I feel great ahead of the 2026 season

Pre-season training is always an interesting time of the year for footballers. You either like it or hate it, and there is no in-between, but the only common denominator is that no player loves it. I have played with players in my career who have found it easy enough because of their fitness levels, but on the other hand, I have also played with players who would have nightmares in the build-up to returning to training and just dreaded it all.

Without fail, the first two weeks are the toughest, and every player just wishes time would fast-forward to the start of the season, or at least to the start of the pre-season games. Throughout the years, the training sessions have changed. Gone are the days of not seeing a football for the first two weeks of pre-season, and you hit the running track. 

New players who would sign for clubs would joke that they didn’t realise that they had joined the athletics club and not the football club. While those days might be gone, the sessions are still really tough, and there are obviously lots of runs in them as the manager and staff work to get their players as fit as possible before the start of the season.

GOOD FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This year has been no different, and going back to pre-season training last week, we knew it was going to be a tough start. When a new manager joins a football club, it is important to make a good first impression on them, as you can only ever make one first impression, and whether it is good or bad, it makes a lasting impression on people. 

It was great to be back in training, though, and to be trying to help the new players integrate into the group and settle in to their new surroundings. It is so important that new players settle into their new surroundings as quickly as possible. I have been at clubs where it has taken a while for houses or other matters to be sorted, and it can be frustrating for players when everything is delayed.

Things will ramp up training-wise as the season gets closer. There will be more incomings too for the group to help us this year, and there will possibly be some outgoings as is the norm for football clubs. 

All of the players have come back fit and ready to get stuck into the training. In the off-season, we were all given our individual sessions to do by our S&C coach, Darragh Mulcahy, and he has done an excellent job as always on them to have us ready to get going.

I was speaking to our goalkeeper coach, Brian Murphy, when we got back, and we were trying to work out how many pre-seasons I have done. We settled on 22, with a couple of pre-seasons overlapping. 

Luckily, the more of them that you do, the easier they seem to get. I have always been a player who didn’t mind pre-season. I have worked very hard in my career in the off-season to make sure I was ready to hit the ground running, because I was never naturally talented enough to coast through pre-season and know I would be okay, as some of my more talented ex-teammates were. It is perhaps the reason I have been able to keep playing for as long as I have and why my fitness levels have always been as high as they are.

FIXTURE SET FOR RELEASE

I feel great heading into the season, even though I turn 38 in April. I feel as fit as ever, and I don’t have any intentions of stopping anytime soon or even contemplating retirement.

The league fixtures will be released this week, and managers, players and supporters alike can start to get excited about the 2026 season and dream about what glory may lie ahead.

There is still a long way to go until the season starts on February 6th, and a lot of hard work in between for us to be ready for the year ahead, so it doesn’t resemble anything like last year. Hopefully, we can all get through pre-season training, make it a better year for the club, and give the supporters a lot more enjoyment this season.