Cork man plays key role behind the scenes with All-Ireland winning minor hurling team

ILEN Rovers club man Hugh O’Neill played a key role behind the scenes with the Clare minor hurling team who recently won the All-Ireland title.

The Cork man got involved with the Clare GAA Academy, which included working with Clare teams from minor level down to U14 level in both codes as the strength and conditioning coach last year. The 25-year-old has loved his time working with the Banner County underage teams.

 “It was a brilliant year. Lots of ups and a few downs, but overall a really enjoyable year and lots of learning. It was a pleasure to work with such a keen bunch of players. It was also great to be involved with a management team with such a massive amount of experience and expertise,” he said.

Hugh had a very specific remit as part of his strength and conditioning role with the Clare minor hurling team which consisted of mainly gym and pitch sessions. 

“This season I was the strength and conditioning coach for the minors. This consisted of gym and pitch sessions. 

"This involved programming for the team across the season in order to peak for the championship."

"We would have one collective gym session and a couple of pitch sessions depending on the week that was in it. In the pitch sessions, I would do a good bit on different running mechanics as well as develop and improve speed.

“I would also have a part to play in the training planning and training load monitoring and management which is important for preventing injuries and improving freshness. Meetings were mostly collective including management and on occasion, there would be that individual conversation with a player or a few players regarding a certain part of their programme or rehab work,” he added.

A pleasing aspect of Hugh’s job was seeing the development in the players throughout the season he said. 

“It was great to see the players develop during the season, but the big development has come over their past four years in the development squad system. These lads would have started in the system at the U14 grade and they have been following the athletic development and hurling pathway which has given them the base they needed to take on the challenge of competitive intercounty hurling.” 

“They’re an incredibly level-headed bunch of lads,” said Hugh about this year’s All-Ireland winning minor team. “We got very close last year. There were 8/9 players of the current panel involved last year when we were beaten on penalties in the Munster final by Tipp and then beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final by Offaly, so these lads were able to pass on that experience to those lads coming through. That was a massive thing I think, having played in the big stadiums, in the big games, and being able to recognise that it was just another game and the title given to the game was just that, a title.” 

 Hugh has garnered a lot of knowledge and expertise from working with a plethora of talented coaches with Clare GAA. He is full of praise for both the coaches and players. 

“I was really fortunate to work with the management team and players we had this year."

"All of the coaches and selectors have had such a massive amount of experience both as players and managers and it really showed in their decision-making and match preparation. 

"In particular, Brian O’Connell, Donal Moloney who has managed several Munster and All-Ireland winning teams, and Damian O’Halloran the head coach were fantastic. Ger Hickey, Liam O’Reilly, and Fintan Leamy also have a wealth of expertise and you could see the lads just lapped up everything they said.

“The players have been in the academy system for a few years now, so their training knowledge and experience made working with them that much easier. This year was a lot of their first year of receiving a program that was geared towards peaking for a certain time of year and with that a big focus was on recovery. 

"All of them really took ownership of their own preparation which was helped by some of the psychological support they received as a group from Paul Flanagan,” he added.

Hugh has been impressed by Clare’s focus on developing competent, knowledgeable, and talented athletes and players in their academy setup. 

“The academy has been a brilliant initiative by Rob Mulcahy and Michéal Duffy, and other individuals like Kieran McDermot, Peter Casey and Donal Moloney. Their sole focus has been on developing competent, knowledgeable and talented athletes and people. 

"The real success comes from just that really, that a player can look back at their time in the system and have learned key life skills and hurling knowledge which will allow them to enjoy their sport even more and hopefully progress to playing for their club and Clare seniors. Winning finals is great but that long-term development is far more important.” 

The Clare minor hurlers enjoyed huge celebrations after their recent All-Ireland success, memories that will resonate with the Cork man for a long time. 

“The County Board staged a memorable homecoming. The first stop was the parish of Broadford where there was a huge turnout. 

"What was even more special was the pipe band which marched the lads through Ennis to Cusack Park where there was another massive crowd waiting for them. It was a homecoming none of us will forget.”