WHEN THE LAOIS hurlers take to the field for a training session on any particular night, Eamonn Kelly describes it as his “easiest hour” of the day.
That’s because the O’Moore boss spends the rest of his time meticulously planning and, as he puts it, “making sure all the ducks are lined up.”
Kelly has brought former Limerick All-Star Ollie Moran, and ex-Tipperary captain Conor Gleeson on board as coaches to take the majority of the Laois training sessions. Gleeson focuses on the physical aspect of training, while Moran’s role is as hurling coach.
“I’ve known Ollie over the years and I’ve worked with Conor over the last few years – he’s a fantastic guy,” Kelly said today at the launch of the Leinster senior football and hurling championships in the Pearse Museum.
“Conor captained Tipp and Ollie captained Limerick. I don’t have an awful lot of medals hanging out of me at the very top level so I was trying to get guys that had a bit of experience.
“My role is more one to one with lads. What happens in the interim is what works around me. I do a lot of work with the video analysis guys and the statisticians. I’m trying to get the lads to understand what’s expected of themselves.”
But Kelly has also recently enlisted the help of Oisin McConville to make sure their heads are as sound as their bodies.
Kelly noticed his team displayed poor body language at times during games and it was one aspect he wanted the former Dundalk IT manager to work on.
McConville, who famously helped Armagh win the All-Ireland SFC crown 15 years ago, is a trained counsellor, having overcome a gambling addiction in the past.
“We have a very big backroom team, you have video guys, statisticians , but we were trying to look at it from a sports psychology side of things” continued Kelly.
“I know Kieran McGeeney did it with Tipperary there a few years ago so I was looking at who could add something similar.
McConville typically spends one night a week with the team, working with players both as a group and on an individual basis.
“After training some evenings we’d have a specific sports psychology night. Something we’d look at analysing our games or whatever and the things we can change. Oisin would do one-to-ones with the lads then as well.
“We’ve an exceptionally young squad. We’ve 13 U21s and we’ve only a handful of guys over 23. Confidence for them is everything and being able to figure out situations if they happen on the field.”
Kelly is a massive advocate of sports psychology and has witnessed its benefits in the past.
“I’ve worked with Caroline Currid a number of times and I would be a big, big fan of it. I’ve seen the benefits of it before.
“I think sports psychology is huge. You’d love to have a full-time person available all the time, but we don’t. We use Oisin, he’s not there on a regular basis, but he might be there once a week.
“That’s why I enjoy the step up into inter-county management. You have the luxury to be able to bring top class people around you and you actually learn a lot from seeing them guys.
“They’ve been there at the top level so they’re all bringing different bits and pieces to it.”
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