Cork Hurling To Fore Once Again!

Cork Hurling stood tall once again in the Pairc yesterday against all the odds. And it was Cork’s weekend all round as five of its exiled sons helped lead Belgium to an 8th Pan-E European Hurling tournament victory in a row and leave the team on the brink of a second successive European championship title.

Daire Cott led the way with a Player of the Tournament performance. He hurled with many of Sunday’s heroes; winning a Harty Cup with Midleton CBS and an All Ireland Minor in the mid-nineties. The skills which brought him to those successes may not be as finely tuned as before but they still shun brightly in the magnificent stadium which hosted round 2 of this year’s championship.

Accompanying him was a half-back line made up of myself and Conchur de Barra, who was himself, a serious contender for Player of the Tournament. Dominic King, a brother of Newtown’s JP, made his first appearance of the season and how we’d love to see more of his graft in the coming weeks. The final Corkman was a debutant, Timmy Donovan from Kilmacabea, hardly a hurling stronghold but European Hurling is more about endeavour and balls than raw skill and Timmy has the former in plentiful supply.

The post-match talk was of recalling Eoghan Kelly and Aidan Harte from Cork, signing up James Murphy on a full-time basis and breaking away to form ‘Cork Belgium G.A.A.’ That’s for the future though as there is still much to be passed on to our team-mates from the rest of Ireland.

Back to the Hurling and it was a day when our entire 17 strong panel contributed. We beat Lux in the first game on a score of 1-10 to 2-5 in a game littered with frees against us. As the day progressed we ironed out our issues in wins against Paris and Den Haag. The final group game was against a rejuvenated Zurich side. We wanted the clean sweep but still rotated en masse. We have acquired a good few lads this year that have not hurled much in recent times and like Aisake, their hurling is rusty but their will great. With each outing the hurling improves and Ciaran Kelly’s goal and assists were testament to that.

The game also witnessed what may be the shortest hurling career ever. Our rugby import Diarmuid Laffan, who has scaled the heights of U-20 Rugby World Cups, was unfortunate that his ‘welcome to European Hurling’ came in the form of an almighty blow to the knee. The fact he was able to walk off the pitch was impressive in its own right.

We finished the group undefeated and headed for a rematch with Lux in the final. The opening fixture gave us a sufficient scare not to allow for complacency and we took the game to them early. Still, we could not shake them off, despite a 2-3 to 1-1 lead at the interval.

However, with the likes of Michael Hough, Shane Ryan and Conor Magner’s paw leaping to the fore in the second half, we drove on. Eoin Sheanon bagged a handful of goals and Crusher swept all before him at the back. The final scoreline of 5-6 to 1-5 was deserved but maybe a bit flattering.

From a defensive point of view, I thought we were shaky. We didn’t communicate well, we fouled, we cleared balls aimlessly too often and we didn’t get in front enough. That’s a harsh assessment (none of us were brutal) considering we conceded a miserly amount of scores from play but we still weren’t up to our usual standards.

Our Ladies came within the width of a post of winning their first camogie title. Player of the Tournament Niamh Kennedy charged through the Lux defence in the final act of the game and with the opposing defenders closing down she unleashed a shot which was saved and bounced around the goal mouth for a few more attempts before going narrowly wide. Special mention should also go to their Cork woman, Sylvia McCarthy who gave an exhibition of defensive play, hooking and blocking and skutching all day! It was a disappointing day that also saw their midfield warrior Caoimhe break her collarbone and goalkeeper Mags damage her Achilles tendon. Both spent the weekend in a Luxembourg hospital and we wish them a speedy recovery.

On now to our home tournament on June 26th when we will hope to secure the European Championship on home soil.

No Time For Complacency When Momentum At Stake

Round 2 of the European Hurling Championship in Luxembourg this weekend. We’re two days away and still unsure of our travelling party such is the volatility of it all! Guys have dropped in and out all week but there is a strong core there. Regular readers will be aware of how I love retelling the story of 2009’s tournament down there and the epic final that ensued. I’ll spare you again and just assure you that the 2.5hr drive down will be filled with those thoughts.

Complacency will be our first battle to overcome. Our opponents haven’t been able to match us to date but the unpredictability of all the comings and goings in Europe mean you just never know who will roll up. On paper at least, Den Haag could be strong if they travel in force whilst Zurich and Paris remain unknown quantities, even though their brighter lights from the past remain.

