From Meath GAA to the glamour of Formula One

A Curraha goalkeeper, an F1 performance coach and a physio who has worked with Meath and various AFL teams walk into a bar. What’s the punchline? They're all called Liam Hogan.

No, it's not some bizarre joke. It’s a reality when Hogan walks into his local, Swans, this Christmas to catch up with family and friends, having travelled the world on an incredible career path.

“I never saw myself going into F1 or ever really saw my career going down that path. Prior to this role, I was working in the Sports Injury Clinic in Santry. I was leading the hip groin service there and was also doing a PhD on intramuscular hamstring tendons. I honestly couldn't have been happier in the role at the time.” said Hogan.

When he got the call about a possible job, Liam Hogan was initially very hesitant because of how happy he was in his role with the Santry Sports Injury Clinic. When Hogan heard that it was a Formula 1 team that had come knocking, he decided to explore the opportunity and his GAA background came to the fore during the interview.

“I got a call one day from the Cork physio, Brian O’Connell, and he said he had a job opportunity for me. I was very hesitant because I couldn't be happier in my role at the clinic but he just said, you might want to hear this one out. It's in Formula One.” said Hogan.

“I prepped well for the interview, but early on, they asked me about my experience in GAA and they literally wanted to know what the sport was. I just went on this tangent about my local club Curraha and what a rollercoaster the last 15 years has been for them and how the GAA is so important to the local community. That these lads are all amateurs and even the best in the sport do it for the love of the game. They seemed to really like that and it all kind of evolved from there.”

Hogan’s role as a performance coach for the Williams F1 team involves coaching and preparing the pit crew for the vital pit stops, which can be crucial to where a driver finishes in the race. It becomes very apparent as to why Williams were so intrigued by Hogan’s GAA background when he details the surprising comparisons in coaching styles for a GAA team and an F1 pit crew.

“So in my role as pit crew performance coach, my main KPI (Key Performance Indicator) would be pit stop times. You are looking for two to three second pit stops and anything close to or over three seconds is considered slow," said Hogan.

"We do baseline testing and strength testing throughout the year with them on top of consistent pit-stop practice. These guys are world-class mechanics and my job is probably to get them to think like world-class athletes. You are trying to build an athletic profile for all of these individuals.

“In some ways I can correlate it with GAA because the pit stops aren’t actually these lads’ primary role. It’s a really important aspect of the race itself but their main job is to make sure the car is safe, ready to drive and can operate at it’s highest function.

"GAA coaches want more and more time with their players and it's the same for me with the crew. However, because these lads are so busy with the car itself it's very important for me to know when to step forward and when to step back.

"There is a fantastic atmosphere among the crew which helps a lot. Again, to use a GAA reference here, lads always speak about crossing the white line and being ready to perform. In F1, there is a red line just outside the garage door and that's where the cars will pull up for the pit-stop so we talk a lot about the mindset of focusing on your performance when you cross that red line.”

It is no surprise as to why Hogan draws from his GAA background for his current role, given how vital a role that the sport played in his career path. Hogan worked with various GAA teams, including the likes of the Ulster University and the Dublin ladies, before being brought into the Royals set-up by then Meath physio Barry McEntee.

“Barry McEntee brought me in with Meath initially. That same year he stepped aside and I led it for four years. It was such an amazing experience. I was still playing with Curraha at the time, so you could be treating a lad one week and playing against him the next week.” said Hogan.

“We played Nobber in a relegation final one year and Jordan Morris was still playing for them at the time. At one stage, a ball came in and myself and Jordan had a bit of a grapple in order to try and get to the ball. The next week, Andy McEntee rang me to chat through some of the lads who might have picked up knocks in the championship. He brought up the fact that Jordan had picked up a bit of a knee injury, I tried to play stupid and pretend I didn’t know what had happened, not realising that Andy was actually at the game and seen exactly what happened!”

Hogan was involved with Meath during a tough period, results-wise, but one moment stands out for him as a highlight. A side-step that Cillian O’Sullivan did during the 2019 season, where Meath reached the Super 8’s.

“There are a few moments like that which stick out to me from my time with Meath. Cillian O’Sullivan set up Bryan Menton for a goal against Laois in a Leinster semi-final. It was the same year we made the Super 8s. He had had some issues that year with injuries, but in the build-up to the goal, he completely shifted his centre of gravity and cut inside with an incredible side-step.” said Hogan.

"After the game, Cillian came running over to myself and Mark Geraghty (another physio with Meath at the time), and we celebrated like mad because he had been working on that side-step for months. It had become a running joke. It was brilliant.”

When the world stood still in 2020 and travel became completely restricted, some treatment with St Ultan’s native Cian McBride led to Hogan embarking on his first International venture, the AFL.

“In 2020, Cian McBride came home on a break from Essendon. He had a bit of a foot injury at the time, so I was working with him and the Essendon medical team. That led to me having some fantastic opportunities with AFL teams. I did some work with Essendon, Carlton and the Sydney Swans.

“At the Swans, I got to know Colin O’Riordan really well. Colin is an incredible individual and he is held in such high regard in the AFL. He is now the head of the Sydney Swans academy and he actually presented to our Williams Academy earlier this year about the Sydney Swans culture.”

Given the influx of long-term injuries in GAA, in particular ACL injuries, Hogan shared his views as to why that increase has come about and also offered some important advice to anyone who may have recently suffered a long-term injury.

“Recovery could be a contributing factor. In soccer, they always talk about Ange Ball or Pochettino style of press. Soccer is a different level and there is a huge emphasis for them is to find that recovery," said Hogan. "That’s the difficult thing with the GAA, its hard to find that recovery. There are lads travelling all over the county to train inter-county and they have long drives back. As a physio, I might want a lad to take two weeks off but a manager might want him back for the next session so it’s about getting that balance right.

“I think its also important with rehabilitation that players are not too mentally invested in timelines. It all depends on objective figures throughout the process. What’s their range like at an early stage or what’s their strength like.

"During my time in the sports clinic, it was always important for us to map out what those few months will look like and what targets have to be hit," concluded Hogan who won't have long to spend with his family and friends before return to Williams to prepare for the start of the 2026 Formula One season in the new year.