Luke Byrne has hailed the “intensity” and “passion” that Damien Duff has brought to his role as Shelbourne manager.
The Reds ace knew more than most what to expect when Duff accepted the role of first-team boss last winter.
He played briefly with the legendary former Ireland international at Shamrock Rovers and then coached the Hoops’ Under-15s with Duff during a spell on the sidelines through injury.
Duff famously brought his young players in at 6am for a pre-school training regime - and Byrne recalled how he used to drop players to school after those sessions.
These days, the ex-Chelsea winger is even more demanding of his senior Tolka Park stars.
“I knew him from coaching with him, so I knew what to expect,” said Byrne, who now has an FAI Cup semi-final against Waterford to look forward to after last weekend’s win over Bohemians.
“I’d like to think I live very professionally as it is. It did take some getting used to. Particularly for me it was the intensity of training.
“Tuesdays, it’s like a buzzword around our place, there’s nothing as hard as a Tuesday.
“We train so hard on Tuesdays. Training is very difficult and it’s intense.
“There is a lot of detail and video analysis, pre-match meetings, a lot of detail and you are expected to take it on.
“Without giving away too much, it would be a tactical day based on the team you are playing that week, but within that you would work in your units and work at a really high intensity.
“Sometimes we joke that the stopwatches are broken, because the reps just keep coming.
“But that’s where you get your work done.
“You get to a Friday and you have seen the situations you are going to be in, but with greater intensity, more repetition and less breaks.”
Byrne struck up a rapport with Duff when they shared a dressing room at tonight’s opponents Rovers (Tolka Park, 7.45pm).
“We used to just talk about football all the time - the match that was on the night before, the big game that week in the Premier League,” said Byrne.
“That was how we got talking. And then when I did my ACL he asked me to coach the 15s.
“I didn’t see the intensity and the passion and emotion looking from afar, but it’s very hard to gauge anyone really on TV. He surprised me, definitely.”
Recalling those early morning training sessions with the Rovers Under-15s, Byrne said: “I used to be up at 5:15am.
“You'd be out there and he’d have the protein bars and croissants for the kids.
“He’d be driving around Dublin dropping the kids to school after training, all different areas.
“Sometimes we’d get up there and the floodlights wouldn’t be on, we’d be in one corner of the Astro and as the sun would come up we’d move across.
“That only happened a couple of times, something happened with the generator.
“It was class. Some people had something to say about it and thought it was wrong. That’s because he was doing something different. He was willing to do it.
“I’ve never met another underage coach who’s willing to do it. He was all about contact hours.
“The kids needed to be playing more football because the kids were being left behind by other European countries.
“That was his way of making a difference. He didn’t just go on RTE talking about it, he was in a position to impact it.
“A lot of good players came out of that team. Sinclair Armstrong is playing in the Championship now, Evan Caffrey, Dylan Duffy, Alex Dunne are doing well in UCD.
“Adam Wells, there’s a good few in the LOI already and they are only 18/19. It might have worked.”
Byrne added: “It impacted me as a player and who I think I’ll be as a coach one day.
“Luckily enough I met him at an age where I was still playing.
“I would listen to him say stuff to the kids and say that’s relevant to me and I’ll take that into my game. I can apply that to my life.
“I’m very fortunate to have met him when I did and he’s made a huge influence on me.”
Looking ahead to tonight’s game, Byrne said: “It’s huge, there is still a lot to play for in the league.
“We’re not going to get fourth at this stage but we’ve got to make sure we stay ahead of Drogheda and we’ve got make sure we are up with Bohs and Sligo just above us.
“It could be a good time to play Rovers, they’ve had a really busy schedule, 120 minutes Sunday.
“But on the flip side, they are the top team in the country and for the last few years, they’ve bounced back from defeats so they’re probably a bit of a wounded animal.
“Up there in Tallaght, we were well beaten but in Tolka I thought we were competitive to beat us. We’ll go in full of belief that we can beat them after Sunday.”
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