“I was going around in shorts and a t-shirt… but I’m no Scott Brown”

Ahead of the big kick-off against Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park on February 16, Bohemians midfielder Oscar Brennan takes bohemianfc.com behind the scenes as the team and management prepare for the 2018 season.

This is the first instalment of Oscar’s pre-season diary and we’ll catch up with him again in the coming days…

Over Christmas, there was a picture doing the rounds of Celtic midfielder Scott Brown training in the snow in his t-shirt and shorts, surrounded by lads in snoods and leggings.

I thought I’d give it a go so on our first pitch session of the New Year I was going around in shorts and a t-shirt.

But I’m no Scott Brown! I don’t know how he does that, it’s just not healthy. I was so cold after it.

The weather has been rotten at times out in IT Blanchardstown this month, the astro is in the middle of a field and the elements are coming right at you.

Since Christmas, the wind has been doing its best to blow the cones away while we’re trying to do runs.

I’m no Scott Brown!

It’s that strong. Trying to control a football is hard enough for me as it is without that wind.

We’ve been out in the sleet and snow, there’s no cancelling training. The surface is artificial and it’s just wrap up and get out and get on with it.
We presume every club is doing it and, if they’re not, we’re getting an edge on them.

There’s no training missed, it’s 100%. You just have to get on with it.

You have to wrap up at this time of year, I wouldn’t be a man for a snood now – not sure about them – but I definitely have the leggings after that first night.

We came back into pre-season on December 28; lads might have preferred to be in Leopardstown but we were in the gym at 11am, beginning our preparation.

It wasn’t too much of a shock to the system if you’d done your work in the off-season, but definitely a tough time of year to come back.

After that, we had a couple of days off we were back on the pitch come January 2 and it’s been a regular routine since then.

We train at the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and we get into the gym on Saturday mornings.

We are eased back into it. Not that it’s easy, but if you were to go straight back in at 110%, doing really hard training that first week you’d just have lads getting injured.

So, the first week to 10 days were kind of just re-introducing you to running around, to doing multi-directional running – a lot of our running during the off-season would have been in straight lines, on tread-mills but in football you twist and turn, so you’ve to get the bodies used to that.

You have to get a feel for the football again during that first 10-12 days, but this week and last week we’ve stepped it up ahead of our first pre-season game.

It’s a progression into the season. It’s like a boxer or MMA fighter, they do 12-week training camps and do a progressive build-up to their fights.

They don’t go hell-for-leather on day one, they’d be wiped out.

It’s all geared towards February 16 and making sure that not only are we ready for that game, it’s a long season.

OSCAR BRENNAN was talking to RUAIDHRI O’CONNOR