Cullen influence has helped Gavin ensure Dubs train as they play

Eleven years ago, Bryan Cullen was an employee of Ulster Bank. It was merely a means to an end. Having graduated three years previously with a sports science and health degree, the job made little sense but for the fact he was playing inter-county football and the bank were associate sponsors of the All-Ireland SFC.

Mike McGurn knew Cullen was destined for other things. Asked by Seán Boylan to train Ireland’s International Rules team before they headed out to Australia, the former Ireland rugby fitness coach found panel member Cullen was his keenest of students.

“He was the only player at that time who took a real interest in what we were doing conditioning-wise. He was coming up to training sessions 30 minutes beforehand while I was getting set up and he was plaguing me about what we were going to do and why.”

Two years later and Cullen returned to DCU to commence a doctorate in sports science, his extended college time earning him the nickname ‘Benjamin Button’ among his Dublin teammates. In 2011, and a day after he had told everyone from the Hogan Stand steps that he’d see them in Copper Face Jacks, news of his appointment as a Leinster Rugby sub-academy strength and conditioning coach broke. When Dublin’s soon-to-be-released Blue Wave strategic plan pitted itself against the rugby province, it was an awkward time for the Skerries man.

After retiring from inter-county football in January 2015, Cullen came back to Dublin GAA as high performance manager 13 months later where he effectively replaced Martin Kennedy but not before he had been promoted to lead S&C coach in the Leinster academy. His time spent there has proven to be worthwhile for Dublin, McGurn feels, as Cullen recognised that, like in rugby the time of the muscle man had come and gone in Gaelic football.

“The GAA would have had that phase of boys bulking up big-time but they then became unable to move around the pitch and kept getting injured. The leaner, more mobile player has been the way forward. Your middle eight are very lean.

“I would say Bryan is taking something from rugby and training them position-specific. So your Philly McMahons, who need a bit of bulk and a bit of strength because they are your robust hitmen, are putting on a bit more muscle, whereas your middle eight are very much on that explosive type programme to help them get up and down the pitch easier. They can avoid contact and are able to move the ball quickly.

They have different needs to the guys who are in the full-forward and full-back lines.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the number of injuries, particularly soft tissue ones, in the senior football camp have seemingly declined Cullen returned. Dublin hold their cards closer to their chest now as regards injuries but McGurn can understand how it might be down to Cullen’s influence. “The teams who are building their players to be fit for purpose, as I call it, who are doing less bodybuilding weights and more performance building weights are showing the way forward. I think the fact Dublin experience less accumulative fatigue because they’re doing as much as others but in a smaller time-frame, really helps them.

“It’s the two-22 rule — you can only really train for two hours but it’s what you do in the next 22 after that, which determines how good the next session is, and I know they have a lot of advantages like being able to provide food to their players, not doing as much physical work (day jobs) so they have time for yoga, stretching and their recovery modalities kick in a lot quicker.”

McGurn has admired the way Cullen has aided Jim Gavin in bringing the fervour of Dublin training to games. “Bryan has been able to intermingle the conditioning games with the off-field conditioning. Carlow, Louth or Antrim might do a similar session at 70% but it’s the matches where the Dubs are able to transfer the training because they’re going 100%.

The Dubs train as they play and their intensity is savage, and because they don’t train for as long they can turn it on longer during the season and they don’t fade come September. In fact, they’re still at their peak come September, which we’ve seen.

Coming into a game like this evening’s against Louth, outsiders might consider Dublin are approaching it as one to play within themselves but McGurn senses Cullen wouldn’t stand for that because Gavin wouldn’t.

“This tapering thing is a bit of a myth. It’s impossible to peak 25 to 30 people at one time because there are too many variables. They could be sick, they could have had a child up all night, they could have broken up with their girlfriend, they could be going through a divorce, they could be coming out… there are so many things you can’t control.

“Man United say their toughest session of the week is always Friday and Roy Keane insisted that for the 15 or 20 minutes they had their small practice game was the most intense because what it did was physiologically prepare them for the next day. There is less chance of injury and it also switches on your central nervous system. So in many ways, tapering is a hindrance more than a help.

“Dublin mightn’t go as long and they might have an extra rest day but I think they keep the intensity clock high. The thing with Gavin is if you drop by even a quarter of a percent you’re gone. He comes across all nice on TV and the media but he’s one of the most ruthless bastards in Ireland. Look at Paul Flynn — he barely acknowledged that he was gone. ‘Good luck, thanks for coming, Paul, but you chose. I’m not bending the knee’.

“Once you have that environment you can’t avoid to drop any levels at all, which is great for him.”