As he casts his eye on the Championship this summer, Michael Fennelly's scope for thought will go beyond performances and tactics - it will go a little wider into teams' long-term preparation.
The former Kilkenny hurler, an eight-time All-Ireland winner who retired just prior to the new year, is also a lecturer in Sports Science at Limerick IT. It's a role he's held for four years after completing a masters and quitting a job in the bank.
"It's always interesting to see if players are getting faster, more powerful; Are they lighter looking? Are they stronger? Are they bigger?" Fennelly told Balls at the launch of Sky Sports' coverage of the 2018 Championships.
The major trend which Fennelly has seen in recent years is one of GAA players dropping weight. Mobility is becoming key in both codes.
Oh, without a doubt, players are getting leaner. Not getting as big, I think they're getting strong. Body fat is coming down. Players would in two, three, four years will probably have 12 per cent body fat. Most of them probably have it already coming into the championship.
I'd say stronger, not necessarily bigger in terms of their ratio of power to strength. Even a bit lighter, maybe.
You look a the Dublin football team: a lot of them are light but they're strong. Muscle can be quite tiring to carry around for 70 minutes. It's definitely changing and it will change over the next couple of years.
That percentage of body fat would put GAA players in the elite athlete range - that tends to be somewhere between six to 13 depending on the sport. Spurs striker Harry Kane, for example, has around ten per cent, something he's worked hard on dropping over recent years.
While the physical will always be a front in football and hurling, Fennelly believes the next battleground will be mental. There are gains to be made in embracing an aspect of sport which was once dismissed in GAA as being for the weak-willed.
"I think there's still huge room for improvement in the psychological element for teams to work with sports psychologists and to have one of them there permanently. I think that'll be coming in more and more. To manage 30-something players, 40 players now, it's tough.
"It's just getting more professional and you can't change it, that's the way it's going. You either get on board with it or you end up in the dump."
Kilkenny’s eight-time All-Ireland winner and three-time All-Star, Michael Fennelly is now part of the stellar line-up of GAA legends for Sky Sports' most exciting season of GAA coverage to date.
Sky Sports have another live and exclusive double header this Saturday June 9th. Coverage for the Senior Football Championship Qualifier between Meath and Tyrone starts at 4.30pm, followed by Kilkenny v Wexford in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship at 6.30pm.
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Picture credit: Sportsfile
