By Daragh Small

Galway manager Kevin Walsh is hopeful that a trainer who played a small part in the All Blacks winning the World Cup will provide the Tribesmen with an edge as they bid for glory in 2016.

New Zealander Greg Muller is charged with knocking Galway into shape as they try to end Mayo's five-year dominance in Connacht.

He provided the All Blacks, through his company Pure Athlete, with special bath salts which they used in their recovery between games on their way to retaining the World Cup.

And Muller, who has previously been involved with the New Zealand Elite Forces and who also played a major part in the Auckland Blues Super Rugby winning season in 2003, is hoping to use his vast sporting experience to help Galway next year.

He worked with Connacht Rugby after coming to Ireland and was brought on board last season by Walsh as Galway try to rediscover former glories, and he was chuffed about helping his native country retain the Webb Ellis Cup in October.

"The All Blacks prefer to not over-train but to recover more. They started using our salts. And the fitness trainer rang me up and said we need some more, these guys love this stuff, the players feel so much better after using these," said Muller.

In his second season as the athletic performance coach with the county the Auckland native is keen to impose his winning philosophy on a team that has not won the Connacht championship since 2008.

With 20 years of experience in the fitness industry he knows the fickle nature of sport and that the process with the Galway footballers could take some time to come to fruition. But he insists it is essential the building blocks remain in place in order for Galway to prosper at senior level.

Manager Walsh starred as the Tribesmen won two All-Irelands in 1998 and 2001 but since then Galway have only won four Connacht titles.

It is a damning statistic for the senior team but one that Muller says can be changed over-time if the structures are put in place, similar to those in Dublin, Kerry, Donegal and reigning Connacht champions Mayo.

"Once we get these things in place we could get through and win Connacht titles and really start contesting at All-Ireland level in the next one or two years but in reality, it's probably more of a three to five-year plan.

"They need to hold people in place to allow those fruits to ripen, and that's a huge challenge," he said.

There were 16 All Blacks part of the Blues squad that he trained and it was there that he first began to impose his military-esque elite mindset into the sporting stratosphere.

"The words elite and world class are used a lot these days but in reality there are very few that operate at that level. What I learned in the military is they function with optimum precision, planning and commitment. They don't accept people putting in mediocre efforts.

"When I started with the Blues I started brought that mindset into their systems. And when I came to Galway I did likewise. We have made a lot of changes with Galway.

"I learned a lot last season just seeing how a GAA team like Galway works. Out of season we put in a lot of work putting new systems in place, and to see the fruits of that it could take three or four years."

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