On our side will be the Galacticos, returning after missing the Hague tournament. Last year, we showed we could win down there without them, this year they must show they can help us do the same. It’s the likes of Hough, Eoin and Darragh I refer to and they will add some serious weight (in some cases) and firepower (in other cases) to the forward division.

We’ve got a good bit of hurling done in recent weeks and had a decent session in the baking heat last Saturday morning so we will be as prepared as any of the teams. The make-up of our defence has some question marks in terms of who plays and getting the mix right will be key. Considering our goal-getters at the opposite end, if we keep the green flag stuck in the ground behind our own uprights than we’ll have a good chance of bringing home the cup.

Momentum is everything but it feeds on victories. Saturday is important in keeping it going. There is no room for complacency. You play every tournament like it’s the last you will play together; not because it’s a great rallying call but because it’s a fact. Take every opportunity, take nothing for granted.

Life Choices!!

In some ways training felt a little disappointing this week. We’d had our ‘rest’ week after the Belgian tournament when we just played games but this week we got back to into the harder work. We had +/- 16 both nights which in terms of recent numbers was disappointing. Myself and Colin recognise the irony in this though when we consider that, at times last year, we couldn’t hit double figures.

There were many legitimate reasons for the lower numbers with the likes of Hudson and Ruairi travelling, a host of the MEP assistants in Strasbourg and more guys injured etc. Still, to be floating around the 16 mark is very good and one of the main reasons for this is the influx of stagieres. The likes of Martin, Diarmuid and the two Shane’s have barely missed training since they arrived.

These guys would have being playing sport regularly at home in recent years and you can see the difference in their approach. Going training is a natural reflex for them and it’s one of their main considerations when they plan their week. In the past, we’ve not had such a large core of fellas like that, instead a larger portion of guys have had a more blasé approach to training.

When they move on in a couple of months, they will leave a void which won’t be easily filled. We have recruited guys like Brendan Lynch and Paul Gavin who fall into the same category in terms of commitment so that will go someway towards it. We’d be hoping a lot of the stagieres might look to stay on though.

I had lunch with Barry Cahill the other day and we were talking about what plans different lads had in terms of moving on. Barry dabbled in the football a couple of years ago but doesn’t play anymore. Still, he knows all the lads well. He was observing how much of an impact the GAA club has had on fellas and how it’s a serious part of their consideration when they are looking at their next career move. There is a bind which isn’t easily broken. Of course I agreed with him when he thought that might be a bit over the top, so as not to fall out over lunch. However, that’s exactly where I want fellas heads to be at!!

One ‘bird’ who will flee the nest soon is Maria Brosnan aka ‘The Bomber’. Her passport says Cork but she vehemently shouts for the green and gold. From tonight we will embark on an intensive two weeks of going away parties which if they are anything like her stay in Brussels, will be ‘noisy’ and rowdy! I’m sure she leaves with a heavy heart and we wouldn’t be surprised to see her back in Belgian colours in 2011.

Beyond The Call Of Duty

The story goes that, in the early 90’s, Alex Ferguson got wind of a house party which Lee Sharpe and Ryan Giggs were attending. He stormed the house and promptly accompanied them out of harm’s way. He had his eyes and ears all over town and knew every step his players took. I like his approach and so Rochey shouldn’t be surprised when he is caught with Tiramisu in hand or Johnny Phelan is seen strolling arm in arm with his lady in Place Jourdain whilst the lads are training hard in the Parc.

I’ve taken it a step further this last week and moved in with injury victim Colin Byrne to support his return to fitness. If ever there was a man who needed my help, it is him. Belgium has been kind to the man and his fridge is heavily stocked with its finest beer and darkest chocolate. He likes the ‘quiet’ pint too and I saw that side within 24hrs of moving in when he broke his curfew at the first attempt.

When a man of his age gets injured, the road to recovery is a longer one with more twist and turns and unforgiving hills to scale. After a week under my guidance though, he returned to training tonight and the baby finger survived intact. He’s sitting across from me now looking very smug whilst eating his kebab. Little does he know, it will be his last for a long time.

The clock is ticking though as his brother arrives on Monday morning and I have to have completed my mission by then as the scale of surveillance will need to be scaled down. Fortunately his wife to be will be following him over in a couple of months but I worry it may be too late. I’ve six days to change the man’s ways. Time to get cracking.

