Europe v Britain

One of the things we felt necessary to get the football off the ground here was to provide as many games as possible to the players. With this in mind we have tried hard to get teams to visit Brussels and so far Peregrines of Dublin, Clare Island and Coventry's Roger Casements have all crossed the sea to mainland Europe. Conan takes the lead with this and I spend more time trying to dampen his enthusiasm then encouraging it. If he had his way we'd be lining up against the likes of Donegal on a regular basis. Some of the things he dreams up are particularly off the wall.

The best to date was The Exiles Cup; pitting the 2008 European Champions against the 2008 British Champions Tir Chonnail Gaels. Its over six months in the mixer but tomorrow the Irish Ambassodor Brian Nason will throw the ball in between the two teams in Parc Cinq at 13h.

It's a unique occasion, the first time something like this has ever been played. The challenge facing us is massive with the G.A.A. in the UK at a far more advanced stage then in Europe. Playing numbers are incomparable and are growing rapidly across the channel as the emigration again takes a grip of our island. I'd expect this to be the toughest game we have played to date. The British Champions will be seasoned G.A.A. men, hard, fast, physical and street wise. It will be a great test for everyone. Whilst some of the stars of the 2008 campaign have moved on, we have a strong panel tomorrow so will give it a good lash.

There's also a date for our ladies who will take on London's Tara G.F.C in The Channel Cup. One fixture which had to be cancelled this morning was the Brussels Cup which was due to be played between our Hurlers and Dublin's Setanta. However, tragedy struck their club when a young daughter of one of their players passed away yesterday. It puts it all in perspective and are best wishes go the family.