The Scent of Summer

One certainty in life is that when the sun starts to shine and the smell of freshly cut grass lingers long, you know the G.A.A.'s most serious business is about to start. In our case thats a football tournament in Amsterdam followed two weeks later by hurling in Paris.

On Saturday we trained in Parc50 on a smashing spring afternoon. We had 15 in all which is a good number for a Saturday in Brussels. The soccer lads are still in full flight and others tend to use the weekends to do a bit of travelling or entertaining guests.

We started very lax, in typical weekend mood. After a little ranting and raving, we began to apply ourselves much better and had a reasonable blow out. We will have three more sessions before Amsterdam and will need everyone of them. The date of the tournament was changed two weeks ago and the result is that Eoghan Kelly, Kevin Keary and Philip Roche will be missing.

It may benefit Eoin Sheanon who has a broken finger so the recovery time will be welcomed. I'll need the extra week as well. Having twisted my left ankle at soccer training on Wednesday night, I played with heavy strapping. Mid way through the second half I landed heavily on my right ankle and the pain shot through it. With no subs left and the game still in the melting point, I was forced to play on which no doubt added to the damage. Today I've struggled to put any weight on it and I reckon an x-ray awaits early in the week. Its not an injury I'm alien to and I've the fingers crossed that there is no major damage.

Whatever team we line out with in the 'dam, we'll give it a good lash. It will give other lads an opportunity to show their worth and will give valuable game time to the lads. The focus for the year is to peak when we hit the Pan-European Championship and everything builds towards that and our goal of being the first team in years to retain the Championship.