Tyrone captain Mattie Donnelly has every chance of being fit to face Donegal in the Ulster SFC quarter-final on May 17, according to new Strength and Conditioning coach Jonny Davis.
Former Ulster Rugby coach Davis has been overseeing Donnelly’s rehab from a serious hamstring injury which required surgery to re-attach a tendon to the bone.
The Trillick man has expressed his fears that he could miss the big Ballybofey clash, but his recovery has to date been free of setbacks.
“Mattie is on track, he has started back running, and all being well, we’ll see him taking to the field against Donegal,” said Davis.
“Unfortunately Mattie picked up a hamstring tendon avulsion through the year, but we have plenty of experience of rehabbing those, and the medical team here are well experienced, and the provisions they have available to them are second to none – on a par with what Ulster was able to offer at a professional level.”
Davis has spoken of the issues he has encountered in his switch from a professional set-up at Ulster Rugby to the amateur world of gaelic games.
“In the professional scene, you’re going to have great hands-on with the players, because they’re there day to day.
“But if I’m looking at a performance plan for an individual player, I might see them four or five times a week for two hours at a time, but you can also prescribe for outside of that time.
“You want them to think about being a 24-hour athlete, rather than a two-hour athlete.
“I’m available 24-7, and it’s about the education, letting them know what you want them to do, why you want them to do it that way, from what they eat and how they eat, when they eat, to why they train in a certain way and on certain days, and how day one complements day two.
“No matter what the sport is, if it’s rugby, soccer, gaelic football or field hockey, the principle is the same.
“They’re all invasion sports. You want to get territory, score goals or score points in your opposition’s half, and you’ve got highly competitive individuals that want to do that.
“So there’s really not that much of a difference. It’s mainly the status – professional versus amateur, but it doesn’t take away from the players’ professional attitudes to their own performance.”
One striking element of the culture shock experienced by the new S&C coach has been the willingness of the players he’s working with to deliver exceptional levels of commitment.
“You’ve got to respect the players for the commitment they have to demonstrate, and the sacrifices, because they’re working in jobs, they have their families, and then there’s the football.
“But they’re fully committed to the programme, and they know that if they just trust the system we’re putting in place, they’re ultimately going to be individually better and then collectively better.”
The demands placed on players by a busy fixtures schedule at club and county level is an ever-present challenge facing the coach, who must strive to attain the optimum balance.
“Often it’s the case that in a gaelic football season there will be more games played than in a rugby season, so those guys will need respite and time for rest and recovery, to physically unwind and then mentally, so that when it comes to representing Tyrone at senior level, we’re presenting them in a physical state where they can perform, rather than just play.
“There’s a difference between playing the sport and performing.
“We’re dividing the season up into different phases. We’re in phase three now of what will be seven, and hopefully at the end of phase seven, the Sam Maguire will be sitting in the trophy room.”
This weekend, Davis will get his first taste of the fervour generated by an NFL Ulster derby when Tyrone take on Monaghan, and experience he’s looking forward to.
“They’re bordering counties, so there’s always going to be big rivalry. When we played Armagh in the McKenna Cup, there was big rivalry there as well.
“You look forward to those games, in the same way that at Ulster, there was always an extra little bit for the inter-pros, which were peppered around the festive period at Christmas time.
“There’s a bit more bite to them, and I think the players look forward to that, they raise their game.”
