For some teams, three weekends in succession will make or break their season
Back in the old days, before there was any sort of back door, Páidí Ó Sé had a good way of putting these things – even if his sums didn’t always add up. If Kerry were playing Cork in the Munster final, he’d say: “If we beat these fellas on Sunday, we’re only an hour away from an All-Ireland final.”
Dublin will also want to find a little more consistency, even if they might yet go straight into the quarter-final. For the likes of Tyrone and Armagh, that extra game could be a positive. Galway are ideally positioned and look like the only team to have really found their form, ready for whatever test is put in front of them.
A lot of the top teams would have gone away warm-weather training back in April or May. All that fitness should be well built up by now, so it’s really only about maintaining it. Managers will also want to sit down with the strength and conditioning guys, the coaches, the various physical trainers, and look at the mechanics of the schedule after the weekend. They’ll more or less know exactly what the needs are from here on. It’s gone so scientific in that way.
A big part of the manager’s role in this type of weather is looking at the training and saying “right, they’re well cooked now. Let’s go out and serve up the dinner”.There is also a balancing act for many of the teams. In most cases, the next game is the most important they will face all year. So most teams will be flat out. Some managers might still see a need to hold a little back, look ahead to the next game – that’s all part of their job. Only the players won’t be thinking that way.
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