DIFFERENT BREED…Some teams don’t hide behind excuses

LAST weekend I took part in our first club team training session of the year. Clubs up and down the country are back on the fields or in the gyms putting building blocks in place, which will hopefully lead to the season they all yearn for.

Like most teams at this time of year we had our fitness testing when all players were put through their paces to identify what areas each of us need to work on over the coming months. Training and preparation has all moved on so much over the last number of years with club teams now demanding preparation levels akin to that of a county team.

Our management have brought in the best around to facilitate with our testing and preseason training, which is absolutely fantastic and it will guarantee that the map has been drawn up, it’s just up to the players to follow it now.

I have no issue with what teams are doing and the kind of expertise they call upon in order to prepare their teams, I do however have an issue with what players and teams now expect and depend on.

If I rewind to when I started with my senior team as a 16 year old the difference is night and day. Players may be stronger now due to the increase in gym work but if we were to compare their actual fitness levels I’m not sure if there would be any difference.

Training was simple, it mostly consisted of ball work and actual games with running and speed work somewhere within each session. You had to do the hard work in order for you to be able to play the way you wanted but you weren’t dependent on any specific elements to get you there.

I feel nowadays players and teams hide behind buzzwords. How many times have you heard players complain that their manager had no system or no game plan, or that they didn’t get a gym programme? Nowadays if club managers do not have a backroom team consisting of a strength and conditioning coach, video analysts and dietician then they are doomed before they even begin.

Have we as players become dependent on this safety net? If a team suffer a defeat and concede a goal or two then there will be a players’ meeting called to discuss the lack of system or game plan.

Teams do benefit from having all of the above in place but it’s the extent to which we as players depend on it that I can’t get my head around. Players must go back to taking responsibility for their own corner, by that I mean that when you cross that line if you are a defender then your are responsible for your man and if you are a forward then it’s up to you to create something. I feel that it has now become the norm to blame the system or lack of one if we cannot do these things of our own accord.
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I have just finished Tomás O Se’s book and it struck me as to how simple their training and, indeed, outlook on the game was.

Yes, you trained hard but the most successful team in our sport prided themselves on one thing and that was being able to win your own battle. Gooch, Moynahin, Declan O Sullivan, Maurice Fitz, the O Ses – all legends of the game who never had to hide behind buzzwords.

Even when they lost to those great Armagh and Tyrone teams their natural instinct was to stick to their tradition and more often than not they came back stronger after those defeats.

Anytime we hear about what Is happening in the Kilkenny camp it’s all about the ferocious battles that go on during their A versus B games and the team is picked based on who puts their best team forward in those games,

You never hear a Kilkenny player heap praise on the strength and conditioning coach or the fantastic system they have in place because to them it’s all about the basics and being able to produce on your own.

In an ideal world if you are the manager of any team you want each and every one of your players to take pride in themselves and to be up for man to man combat, you want them to understand that it’s a one v one situation and that its up to you and you alone to win your battle.

If that is your mentality then when you do work on certain game plans etc it will only make your team stronger but at no point should you be content to hide behind these buzzwords and to blame the lack of them for your own failures or shortcomings.
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