The Good Days

In one of her many acceptance speeches last year, the former ladies captain Mide, talked of how we were building a community and implied that that was as important, if not more important, than winning trophies.

You may have seen Sean Kelly’s article in yesterday’s Examiner and for a first timer to the European G.A.A. scene (when attending our home tournament on Saturday) he managed to grasp a lot of the key points and challenges we face and was very complimentary about our club’s hosting of the event. For those of you on Facebook, you will have seen Steph’s photos and they really captured the whole day from the sporting side to the organisation side to the family aspect. People’s faces reflected well the current mood in the club.

The speeches in de Valera’s that night were again complimentary about how far our club have come but I couldn’t help wonder how other clubs feel when they hear this. We are fortunate in that Brussels is a relatively small city and a lot of us live in the same areas. Training is accessible and we socialise with each other with great regularity! We have husbands and wives in the club and with the recent flurry of babies we have an abundance of mascots. The group as a whole is tight and it’s reflected in the organisation of events like Saturday. Everyone plays but everyone helps.

Contrast that to the situation in other clubs. Den Haag pull guys from Amsterdam, Leiden, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Delft and beyond. They can’t generate that same sense of community as a result. Their Ladies play with Holland who pull players from even further a field. It’s noticeable on a night out that they don’t know each other as well as we know our lady counterparts. Then of course there is Amsterdam, again with a distance from their ladies and also combating the challenges that the distractions of a town like Amsterdam bring.

Being active in Hurling and Football also helps us as we travel everywhere together en masse. The bond strengthens with each journey. Teams like Paris Men must spend a lot of time in Brittany while their girls head for other venues to participate in their competitions. More often than not, Belgium Men and Ladies compete on the same stage because many of the big clubs are in Benelux and thus many of the tournaments hosted here.

I talked to a fella from a rival club on Saturday and he told me how much money his club raised last year. It was phenomenal and they did it from a much smaller player base than ours. So whilst having 5 teams and a well organised tournament last weekend can make a grand public statement about our progress it would not be right to say we are doing anything more than any other club. We work hard but a lot of circumstances fall into our favour.

There is an unreal amount of work in building and sustaining a G.A.A. club in Europe. Whilst clubs at home face broader structural issues, our clubs often face down day to day issues which threaten the survival of their clubs. We’re lucky in Belgium at the moment because as my father observed from our website and articles like Sean Kelly’s, we have good people in our club, willing to chip in.

The club is living in the good times. It’s never been so good in fact. Every new player who crosses our path is grabbed by the furore and throws themselves right in. We have lived through the dark days (more than once!) when players were scarce and trophy cabinets were bare. Maybe we should just kick back and enjoy these moments but if we were to do that, we would stop driving on. If we stop driving on, we’ll slow down and lose ground. Building from our position of strength it key.

A-men; Revival Continues

Since way back in early January, it was abundantly clear that things were going to change in 2010. The training regime was grim but the application lit up the night sky out in the BSB. We had a bunch of player’s intent on bettering themselves this year.

With the A team on the brink of orchestrating the collapse of Den Haag on Saturday, Johnny O and Crusher were sprung from the bench. Within moments, their impact was telling. Johnny kicked a point whilst a series of raids from Crusher yielded at least one point but more importantly drained the energy from the legs of our opponents.

I heard a player from outside of Benelux commented to a mutual friend last week that he heard we were not fit. Those who had to face down the strong running of Diarmuid, the relentless persistence of Olof and the industry of Big Jim last Saturday will surely beg to differ. And they did later that night. When we meet that player later in the year, we will be in even better physical condition.

We put in a couple of gruesome enough sessions in La Rasante in the Mondays leading up to last weekend. There is a lot of hurt lingering in the hangover of 2009 and hard graft is the tonic lads have turned to.

Finally we are getting some settled feel to the team with myself, debutant Paul Gavin, Hudson, Crusher, Burkey and at times David Collins vying for just 4 starting slots in defence. Johnny O and Enda provide the energy and experience in midfield whilst Olof has made a successful transition back to wing forward. A second debutant lined up on the other wing on Saturday in the form of Diarmuid Laffan, a man of significant rugby pedigree and with a turn of pace and direct style which is perfectly suited to our game.

