Every inter-county footballer will be ecstatic to see back of past three weeks.

This was the period the physical trainers have been craving for, writes Mike Quirke. An uninterrupted period of scientifically justifiable hard graft where they don’t have to worry about keeping guys fresh for a game at the weekend.

Last week, I touched on a trend where footballs can be construed by some as almost an inconvenient intrusion on training sessions in the modern GAA world. But there is no escaping the need for this period of misery, muck and mileage.

Gaelic football is a complicated physiological minefield. According to the research, on average, inter- county footballers are covering between eight and nine and a half kilometres per game. With high intensity bursts of five to six seconds of hard work making up between 10-20% of total game efforts.