Tag Archives: Chris Delooze

The Clare senior footballers will have a new strength and conditioning coach for 2016. Chris Delooze, who has filled the role for the past two seasons, is returning to his native Australia and has announced that he will not be available. This leaves manager Colm Collins with the task of appointing a completely new management team, as 2015 coach Ephie Fitzgerald announced some time ago that he will not be seeking a second term, while selector Ger Keane has stepped down after three years in that role. While Collins has yet to name a new backroom team, speculation is rife that Miltown St Joseph’s clubman David O’Brien will be included. By Seamus Hayes, sports editor

GROWING up in Sydney, Chris Delooze could not have envisaged that come 2014, he would be responsible for the physical conditioning of the Clare senior footballers. Gaelic football didn’t register on his radar in those years. Ironically, even rugby was only an after-thought at that stage, as Delooze concentrated on swimming, winning two national medals in open water events. One would almost need to sit down on hearing details of his training schedule as a young man. “At that stage of my life, I was training 16 times a week. I was swimming every morning and had three track sessions in the middle of the day. Then I had training most afternoons and on a Saturday and race sometimes on a Sunday. That was through the summer. Rugby was a hobby during the winter just to keep fit,” Delooze told The Clare Champion this week. A change of school edged him towards rugby, which ended up having a profound affect …