STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING coach Cairbre Ó Cairealláin has seen behind the curtain of professional sport but right now, there’s “nowhere he’d rather be” than chasing another All-Ireland with Limerick.

Truth be told, Ó Cairealláin, who spent three years at Arsenal before tooling up Tipperary and then their neighbours to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup says his troops couldn’t train any harder even if they were professional athletes.

He is given space and trust by John Kiely to conduct his job as he sees fit and his relationship with the players has grown over the past two years of success.

He says standards are equally driven from the top down and bottom up between Kiely “constantly pushing us to improve” and the players’ “ferocious appetite” for hard work and learning.

“I enjoy being part of a high-performance environment and in a hurling context, there’s nowhere I’d honestly rather be than in this set-up, having worked in professional sport previously,” says Ó Cairealláin.

“Just the standards that this team have set for themselves, between the management and the players, it gets the best out of us all – including me.”

The West Belfast Gaeilgeoir proudly describes himself as “a hurling man, born and bred”, having lined out at minor and under-21 with Antrim in his playing days.

He now lives near Birdhill, on the Tipp-Limerick border, and from that base, he’s an ever-present figure in his players’ training lives, both in the gym and on the field. 

Those contact hours are channelled into tailoring what each individual needs to reach the next level.

He summarises his function as “a supporting role to give the players the physical tools to be able to do the hurling, which is what wins All-Irelands or games”.

An online testimonial from rising Treaty star Cathal O’Neill expands on that approach: “Cairbre’s coaching and guidance has been a big help in my physical development. Focusing on strength and power development in the gym, along with conditioning and speed work on the field, has given me the tools to compete physically in championship hurling at inter-county level.”

Towards the end of last year, Ó Cairealláin was in reflection mode, seeking to refine Limerick’s already successful methods to be first to the next advances. 

He’s now putting his pre-season plans into practice while juggling the upcoming Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League opener against Cork on Sunday.

“The players are demanding in terms of, say, the data that we have,” he adds.

“Different players are different. Some lads love to know what their GPS stats are or they might love the feedback in terms of the gym and where they are, relative to other players in the same position.

“It’s just about dealing with different players and the personalities that come with them, being able to feed them information that can help them to push on.

“They really understand, especially in hurling today, that the physical demands are just gone to another level. It’s unbelievable to watch when it’s in the heat of championship.”

The key difference when compared to professional set-ups arrives with a bang the Monday morning after that championship furnace.

“I couldn’t see teams really being able to train harder than what they already are . . . but when players are playing in the Munster Championship on a Sunday and they have to be up at 7.30am the following morning to go to work, the body is not really getting that opportunity to recover from what it’s just been through the day before.

“The first thing I always need to remind myself of is that these players I’m working with have jobs so it’s a whole different kettle of fish in terms of the commitment and the sacrifices they’re making to be part of this team.

“In terms of their training and how hard they train, there’s no difference in what they’re putting into it themselves.

“When I was first involved in hurling with Tipperary a few years ago, having come from Arsenal, I was just amazed at the energy and enthusiasm that the lads and coaches and management were bringing to training after a full day’s work.”

In that way, it’s “a bit broader than just strength and conditioning”, with careful consideration dedicated to those external factors and monitoring the load on their charges.

That’s where performance coach Caroline Currid will be missed from her role tying together the off- and on-field issues.

“For what she does, Caroline really is irreplaceable,” says Ó Cairealláin. “I have no doubt that she’s widely regarded as the best in the business.

“It’s not going to be that we’re going to get someone in who can do Caroline’s job in her absence but we’re very lucky to have Joe O’Connor coming in now.

“He already has a relationship with the players, having been with them for a few years. I think that was really important for John, that we can kind of just get on with things from the off.

“A lot of the stuff that Caroline taught these lads over the years is so ingrained in them that they’re going to carry that forward. Now we’ll get the added bonus of Joe’s qualities as well.”

It’s the strength and conditioning mindset, always layering on the next level of improvement.