I read a very interesting article this week about Gary Keegan, one of the country's most respected performance coaches.
He was involved with the Cork senior hurlers in 2025, even though he was in Australia on duty with the Lions tour.
At the same time as John McGrath was leaping into the air to touch in his second goal, he too would have been blamed somewhat by some for the Rebel collapse.
Why? Sure everything is fine when you win and everything is wrong when you lose. Simple.
It got me thinking that while many out there will know and understand the role of a performance coach, there are probably a greater number who have no idea exactly what their role is within a high-performance group of amateur athletes.
My own mother once said to me; "Why don’t you score as much as Eoin Kelly?" so can you imagine trying to explain the role of someone who doesn’t do any physical training whatsoever with the group but is every bit as important.
My mother eventually understood the 'why' to her question - I was a mortal playing with God!
So I would like to take you into the world of a performance coach or sports psychologist and give you an insight as to what exactly they do for a group.
Like any top performing group, unless you are on the inside, you won’t understand what is going on and why it is going on, all you will be doing is speculating.
My favourite line from those on the outside looking in and speculating as such was always, "Well what I heard now was…" It really irked me at the beginning and I would often bite back but I learned to just go with it in later years and not waste my time on these energy sappers.
For many looking in they may say, 'what is the need for someone to tell them how to think or what to think, can ye just throw in a ball and let them off?' Again unless you’ve been involved or are currently, you probably will find it hard to understand the 'why'.
From my experience I was very lucky to get to work with some top performance coaches and took pieces from all of them, some more than others, which I would still put into practice today as a coach or a principal.
The best ones would always read the group and know when and if to say something, they would hold everyone accountable for their actions or comments - both the players and management.
These performance coaches are the ones that would garner the most respect from the group.
So what exactly would they do?
It’s the simple things done really well that always stuck with me. Things like posing a throwaway question to the group to see what came back and just watching the emotion and electricity build slowly in the room with the group.
As a result, I have been asked, answered and listened to answers in these settings that I will take to my grave and when the pressure is highest these things will matter.
It may be sitting down with a player, if they wanted, and writing out goals or targets they wanted to achieve as a team and an individual and holding them accountable to these targets. A great man would always say to us "if you think it, ink it."
Often the performance coach may be for the manager as much as any player to keep them in check, hold them accountable and just be a listening ear where needed on certain issues.
I can only speak on my personal experience of performance coaches and I would 100% support the job they do with groups and players.
Will they catch the ball and put it over the bar? No. But they will certainly help you to get into the mindset to do this especially on the bigger days when the pressure is highest.
To be able to reset yourself, evaluate what happened and focus on the next ball, all in five seconds is not simple but it is all the little chats, players' meetings and re-affirmation of your ability that will help you become very good at this with time.
The performance coach is a vital cog in this and in any high-performance team’s success, be that at club or inter-county level in all codes.
They will make you understand that winning is important but losing is going to be part of it too and they will help you deal with that loss, learn from it and drive forward to the next challenge.
This will not be for every player in the group and the best will realise that quickly and leave those players to their own devices and maybe just check in with a gentle 'how are things going' every now and again.
Kind of like a parent with their children, they might not need them much but they know when the need is greatest they will be there with a listening ear.
The All-Ireland champions of 2026 will hold their performance coach in as high regard as anyone else in that backroom team.
The conversations they have with them may be few but they will be important and they will make a difference.
All those extra one-percents add up in the end.
Watch Armagh v Galway in the Allianz Football League on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.35pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
