ROB MULCAHY has been announced as the first ever performance lead for Clare GAA.
Kerry native Mulcahy had been head of athlete development and a sport scientist with Clare GAA since May 2019 but will take on a new role in what is a promotion within the Association.
For five seasons, Rob was the strength and conditioning coach to the Clare senior footballers during Colm Collins’ tenure. Speaking previously to The Clare Echo, Colm said of Rob’s influence, “Rob Mulcahy is an exceptional guy and he deserves great credit. The platform for victory is their physical fitness. Rob Mulcahy is our strength and conditioning coach and we’re never afraid they are going to run out of gas”.
He has also worked with county development teams from U14 to U20 and this season was part of the U20 hurling management team headed up by Terence Fahy. He had previously been involved with St Breckan’s when the North Clare football club were managed by Donie Garrihy.
Under Rob’s watch, Clare GAA have introduced bio-banding with the development squads over the past twenty three months. It is defined as grouping players based off physical maturation as opposed to chronological age. Growth and maturation data on players has been collated to determine who the early, on-time, and late developers in their panels are so they could design coaching programmes that were developmentally appropriate for them. Players were bio-banded using the Khamis-Roche method which calculates what the player’s fully grown height is likely to be, based on their height, weight, date of birth and the heights of their parents.
On top of his current workload, Rob is undertaking a PhD at the University of Limerick on Talent Identification, Detection, and Player transition and one of the papers he is writing has looked at how hurlers who represented Clare in the Tony Forristal (U-14) tournament from 1984 to 2016 fared.
During his youth, Rob represented Ireland in competitive underage swimming. He is the holder of an intermediate national cup basketball medal with St Brendan’s and was part of the Garvey’s Tralee Warriors squad during their first season in the Super League. He played underage gaelic football with John Mitchels in Tralee.
After graduating with a BA (Hons) in Education from UL, he moved to London and began teaching while also working with athletes from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Paralympic rowing and Basketball. He returned to Ireland in 2015 and completed his MSc in Strength and Conditioning through St Mary’s University, London.
This promotion is the latest burst of good news for Rob who tied the knot with his long-time partner Meagan Dunne in the middle of July.
