Training in the sun a modern prerequisite to success

SINCE Joe Kernan took Armagh away for a week’s intensive training in the sunshine a few years ago, came back and won the county’s first All-Ireland title, it has become fashionable for other Gaelic football teams to follow suit.

Now the hurlers are getting in the act.

Last Sunday, Clare met Tipperary in Thurles in the first round of the second series of the National Hurling League, top section; Tipperary were just returning from a week in Playa de Rocha, in the Algarve, Clare had come back the previous Sunday, also from Portugal, also from the Algarve, though not in the same location. Far from being a week of sun, sea and sand however, this was a week of work; sun alright, but blood, sweat and tears were the order of the day, every day.