Wesley O'Brien on taking a modern approach to coaching GAA

EchoLive.ie, 19 Aug


Carrigaline club man has enjoyed great success on the camogie front,
the key, integrating S&C with the game itself
Wesley O'Brien on taking a modern approach to coaching GAA

Wesley O'Brien on the line for UCC in the Ashbourne Cup. Picture:
INPHO/Tommy Grealy
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JJ Hurley

Carrigaline's Wesley O’Brien had a key role in Cork's camogie success
this summer as the strength and conditioning coach.

Dr O'Brien, who heads up UCC’s Physical Education, Sports Studies and
Arts degree, is keen to bring those skills from the classroom to the
playing field. At the heart of that ethos is who he sees in front of
him.

“They are no longer a player, the first thing I treat them is as an
athlete,” he said. “You are trying to raise standards in terms of their
physical preparation, in terms of elements of their physiological
preparations, but I very much live and breathe physical readiness and
physical development.

“I am not just a person who puts people into a gym, or does running
tests or field tests with them. I always relate it to the game of
hurling or camogie and there is no point separating your strength and
development from the camogie you have to integrate that piece."

Wesley O'Brien in hurling action for Carrigaline. Picture: Howard
Crowdy Wesley O'Brien in hurling action for Carrigaline. Picture:
Howard Crowdy

That ethos has been integral to the Rebels' back-to-back O'Duffy Cup
wins, while O'Brien was involved with the All-Ireland winning Cork
minor hurlers in 2021 and UCC in the Fitzgibbon Cup in 2019 and '15.

"A fit player doesn’t make an exceptional athlete, so what you are
doing in the gym has to transfer to what you're doing on the pitch. We
have access to the players only for an hour and a half and there are 24
hours in a day and that’s where the athlete’s mindset comes in.

We understand the game is not a professional sport. I understand that,
but players are striding to become the best they can and want that
professional standard.

"That’s where as coaches we need to be one in what is happening on and
off the field."

Bonnie, Jill, Clara, and Wesley O'Brien with the O'Duffy Cup in Croke
Park. Bonnie, Jill, Clara, and Wesley O'Brien with the O'Duffy Cup in
Croke Park.

Of course, he acknowledges the outstanding crop of current camogie
players.

"I was blown away in 2023 in how humble everyone in the squad was and
that has continued this year, but they have this internal spirit that
drove me to be a better coach. And when Galway, who by the way are a
very fine team, put it up to the girls in the All-Ireland, that
fighting spirit was incredible and it was a super finish by Cork."

FRESH

Variety and fun ensured the players were hungry at training.

"We know from modern science that players strive off fun, they strive
off energy, they strive off variation, whenever a player comes to the
gym, track or field, I always have something different."

Cork manager Ger Manley with Dr Wesley O'Brien (left) and Liam Cronin
at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Eddie O'Hare Cork manager Ger
Manley with Dr Wesley O'Brien (left) and Liam Cronin at SuperValu Páirc
Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The backroom team, overseen this year by Ger Manley and previously by
Mathew Twomey, are all singing off the same hymn sheet.

Nowhere for O’Brien has the respect for the game’s professionalism
become more clearly demonstrated when Cork GAA chairman Pat Horgan said
at the banquet following the All-Ireland victory that Cork Camogie are
always welcome at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and that the ladies are
part of Cork GAA.

That was a very powerful statement according to O’Brien on the progress
of the game.

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