Remarkably Eoin has found an accomplice who can bring the best out of his game in the form of Jim. With Cluxton and Timmy doing a bit of a rotation between the sticks we had plenty of scope to rotate the squad and keep things fresh at the weekend. Enough scope to keep key man James O’Dowd in reserve until the final.

Having beaten An Bhelig, Lux and Amsterdam, we found ourselves with familiar opposition in the final. A realisation that things were getting a little out of hand in recent games was evident in the opening exchanges but as the minutes past, the intensity started to creep up a few notches.

It was tight throughout the first half and our slender one point margin at the internal was not much to rest our laurels on. There was more in us though and with some superb fielding from Diarmuid, we started to drive things on and never looked back after the resumption. Eoin kicked four points from play in the final and Jim, Johnny O, James and Diarmuid also contributed by raising the white flag.

The expected shemozzle would come with the game already decided. There was a bit of a ruck up in our forwards and the result this time round was Olof getting a haymaker into the nose. The offender promptly received his marching orders and we were able to close the game out. Our discipline in recent meetings has been excellent with no red card (as opposed to Den Hague’s two) and a miserly amount of yellows.

Our rivals are facing a familiar struggle. To win a European Championship takes a massive effort and lads must sacrifice holidays, weddings and all sorts of other things to be available for the fight. If you can get them together one year, you have a chance. To do it two in a row is nearly impossible. We’ve been there and felt the pain and bounced back. I’ve no doubt Den Hague’s dip is only temporary and we’ll see them back to their best soon.

From Little Acorns Grow Big Trees

With barely the slightest shake of a tree, fifty footballers made themselves available for selection last Saturday, causing me one of my biggest headaches to date. It was an incredible number when you consider FC Irlande were in action on the same day with at least seven names of possible/past players springing to mind. With those kinds of numbers available, there was no question about entering a third team. The strength of Benelux is well documented and considering our second team have to fight hard to thread water, it was always going to be a massive task to compete.

However, whilst I'd be the first to proclaim the need for achieving success, we also have a duty to give as many people the opportunity to play as possible. Last year we may have compromised our chances of winning by persisting with a second team but this year we reaped the rewards. Pearce and Jim are two examples of guys who have made the step up. Often fellas won't join a club because they don't think they will get a game and it was important we didn't fall into this trap.

On Saturday, our third team was far from a motley crew. Micky Keane kicked the winning score in our first final victory in Rennes eighteen months ago. Conor Aylward is a massive competitor and Alec Elliott a regular A player. Aside from reintroducing guys into the club, it also opened the door to new recruits like Lorcan O'Flaherty, Julian Hale, Liam Kelly and find of the day, keeper Brendan 'Bob' Lynch. Whilst the results were hard to stomach, mentor for the day Keith Stephens kept the spirits high and managed the expectations of the group well. As Ciaran Kelly alluded to in a mail this morning, our team, going under the name An Bhelig for the day, had probably slightly shorter odds than Honduras' 1000/1 to win the World Cup. The result that mattered wasn't on the scoreboard though; it will hopefully be the one that sees new players joining ranks in the coming weeks. Many have already put their name in the mix for selection on higher teams.

Our second team, playing under the name Brussels, went into the day with high expectations. It was the strongest team we had to date. However, two sucker punches early in the Amsterdam game seemed to take the wind from the sails. It was a frustrating day because physically they were equal to or superior to the opposition faced but getting the scores on the board was a problem. Considering the A team have had major struggles in this area in the past, it is a problem which will naturally filter down to other teams. Another contributing factor is the turnover of players which unsettles the team and it’s noticeable that the right mix has yet to be found. It's a lonely road being the only established second team in Europe as each opposing team you face will have at least a sprinkling of experienced players and in the 11-a-side game that can be huge.

We must make sure the spirit in the camp remains and that we keep driving on to improve our game and tailor our training to do just that. Being the first team in Europe to field three teams in Europe is great but it is more than a nice little publicity stunt. Our standards will raise if we don’t lose heart, it will be all about perseverance in the coming months. Relative to this time last year, the team is rude health ahead of the Shield rounds later in the summer.

Belgium Triumph On Home Soil

What a massive day. Our first home tournament saw six mens and six womens teams decend on Leuven for an action packed day of activity. There was an army of volunteers busily at work when I arrived to the pitches shortly after 9am but still I was greeted by a stern lecture from Caoimhe who seemed to decide that the slack show from the lads was all down to me.

