After two hurling counties last season, Stephen Casey lifts the lid on modern strength and conditioning

Stephen Casey had two special guests in his house over Christmas, the county titles won by the Blarney and Blackrock hurlers in 2020.
With Denis Ring as manager and John Dwyer the coach, he weaved the S&C with hurling.

“When you coach at club level there’s a huge variety of skill levels and a mix of players with varying ambitions, as opposed to on Cork panels where it’s the best in the county. If you can work on conditioning through games, it caters to everyone.”

“If you take Stephen Murphy or Alan O’Callaghan with Blackrock and the monitor is showing they are spending too much time in red you can have a chat with them. They might have exams going on or something at work.”

The final 90seconds that won us the game tonight! @popcrowleypop had absolutely no right to take the shot on but thank God he did! pic.twitter.com/5vN7kOBVAQ
— BlarneyGAA (@BlarneyGAA) September 12, 2020
“I moved into a Personal Training course in the Mardyke and I was working there for six years, which led to opportunities with Rebel Óg and UCC teams in soccer, rugby and Olympic lifting.”

“Seeing broken men in a dressing room after losing a big final, for the Cork minors in 2017 and the same with Blackrock after the Imokilly game, you can’t imagine going into another sport. Hurling is special and I say that as someone who doesn’t come from a hurling background. I’ve been ingrained in it.”
