA work, though he still trains some individuals alongside his day job as a lecturer at Munster Technological University (MTU) and the running of his Tralee-based company, Nisus Fitness. Having been at the coalface of GAA strength and conditioning for 17 years, how has he seen the pendulum swing between speed and strength in that time? “It’s gone in circles,” says O’Connor. “For a period hurling and football came closer together and then moved further apart. Where we’re back to now is that rather than focusing on size and bulk, we’re getting back to the fundamentals of functions. “There was a period teams were focusing on mass, then they were focused on speed. But we’ve progressed by stepping back and asking: What are the demands of the sport? We’ve realised: strength and conditioning is not the be-all and end-all. It’s a supplementary part of your preparation that allows you to play the sport injury-free at a high level.” O’Connor noticed the “bigger is better” trend across both codes from 2010 to 2015, while he believes hurling has become particularly obsessed with the need for speed. O’Connor counts himself “very lucky” to have worked under Limerick coach Paul Kinnerk who “always went with the integrated approach”, with the prime objective of getting clear outcomes from a session and the secondary objective of making the volume as low as possible. “It’s a cliche, but going for the minimal effective dose,” says O’Connor. “Sometimes players spend too much time on strength and conditioning.” Several teams have utilised sprints coaches over the last decade to improve players’ running mechanics, and while O’Connor’s background is in athletics he’s sceptical of how much benefit it provides on the pitch. “My attitude with speed is that you have to be fast enough,” he says. “What I mean is if you’ve a really, really fast forward, but they go so fast they can’t decelerate or change direction, it kind of defeats the purpose. When you look at GPS data, players might make 40-50 sprints in the game in zone-four speed but you don’t hit max velocity that often. If you do hit max velocity, you probably outrun the pass or run out of space or are going so fast that you can’t execute the skills of the game.” As such, his approach is to develop “sport-specific, position-specific speed.” The key target is not maximal speed but optimal speed for skill execution. “Can you do this fast and maintain very high levels of skill?” With intercounty teams he integrated running mechanics training into every warm-up. “You’d do 80-100 sessions a year so my philosophy was: if I do six to eight minutes of mechanics, speed-based work in every session, that’s a hell of a lot over a season. If you do that with a player over two to three years, you can have a massive impact.” When it comes to strength, O’Connor followed a similar long-term plan. When a player joined a senior panel around the age of 20, O’Connor always asked them to think of physical development as an Olympic cycle – laying out a four-year plan to progress strength, speed and power metrics. The number one goal was not a hulking chest or arms that could wallop an opponent into next week. “For me strength training is about function, injury-prevention and thirdly performance. We start with good movement quality. The athlete has to move well before you start adding strength, mass or power.” O’Connor knows hamstring tears remain the most common injury so his focus was on posterior chain work like deadlifts and hip thrusts in the off-season because “it prevents injury, and also because there’s a direct correlation between posterior chain strength and horizontal displacement, which is the key to acceleration.” When players became obsessed with a certain metric – like better acceleration or upper-body strength – O’Connor got them to imagine their development like a DJ’s decks: “You’ve all the dials and if you push one to the max, it’ll mess up everything. You can’t have outliers and just focus on strength or speed or injury-prevention – they have to tie together.” By using DEXA scans to monitor players’ relative skeletal muscle index (RSMI), they’d identify what players could benefit from putting on mass, their gym and nutrition programmes lining up to achieve that. “But you’re looking at all ingredients from a helicopter view, as opposed to obsessing over one.” Of course, a player’s S&C programme always depends on their needs, and with the Waterford hurlers in 2010, O’Connor’s work with elder statesmen like Dan Shanahan, Ken McGrath, Tony Browne and John Mullane was not about speed, power or explosiveness, but maintaining longevity. When he looks at Limerick – the towering trendsetters of hurling, with its seemingly endless production line of top-tier players – O’Connor cites the influence of Darragh Droog, the head of youth athletic performance. “He does phenomenal work developing players athletically from when they come in at 14 all the way through. He sees the long-term picture, looks at their growth maturity levels, trains and prepares them for when they’re ready. It’s not just strength and conditioning Darragh influences, it’s the culture in terms of timekeeping, hydration. It’s not a shock for young players when they step into the senior or U21 setup.” As such, it seems unlikely the success of O’Connor’s native county will stop anytime soon. As for the future of strength and conditioning in GAA, O’Connor knows it’s a different world to what he grew up in. “For young players, the gym is the new night club,” he says. “That’s both a positive and something we need to be aware of. I’d be very conscious of the influence of social media and the information that’s put out to young players by people that are clearly not regulated. The gym culture is very positive, but we have to be careful we don’t overdo it. It’s very much supplementary to the core technical and tactical attributes of the sport. It’s not the shortcut to the top.” The segment in here about speed and max velocity is interesting with regard to Gavin White - "going too fast to properly execute the skills of the game". How many times does a brilliant run of his end up with a nearly moment or with him being poleaxed?
