The GAA season never really ends, does it?
The league is starting earlier than ever this year so that means so too is pre-season.
It’s a funny one, this whole GAA season because pre-season isn’t necessarily pre-season. The players want to be at their peak fitness when it comes to the championship so the tough running may not actually be done in January.
For example, Dublin know that they’ll be there or thereabouts come August and September so they want to be at their peak then rather than in the first week of February.
Somehow we're in a position where we've barely spoken about Cian O'Sullivan https://t.co/aLsKEvFkGi
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 30, 2017
Three-time All-Star Cian O’Sullivan told SportsJOE that Bryan Cullen and Dublin’s strength and conditioning team have been focusing on how to get the most out of the team:
“Last year we started out training a little later than previous years because we went on the team holiday after Christmas so that means we didn’t get back training until mid-January and within the space of a week or two weeks the league was starting so we didn’t get a chance to do that pre season stuff that we wanted to get done so throughout the league we were probably a little bit behind where other teams are,” O’Sullivan said.
“I guess the most important thing is being ready for championship and the most important thing was to get in the training blocks we needed to get up to the match fitness level that we needed.
“The guys would have pinpointed at the start of the year this is where we want to be on X date and that’s what teams are doing, that’s the level of strength and conditioning and preparations teams are going into.”
The Dublin players are looking likely to miss their pre-season tournament as they will be in South Africa on their team holiday after winning the All-Ireland so, just like last year, the O’Byrne Cup will be contested by their third team.
As O’Sullivan highlighted, it’s all about winning the All-Ireland so the league isn’t even of great importance. The O’Byrne Cup is a great way to unearth some new talent that can break through into the first team and that’s how Niall Scully was discovered this year.
Paul Flynn doesn’t see the problem in teams skipping the pre-season tournaments, or at least the championship squad:
“Last year it worked out so well with Niall Scully doing so well and he got an opportunity, took it into the league, took it into the championship and had a super year so if you can unearth talent through it that’s a good model,” he said at Coca-Cola’s designated driver campaign.
Every team will use these tournaments for different reasons, many counties won’t even participate. Tipperary have pulled out of the Munster League in both codes as well as Kerry in football but they definitely have their advantages.
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