Fatigued Cullen taking timeout from Dubs setup
The 28-year-old, who has been on the senior panel for 10 years, married Irish 100m record holder Ailis McSweeney in Cork this day last week.
The couple delayed their honeymoon until the autumn but Cullen has been given an extended break from the panel by new manager Jim Gavin.
Substituted at half-time in Dublin’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo last September, the Skerries man admitted he was running close to empty.
“Towards the end of last year, I just wasn’t feeling that energetic when I was at training,” he said.
“It was starting to feel a bit like a chore and when it gets to that stage, you kind of question what you’re doing. So I said I’d take a little bit of time away from training and try and get that bite back before I go back.
“I just felt if the same thing would happen again, I’d go back in January and by the time the actual important stuff came around, I’d be looking towards the end of the season as opposed to looking forward to the big days.”
Cullen concedes his low energy levels likely had an effect on hisperformances.
“Obviously, the Mayo game didn’t go too well for me. As much as I tried to get myself back to what I was in 2011, I honestly found itdifficult.
“The body feels fine and I’ve been very lucky with injury and that. It’s probably more mental than anything else. A complete break away from it was probably the best thing I could do.”
A Leinster rugby sub-academyfitness coach, Cullen is also in the process of completing a PhD in exercise physiology at DCU. When he raises questions about the size of the GAA’s inter-county closed season and its impact on players, he should know what he’s talking about.
“Coming back in January, it feels like your season is barely finished and you’re only going again. It can be difficult but that is the challenge for management and fitness guys — to try and keep players fresh.”
Cullen looks back on 2011 as a taxing year but commends former manager Pat Gilroy last year for trying to keep the players as fresh as he could.
As for how Dublin handled that success, he doesn’t feel it took too much out of him although as captain, he was more recognisable than others.
“Living in Dublin, having not won it for so long, it’s all people want to talk about. That was good, the cup was put away, we didn’t speak much. We obviously spoke about trying to retain our title and that but I don’t think lads were out parading the trophy.
“Everybody still wants to talk to you about it. Even this morning, a guy who I met still wants to talk to you about it and it happened two years ago.
“It can be difficult to block it out of your mind but I don’t think it was a factor in any of our performances.”
There will be at least plenty of home comfort for Dublin this spring with five of their Division 1 round games being played at Croke Park thanks to Kildare’s decision to concede home advantage and face their neighbours there.
In their All-Ireland winning season, they enjoyed four round games at GAA HQ before losing to Cork there in the league final.
Players from counties such as Wexford have questioned why Dublin are afforded so many games there and suggested it gives them too much of an advantage come Championship time.
Cullen sees it completely differently. A few extra games there isn’t going to help him, he claims.
“It’s good for the younger lads to experience Croke Park, definitely. But for someone like me, it really isn’t going to make a difference to how I play coming into Championship.
“To be honest, we’re so used to playing in Croke Park it doesn’t make that much of a difference.”
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