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Post by taggert on Apr 17, 2022 8:30:01 GMT
Gaelic Life Mast Joe Brolly GET BACK HERE...Tyrone got the better of Kerry in an impressive display in Killarney The difference between the Red Hands and the Kingdom Posted: 11:01 am April 10, 2022 SHARE AFTER Sunday, Kerry have been installed as favourites to win Sam, but I am not so sure. I was ridiculed in 2013 for saying the Kerry production line had dried up. Since then, they have won one All-Ireland, in 2014, a fortunate one. Kieran Donaghy rose above the jitters to score the winning goal. Almost a decade on and they are no closer to winning Sam. In 2019, they were two up against 14-man Dublin with five minutes to go and couldn’t drive on. Last year, when it mattered, they wilted against Tyrone in the semi-final. As they showed that day, they are close to a one-man team. Only David Clifford took the fight to the northern anarchists, putting on one of the greatest ever Croke Park performances in a losing cause. When he got injured from a hospital pass that was that. Tyrone were too serious. Too defiant. Too together. As my brother Proinsias (the air guitar expert) is fond of remarking, “Football in Tyrone is an expression of who they are. That is why they can beat anybody.” As Kieran McGeary said before last year’s final when he was asked what motivated the group, “You don’t need motivation when you are playing for Tyrone.” Mayo on the other hand, are not sure who they are or what they stand for. Is playing for them a commercial opportunity? Is it for the good of Mayo? Is there a greater cause? Is glorious failure enough? Are All-Stars and Player of the Year Awards on the mantelpiece sufficient? ‘Winning Time, The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’, airing on Sky Atlantic, charts how a franchise that had become used to losing became winners. Jerry West, the legendary Los Angeles Laker from the ’60s, played in six NBA finals series against the Boston Celtics and lost them all. In the last of those, 1969, he was awarded finals MVP. His autobiography, ‘West on West, My Charmed Tormented Life’, documents how those serial losses wrapped him in a shroud for the rest of his life. In the TV series, as Lakers head coach (briefly) he is shown going into a terrible rage in his office and smashing his MVP trophy off the walls. As the gold basketball breaks off and rolls along his office floor, he mutters “I’m a f**king loser.” When the extravagant physicist turned entrepreneur Dr Jerry Buss bought the Lakers and Magic Johnson (he picked 19-year-old Magic up at the airport and brought him straight to an orgy at the playboy mansion), West walked straight into Buss’s office and resigned as Head Coach. “I’m a loser. I can’t coach this team. Get someone who can.” Larry Bird (described by Magic as “the greatest basketballer that ever lived”) said once “I never learned anything by losing.” The usual line is that you learn more from losing. If that were true, Mayo would have won several All-Irelands by now. Perhaps the truth is that losing conditions you to lose. Perhaps losing becomes a habit (like winning) and the longer the losing streak, the more that essential spirit of defiance is eroded. Perhaps losing becomes comfortable and unsurprising. I cannot speak from experience, as I was fortunate to play on winning teams at club and county level. Like Jerry West, this shroud of losers hangs around Mayo and it was clear long ago that this group is doomed. I said to Kieran McGeary at a MND night in Cargin a few months ago, you must have been delighted when you knew you’d be playing Mayo in the final. He smiled, and said “No comment.” Like Jerry’s Lakers, Mayo have provided great entertainment. Every game is an event. They have played in at least three of the greatest All-Ireland finals and replays ever seen, never mind some of the greatest semi-finals. In this year’s league they have again been very exciting. But very exciting is as good as it is going to get for them. Perhaps Mayo’s services to Gaelic football are a good enough legacy for some of them. I doubt if it is enough to sustain Lee Keegan or David Clarke or Colm Boyle. Passengers must be culled, as without trust, a winning team cannot be built, but this has never happened. Bird again “Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you’re not giving it all you’ve got.” James Horan had tough choices to make but he never made them. He is complicit in the creation of this decade of failure. BOSS…Joe Brolly feels Mayo manager James Horgan is complicit in the creation of this decade of failure. Winning teams are serious. They make decisive contributions when it matters most. Tyrone’s goals in last year’s semi-final and final. Dublin in every one of their All-Ireland years. Think of the 2016 replay. Mayo were two up. Connolly had been destroyed by Keegan up until that moment (Keegan had actually scored a goal). It didn’t matter. Diarmuid drove the penalty firmly to the corner of the net. The Dubs won by a single point. This is what winners do. Again, in the 2018 final, Dublin were three behind. Penalty. Mannion was delayed by the Tyrone bucks for three minutes but didn’t let it bother him and calmly drove it to the net. Connolly was asked about that penalty afterwards. He said “We weren’t here to defend Sam Maguire. We were here to attack the game and win it. When I take a penalty I just take a breath, put it in the corner, put it away. That’s all it is.” Creating opportunities and missing them is not an excuse. It is a structural defect. In 2020, Jim Gavin, referring to the five in-a-row drawn game, said “the team will fall to the level of preparation and training I have put into them. All-Ireland final, a point down, a man down, five in-a-row on the line. How well they perform is how well they have trained. You can make tactical adjustments on the sideline, but in reality you have very little influence. It’s up to the players.” The manager establishes the culture. He must ruthlessly make decisions based on the good of the team. Diarmuid Connolly, for example, was gone by 2018 and returned a year later, as a bit player who was barely used. In most other counties he would have played until he retired. Kerry don’t look much different than last year to me. They solo run too much. They are heavily reliant on Clifford. They had it all their own way against a really badly organised Mayo team (the last time Clifford was left one v one was in the 2017 minor final against us and he scored 4-4) which is just the way they like it. A week earlier, the Independent Peoples Republic of Tyrone sent their boys down to Kerry and they were too tough and too serious for them. Glory is great. Winning is closure. My great friend Fergal McCusker summed it up when his club Glen finally won the Derry Senior title in 2021 after 89 years. 89 long years when they were ridiculed as “losers” ( one well known coach labelled them “ the yellowest team I’ve ever seen”) and “chokers”. Out on the pitch, holding his young boy in his arms, beaming, Fergal was asked what this meant. He told the BBC “It means I can go into any bar or club house in Ireland and hold my head up high. It means self respect. No one can ever call us losers again.” Pat Riley took over as Lakers Head Coach in 1981 and established a ruthless, winning culture. They went on to win five championships. Jerry West still lives with his nightmares. Tyrone will not have to live with theirs. Will Kerry? One may like or dislike the writer but until Kerry display the nous and mental fortitude to close out All Ireland semi's and final's that are in the melting pot, we run the risk of being this decades Mayo. Great entertainers but potless in the All Ireland. Blew it in '19, cracked in '20 and couldn't cope in '21. When it comes to the crunch, its up to the players to prove they aren't the one man team last years semi final suggested we were. Tyrone will happily slug out any game as long as they are ahead at the final whistle - they dont need or care about big winning margins as they are comfortable, like Dublin, going down the final straight neck and neck. Kerry are not. Its why people saying Kerry got the last 4 points v Tyrone or if only Clifford was there in extra time, in my mind are looking at this in the wrong way - Tyrone are only interested in doing enough to win. They dont give a hoot about the margin. This was also the hallmark of Dublin All Ireland wins - most if which were by a few points or lesd. It speaks to their resilience and mental fortitude and all round comfort in the clutch moments of games. This is what we have to prove in 2022.
