News

With the focus very much on the team’s performances on the pitch, it’s easy to forget there’s a team of equally motivated and determined people off it who ensure that the Boys in Green are kept fit and ready to give it their all when they cross the boundary rope.

We caught up with Ireland’s Strength & Conditioning Coach Brendan Connor to chat about the what it’s like to work with the squad and the challenges the World Cup presents for players and coaches alike.

With the focus very much on the team’s performances on the pitch, it’s easy to forget there’s a team of equally motivated and determined people off it who ensure that the Boys in Green are kept fit and ready to give it their all when they cross the boundary rope.

We caught up with Ireland’s Strength & Conditioning Coach Brendan Connor to chat about the what it’s like to work with the squad and the challenges the World Cup presents for players and coaches alike.
As is often the case, cricket tours are long affairs often spanning months and the World Cup is no exception. As a result it’s important that players look after themselves on and off the training ground, as Brendan highlights: “It’s been a long six weeks if we look back now at a place like Coogee it seems a long, long time ago.

“But to be fair to the boys they’ve looked after themselves incredibly well over the last six weeks and we’ve made sure as a coaching team that everything we’re doing has been around building them up towards games and then trying to maximise their recovery post game.”

Finding that balance between work and rest is important when it comes to competitions such as this, “There’s a number of things in place to try to help with that in terms of how hard the boys are working, how much recovery they’re getting, how much recovery do they need and touch wood so far it’s worked reasonably well and we’re quite pleased from our end.”

Where the real challenge lies for Brendan and the entire backroom team is managing the varying amounts of time between games, but he feels that Ireland went in with their eyes open and are all the better for that preparation: “There’s been a fair amount of chat about that over the last number of weeks in the media and stuff, but we knew that was the case when the fixtures came out so what we’ve tried to do is what we’ve always talked about and control the controllables.

“We knew we had to maximise recovery after the Zimbabwe game leading into the India game with the travel and whatever else. But, as I said, the Boys they’ve really stuck to their recovery protocols really well and that no doubt has helped us.”

As it the nature with professional sport, recovery is vital. Especially when you are coming face to face with the top players in the world – you need to be on your A Game and the players play a big role in this: “Post games we put a big emphasis on the boys taking a lot of responsibility and accountability for what they’re doing.

“We basically give them a menu of recovery modalities that they get to choose from under our guidance and that could be foam rolling, that could be ice-baths, that could be pool recovery sessions we’ve implemented massage on this trip which we haven’t previously and then things we always speak about would be trying to maximise hydration, maximise our nutrition and also trying to maximise sleep – which I think is the biggest recovery method we can implement.”

With the competition being spread across Australia and New Zealand, adapting to different time zones has also presented challenges, but again preparation has been the key for Ireland: “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into planning what that means in terms of training sessions, training times and things like that, and to be honest again the boys have coped with it really well and the coaching staff have been very understanding in terms of when we do things and how we do things and the intensity at which we do things.”

Those who are familiar with the Ireland set-up know that Brendan works in tandem with partner-in-crime and Ireland physio Kieran O’Reilly. The pair are very highly regarded in their respective fields, and working closely together they can improve the systems that are in place for the Ireland squad: “I know in terms of sports science and medicine Kieran and myself have been together five years now and we know each other inside out.

“We know we can push each other in terms of things and ask difficult questions of one and other and definitely as you say the only way to get better is by making mistakes and learning from them.”

It’s always a risky subject to broach but so far, barring a few niggles, the Ireland camp has come through the competition so far relatively unscathed, “Without putting the mockers on it we’ve had 15 blokes available for all training sessions and all games so far so we’re pretty happy with that.

“But, you know, the jobs not done from our end and we want to make sure we have everybody fit and ready to play throughout the next period of time whether it’s a week, two weeks or whatever.”

Ireland take on Pakistan in their final Pool B match on Sunday morning, 3.30am (GMT). A win for Ireland will guarantee a place in the quarter finals of the World Cup. You can follow the match live on www.cricketireland.ie, and show your support for the team by using the #BackingGreen hashtag on twitter.