ARMAGH’S FOOTBALLERS, MANAGEMENT and support staff rolled into Carton House last weekend for a pre-championship tune-up ahead of their preliminary round Ulster tie with Tyrone.
They arrived on a Friday morning, settled into their routine and began preparing for a weekend’s work.
It didn’t take long to realise that the grass pitches were lined out for soccer, with the imminent arrival of Manchester United for their own tune-up for the run-in to claim a spot for European competition.
It wasn’t quite a Saipan situation. They were training on some of the best turf in Ireland in five-star luxury, but in the age of the 40-metre shooting arc, the pitch session was of very limited use.
They asked if the hotel might draw on GAA lines. No joy. They offered to do it themselves, and that idea was rejected. They put out cones to replicate the lines, but it wasn’t satisfactory.
Manager Kieran McGeeney made a snap decision. By Friday evening, they were back up the road with arrangements to train locally on Sunday morning.
“We got two sessions in but for the games it wouldn’t have been great,” said Armagh forward Oisín Conaty on Wednesday.
“We had all the training sessions and meetings we would have done for that weekend anyway.
“We never missed out on anything but a few of the lads were saying we might get Carrington (Manchester United’s training base) this week!”
In staying at home, though, Armagh stood out among the elite teams by not going to Portugal for a training camp.
At the last count All-Ireland pairing Donegal and Kerry, Tyrone, Galway and Monaghan were all doing their pre-championship preparation in Portugal.
Mayo were there in November, Derry went over in December. Down spent some time there in February, while Cork flew out after a hammering in the league against Derry and ended up promoted.
Hurling teams to use it this season are Wexford, Clare, Antrim, Dublin, Galway, Cork and Kildare.
Some counties now factor in a foreign training camp as part of the deal. Since returning as Donegal manager, Jim McGuinness has brought his squad and support staff to Tenerife in the winter of 2023, Abu Dhabi in December 2024, and now the Algarve, where they were over the Easter break of his final season of his first spell in 2014.
As it happens, Kerry footballers were also out at the same time and the two met a few months later in the All-Ireland final.
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The two venues widely used are Browns Sports Resort, just outside Vilamoura, and Quinta do Lago, marginally more accessible to the airport at Faro and a venue that Ireland Rugby have used when gearing up for Six Nations campaigns.
The 42 has been shown the schedule for players while away on such training camps.
A typical morning may consist of breakfast, followed by a video analysis session for half an hour.
Then the team will go into the ‘high performance gym’ where they have an hour to complete an upper body session and loosen out everything, before going onto grass for a full match or training session.
After that, it will be lunch, followed by another video analysis session.
The quality of the pitches on Browns, in particular, has been a source of wonder even among players used to playing in Croke Park.
When it comes to the menu, the staff of these venues are used to working alongside the team nutritionist to create menus that suit the work the players are doing. Because of the amount of work, it will be highly rich in carbohydrates, with lavish helpings of pasta and baby boiled potatoes featuring alongside their meat and vegetables.
Players are not held under lock and key, they are afforded some free time outside of structured team meetings and training.
Some choose to get the body repaired with sauna sessions, plunge pools and massage. The Marina at Vilamoura at Easter has often featured a couple of dozen county players sneaking a one-scoop gelato.
The Marina at Vilamoura. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The local waterparks have been visited, and team managements will often create an activity to foster interaction among the squad such as quiz nights and so on.
Drinking alcohol is virtually unheard of, particularly among the squads with championship approaching.
In recent years, one county had to put an informal ban on playing padel, after some of their players emptied the tank on the court after a hard day’s training on the pitch.
Donegal players have said that while they might be in Portugal, their habits die hard and there will be a few decks of cards brought.
Day two might include a skills session on the grass, followed by a gym session. A break for lunch will then be followed by some off-feet conditioning, which could be on rowing machines or stationary bikes.
Generally, there will be a heavy pitch session, a gym session and some video analysis, with another light activity for the afternoon after some recovery time.
The gyms at Browns and Quinto do Lago are replete with the sort of equipment you might get at any county training facility. However, they are very well stocked with plenty of racks, bench and leg presses, dumbbells all the way up to 50kg and ploughs, along with all the off-feet conditioning equipment such as Wattbikes and rowing machines.
Right beside the pitches, gym and recovery suites are the villas where players can mingle.
You’d rarely get a turkey to cast a vote in favour of Christmas, but players and management all publicly say that the benefits are manifold with the ability to mix and spend time together, along with all the physical and tactical gains.
And the sums make sense too. Many similar camps in Ireland are now working out more expensive than a trip to where you could almost be guaranteed bright weather.
For those on tighter budgets, other venues have emerged such as the Gold Coast Golf Resort in Waterford, where Carlow hurlers and Wicklow footballers have spent some time this season.
Some 24 years ago, coincidentally ahead of a first round game in Clones against Tyrone, Armagh held a training camp in La Manga. Back then, the whole world knew about it and the culture of control and privacy wasn’t a cloud over the inter-county scene.
Kieran McGeeney with Sam Maguire in 2002. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
From the Clones stands, Tyrone fans taunted Armagh players about their Spanish sun tans during the pre-match parade.
But Armagh won. And kept winning, all the way to their first All-Ireland title. Being vocal about the La Manga training camp led to a glut of other counties then seeking the same bounce.
Armagh were far from the first to head to a sunny climate to seek an edge. Under Páidí Ó Sé, Kerry had been doing it for years.
But because they were willing to talk about it, they popularised it and created a new market for Spanish and Portuguese resorts which continues to flourish.
