Nestlé Health Science’s global leading brand Solgar, a provider of high-quality nutritional supplements, are pleased to announce an exciting new three-year partnership with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), the representative body for inter-county Gaelic Games players, becoming the official vitamin partner of the GAA/GPA. Solgar will also become one of the title sponsors of the GAA Museum, home to the rich sporting, social and cultural history of Gaelic Games. Pictured at the launch is brand ambassador Galway camogie player Niamh Mallon. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
It’s fair to say that Niamh Mallon’s life revolves around Gaelic games.
One and off the pitch her average day is dedicated to getting the best from either herself or others.
The long-time Down camogie star has been playing with her adopted Galway since last year and she’s also a Performance Nutrionist with the Galway footballers.
She trains two times a week with the Galway camogie team, attends at least one Galway football training session a week, and on many weekends will both play with the Galway camogie team and travel to a Galway football match as part of the backroom team.
She’s also on call whenever required if any of the Galway footballers have a query around nutrition, so it’s a good thing she’s passionate about both Gaelic games and her profession.
“It sounds a lot more chaotic than it actually is,” says Mallon. “It actually works out very well. With the playing, we train Mondays and Wednesdays and the footballers train Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“There's scope to make it work. My fiancée at home doesn't see a lot of me during the week, that's for sure. But yeah, it's busy. But I make it work.”
Mallon moved to Galway in 2018, but it was only last year she decided to throw in her lot with the county’s camogie team having played with her native Down for over a decade with great distinction.
She made an instant impact with the adopted county, turning in a series of excellent displays as they reached the All-Ireland Final where they were narrowly beaten by Cork.
Mallon finished the year with her first ever All-Star award, but admits the decision to switch her county allegiance was still a very tough one to make.
“Yeah, it was,” she says. “It was definitely something I didn't take lightly at all. Like, it was all I'd ever known. I'd been playing with Down since I was 15 years of age. I had an awful lot of friends and an awful lot of relationships built up. It wasn't easy at all.
“Just probably the logistics of it didn't line up any more. I commuted from 2018, it takes its toll on your body. It was probably a case of the time was right to make the move. But as I say, it wasn't something I took lightly and it's still not something that sits very easy with me either, to be honest.”
Niamh Mallon of Galway in action against Laura Hynes of Cork during the Glen Dimplex Camogie All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final between Cork and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
Galway don’t start their Very Camogie League campaign until February 22nd, so Mallon’s weekends so far this year have been spent with the Galway footballers.
The FRC rule enhancements have made for a faster brand of Gaelic football that puts greater energy demands on the players, so she’s been busy helping them adapt to the greater workload.
“As the demands increasing, fuelling demands must go with that and that's absolutely something we've been looking at and something that we're making the players very aware of, that their energy demands and particularly their carbohydrate demands are going to have to increase to align with the increasing demands of the game,” says Mallon.
“I think the big one is the goalkeeper. The demands and the distance covered and the high-speed running of the goalkeeper, with the change in the rules, is huge.
“For example, a goalkeeper's carbohydrate loading protocol has changed dramatically from this time last year, just to meet the demands of what they're doing, in terms of workload.
“That's a key learning we've taken and something we've tried to address and implement in our squad. But yeah, as you say as well, the middle eight and the three up and three back is changing as well.
“You're just trying to make sure that everyone has enough fuel on board to get through games, that's really important.”