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Post by dc84 on Apr 17, 2022 8:30:32 GMT
Standard enough victory for Tyrone fitness levels are just so pronounced between d3 and d1. By the sounds of it fermanagh could have got 4 goals though and McKenna got a straight red card after making a huge difference off the bench (thrid man in a melee). Imagine Derry will give them a bit more of a test before Tyrone pull away by 4 to 6 points. Still best team in Ulster by a bit I think.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 17, 2022 8:37:33 GMT
Tyrone brought no energy to the game in the first half. Their defense was easily breached.
They looked like a team who wanted to win this with the minimum effort. Maybe they are taking Eamonn Ryan's advise to drive slowly to save petrol.
They popped into 3rd gear and made the game safe in the first half.
McShane looks out of sorts though. He is not going well. McCurry was outstanding.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 17, 2022 8:42:58 GMT
I can't recall his exact words but Eamonn Fitzmaurice in his column after the league final said something along the lines that GW takes his solo runs 'a play too far'.... or something like that. I think his point is that he should stop running before running out of road and being shepherded into a cul de sac.
Of course the goal v Kildare came from one of his runs and he scored a goal v Mayo...thats the flip side.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 19, 2022 20:25:48 GMT
Armagh appealed all suspensions and all are now free to play.
Donegal opted to accept the suspensions of Neil Magee and Ferry so they cant play on Sunday.
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Post by brucewayne on Apr 19, 2022 22:17:58 GMT
Armagh appealed all suspensions and all are now free to play. Donegal opted to accept the suspensions of Neil Magee and Ferry so they cant play on Sunday. Not sure there is an apt adjective for the feeling you get when you see guys who are emotionally incontinent escaping the sanction that their behaviour has yielded by means of, I assume, some procedural technicality. It undermines the tools officials have for tackling an embarrasing aspect of football that should not be tolerated.
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Post by givehimaball on Apr 19, 2022 22:40:32 GMT
That's 4 suspensions from the Donegal game that Armagh have managed to get over-turned.
Yet again the GAA disciplinary system continues to be an absolute embarrassment.
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Post by sullyschoice on Apr 19, 2022 23:16:34 GMT
If I was the referee I would be posting my whistle back to Croke Park.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Apr 20, 2022 3:24:44 GMT
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 20, 2022 6:47:23 GMT
That's 4 suspensions from the Donegal game that Armagh have managed to get over-turned. Yet again the GAA disciplinary system continues to be an absolute embarrassment. Appealing is part of the process. Donegal will be kicking themselves that they didnt
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Post by southward on Apr 20, 2022 7:44:45 GMT
That's 4 suspensions from the Donegal game that Armagh have managed to get over-turned. Yet again the GAA disciplinary system continues to be an absolute embarrassment. Appealing is part of the process. Donegal will be kicking themselves that they didnt Absolutely they will. And it further shows up the folly of the take-our-medicine-we're-so-noble approach that our crowd are wont to practise. No problem if it was fair all round but all it ever gets us is suspensions while opponents scoot off on flimsy tecnicalities.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Apr 20, 2022 14:19:46 GMT
That's 4 suspensions from the Donegal game that Armagh have managed to get over-turned. Yet again the GAA disciplinary system continues to be an absolute embarrassment. Appealing is part of the process. Donegal will be kicking themselves that they didnt If the 4 Armagh laddos were innocent then surely the 2 Donegal boys they were wrestling with are also innocent - sure it never happened! GAA has done nothing here if to stoke up trouble and players now don't know where the line is, in fact the GAA don't as it can be moved once you get certain gombeens behind a desk who will take the bung. P.S. What now transpires is that there was insufficient evidence on the melee and so if they admit the Donegal boys are being wronged so they should reinstate them. This is all farcical, complete and utter shame on the GAA, assisting those who endanger players through violence.
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exiled
Senior Member
Posts: 313
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Post by exiled on Apr 20, 2022 20:35:07 GMT
Surely this will add fuel to fire. Donegal will really be fired up and Armagh may be a little complacent.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 20, 2022 22:23:29 GMT
Darragh is tipping Mayo to beat Galway
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