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Hard work, mingling, no alcohol and no padel: What happens at GAA training camps in Portugal
ARMAGH’S FOOTBALLERS, MANAGEMENT and support staff rolled into Carton House last weekend for a pre-championship tune-up ahead of their preliminary round Ulster tie with Tyrone.
They arrived on a Friday morning, settled into their routine and began preparing for a weekend’s work.
It didn’t take long to realise that the grass pitches were lined out for soccer, with the imminent arrival of Manchester United for their own tune-up for the run-in to claim a spot for European competition.
It wasn’t quite a Saipan situation. They were training on some of the best turf in Ireland in five-star luxury, but in the age of the 40-metre shooting arc, the pitch session was of very limited use.
They asked if the hotel might draw on GAA lines. No joy. They offered to do it themselves, and that idea was rejected. They put out cones to replicate the lines, but it wasn’t satisfactory.
Manager Kieran McGeeney made a snap decision. By Friday evening, they were back up the road with arrangements to train locally on Sunday morning.
“We got two sessions in but for the games it wouldn’t have been great,” said Armagh forward Oisín Conaty on Wednesday.
“We had all the training sessions and meetings we would have done for that weekend anyway.
In staying at home, though, Armagh stood out among the elite teams by not going to Portugal for a training camp.
At the last count All-Ireland pairing Donegal and Kerry, Tyrone, Galway and Monaghan were all doing their pre-championship preparation in Portugal.
Mayo were there in November, Derry went over in December. Down spent some time there in February, while Cork flew out after a hammering in the league against Derry and ended up promoted.
Hurling teams to use it this season are Wexford, Clare, Antrim, Dublin, Galway, Cork and Kildare.
Some counties now factor in a foreign training camp as part of the deal. Since returning as Donegal manager, Jim McGuinness has brought his squad and support staff to Tenerife in the winter of 2023, Abu Dhabi in December 2024, and now the Algarve, where they were over the Easter break of his final season of his first spell in 2014.
As it happens, Kerry footballers were also out at the same time and the two met a few months later in the All-Ireland final.
The two venues widely used are Browns Sports Resort, just outside Vilamoura, and Quinta do Lago, marginally more accessible to the airport at Faro and a venue that Ireland Rugby have used when gearing up for Six Nations campaigns.
The 42 has been shown the schedule for players while away on such training camps.
A typical morning may consist of breakfast, followed by a video analysis session for half an hour.
Then the team will go into the ‘high performance gym’ where they have an hour to complete an upper body session and loosen out everything, before going onto grass for a full match or training session.
After that, it will be lunch, followed by another video analysis session.
The quality of the pitches on Browns, in particular, has been a source of wonder even among players used to playing in Croke Park.
When it comes to the menu, the staff of these venues are used to working alongside the team nutritionist to create menus that suit the work the players are doing. Because of the amount of work, it will be highly rich in carbohydrates, with lavish helpings of pasta and baby boiled potatoes featuring alongside their meat and vegetables.
Players are not held under lock and key, they are afforded some free time outside of structured team meetings and training.
Some choose to get the body repaired with sauna sessions, plunge pools and massage. The Marina at Vilamoura at Easter has often featured a couple of dozen county players sneaking a one-scoop gelato.
The local waterparks have been visited, and team managements will often create an activity to foster interaction among the squad such as quiz nights and so on.
Drinking alcohol is virtually unheard of, particularly among the squads with championship approaching.
In recent years, one county had to put an informal ban on playing padel, after some of their players emptied the tank on the court after a hard day’s training on the pitch.
Donegal players have said that while they might be in Portugal, their habits die hard and there will be a few decks of cards brought.
Day two might include a skills session on the grass, followed by a gym session. A break for lunch will then be followed by some off-feet conditioning, which could be on rowing machines or stationary bikes.
Generally, there will be a heavy pitch session, a gym session and some video analysis, with another light activity for the afternoon after some recovery time.
The gyms at Browns and Quinto do Lago are replete with the sort of equipment you might get at any county training facility. However, they are very well stocked with plenty of racks, bench and leg presses, dumbbells all the way up to 50kg and ploughs, along with all the off-feet conditioning equipment such as Wattbikes and rowing machines.
Right beside the pitches, gym and recovery suites are the villas where players can mingle.
You’d rarely get a turkey to cast a vote in favour of Christmas, but players and management all publicly say that the benefits are manifold with the ability to mix and spend time together, along with all the physical and tactical gains.
And the sums make sense too. Many similar camps in Ireland are now working out more expensive than a trip to where you could almost be guaranteed bright weather.
For those on tighter budgets, other venues have emerged such as the Gold Coast Golf Resort in Waterford, where Carlow hurlers and Wicklow footballers have spent some time this season.
Some 24 years ago, coincidentally ahead of a first round game in Clones against Tyrone, Armagh held a training camp in La Manga. Back then, the whole world knew about it and the culture of control and privacy wasn’t a cloud over the inter-county scene.
From the Clones stands, Tyrone fans taunted Armagh players about their Spanish sun tans during the pre-match parade.
But Armagh won. And kept winning, all the way to their first All-Ireland title. Being vocal about the La Manga training camp led to a glut of other counties then seeking the same bounce.
Armagh were far from the first to head to a sunny climate to seek an edge. Under Páidí Ó Sé, Kerry had been doing it for years.
But because they were willing to talk about it, they popularised it and created a new market for Spanish and Portuguese resorts which continues to flourish.
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GAA Gaelic Football Gearing Up Hurling Summer Sun SUN ON YOUR BACK