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Football

football

Ballyboden feel benefit of elite fitness training

Andrew Kerin

Andrew Kerin

By Paul Keane

In the race for the AIB All-Ireland club football title, nobody can suggest that Ballyboden St Enda's and their ambitious manager, Andy McEntee, haven't gone the extra yard.

In fact, if it comes down to a battle for vital inches in Portlaoise on Saturday when they take on Clonmel Commercials, then Ballyboden will fancy their chances of covering that distance a shade quicker.

Throughout 2015, the south Dublin club located on the Firhouse Road received expert training from John Coghlan, a coach of world class athletes across the globe including Su Bingtian, the first Chinese and Asian born athlete to dip beneath 10 seconds for 100 metres.

Coaxing UL graduate Coghlan to Ballyboden was a considerable coup and it was perhaps no surprise that, firstly, success followed in the form of an unexpected county success and, secondly, that Coghlan was snapped up for a full-time role in China.

He has remained in contact with McEntee though and drew up fitness plans which helped Ballyboden claim a maiden Leinster club title, leaving them two steps from All-Ireland heaven.

Andrew Kerin, 'Boden's experienced forward and the reigning AIB Leinster club footballer of the year, admitted that 'Boden needed help in this area approaching 2015.

"The previous two years we were beaten in semi-finals by St Vincent's," said Kerin. "I suppose the year before, we were in the game with 15 minutes to go in the semi-final and just fell away. They kind of blew us away in the last 10 or 15 minutes so we knew what we had to do this year.

"We did a lot of fitness work compared to previous years and we were lucky to have John Coghlan working with us throughout the year. He really raised the bar in fitness and we actually lost him the week of the county final.

"He was hired by the Chinese government and is over in China now coaching the Chinese sprinting team. He's the full-time trainer of the first Asian athlete to run under 10 seconds. He ran that time in the summer last year so we were just blessed that Andy is really good friends with him.

"He put a lot of work into our fitness and there wasn't as much running around the pitch. There was a lot more intense running and we really came on from that. In fairness to him, he's directing operations from China. On the WhatsApp group, he sends over gym sessions every week."

With all of that work under their belts, McEntee was privately disappointed that 'Boden let slip a 10-point lead in the county final to overcome old rivals Vincent's by just four. They won, yes, but he wanted to win better and that drive for perfection sustained them throughout the Leinster championship.

But Kerin rejected the suggestion that 'Boden, often reputed as the largest sporting club in Europe, are a GAA 'super club' in some way different to their rivals because of their sheer scale.

"You talk to some people about Ballyboden, some people don't see it as a real GAA club," said Kerin. "But the support we've got over the year, the whole thing is buzzing, the whole area. There's flags everywhere, all the local pubs have stuff up so the club is just as relevant for the area as any other club would be for a small town, say, down the country.

"The rich club thing is, well, we don't even have a pitch to train on at the moment. We train at our local rivals, St Anne's, because we don't have a floodlit pitch. So if we were so rich I don't think we'd be scrambling around looking for a pitch."

The investment of time and energy will pay a large dividend if 'Boden can overcome Clonmel, conquerors of Nemo Rangers in the Munster championship, this weekend, securing an AIB All-Ireland club final place.

"The Nemo win just showed the class that Clonmel have," said Kerin, their 33-year old free-taker. "You're not overly focused on them at the same time. Obviously you need to know their strong players and what foot they kick with and all of that but if you put too much emphasis on the other team, you kind of lose your own focus. I think if we just go out and do exactly what we've been planning to then, then we'll take it as it comes from there. If we pull it off, we pull it off."