Once there, my input was invaluable though. Myself and Olof stood chuckling as the girls, led by The Bomber, made an almighty balls of trying to assemble the goalposts. Never ones to stand back, we intervened and resolved the mess. All sorts of other stuff needed doing and got done before Belgium A and B squared off in the opening games in both competitions.

Full reports of the games will follow in the coming days but the main bits of news is that both the men and women won their competitions in stylish fashion. It was a fantastic result and topped the whole occassion. The other notable point was the men fielding a third team for the first time in European G.A.A. 50 players togged out for the men on the day.

Former GAA President and current MEP Sean Kelly was in attendance for the finals and would comment at the evening function on how impressed he was with the standard of play. It was a great honour to have him present on the day and will no doubt help further boost the profile of the club.

After a glut of recent tournament wins we finally had the honour of one of our players receiving player of the tournament. For the ladies, Ciara was a deserving winner and whilst the referee didn't think he was the best player, he felt Eoin Sheanon's honesty was deserving of the men's award!!

Needless to say, the night is barely a hazy memory at this point as the drinking and singing and talking bollicks contined well beyond sun rise. Another chapter written and closed for the club and most importantly, two more trophies in the bag.

29

I came into the adult grades as a Minor in '99 along with eight or nine of the victorious '98 team. We had that youthful swashbuckling style with little regard for reputation. More success soon followed at U-21 and the natural and rapid progression was to challenge the establishment and seek our places on the adult side. There was no intentional cull by selectors but it seemed their 1998 defeat to Crosshaven pushed a host of them into retirement. Pat Murphy, Gerry Murphy and Gavin Farrissey were the only lads north of 25 and the majority of us were still Minor or U-21.

Having team-mates so close in age made me think that this was the norm and that the average club player would have hung up his boots by the time he was 25. I thought my time was ticking and I was still a Minor!! At that age you are still developing physically so you rely on your natural skill, instincts and enthusiasm. The knocks don't take the same toll, nor does the bulging fixture list. There is one void which you cannot recognise at the time and that's experience.

Dad used to bang on about it all the time and I didn't know what he was on about. Because you don't recognise it at the time so cannot understand it. Looking back though I realised I encountered it regularly. I remember one game up in Passage and I was marking a wiry auld lad with shiney hair. On paper I should have had the measure of him but he was like a magnet for the ball. I couldn't figure it out. Gerry Murphy was the same. They just knew how to time the runs and when and where the ball would arrive. They had perfected their dummies and knew how to play to their strengths.

As the years progressed I started to recognise it. If you have been caught one on one in front of the goal for the first time, you may get caught in two minds about what to do. When you have been in the situation hundreds of times you get cuter. You watch the body language, look at the eyes, narrow the angle and wait for the right moment to pounce. That judgement only comes with experience. It's an invaluable asset and can overcome so many other deficiencies.

When I moved to Belgium I realised there was life after 25. Out in FC Irlande, I marvelled at the likes of Enda and Alan Norton; deep into their thirties and flying fit. They were even aloud play games!! An added bonus was that, as an expat club, there were no young fellas chomping at the bit trying to get your place. The G.A.A. club here was very much a Dad's army affair in those days. Now though, we have an array of ages from low twenties to late thirties & beyond. The influx of young fellas has transported me into the Dad's Army brigade at a time when I thought the likes of Conor, Denis, Enda and Fergal were keeping me young.

Today I'm 29 but with plenty left in the tank. The body is better than it was for years and the hunger to make the most out of every occasion gains momentum with each passing year. Today, I will accept the transition into my thirtieth year and tomorrow I'll try and kick on and make it a good one.

Breaking New Ground

Another chapter will be written in our club’s history this weekend when we host our first Football Tournaments out in Leuven on Saturday. There will be a Ladies Pan-European round and a Men’s Benelux Regional round to keep interested spectators busy. Whilst the hosting is significant in its own right, the men will further break new ground.

We will become the first team in Europe to field three teams in competition on the same day. It has been impossible to keep with the speed of growth of the men’s football. People to help with the management and also finding a pitch to accommodate the numbers are the main issues. Great problems to have.

We broke the 35 mark at training last night and tomorrow I expect between 45 and 50 players to proudly wear our jerseys and give their all for whichever team they have selected. With it being 11-a-side, we have three full squads and despite being aloud move guys up and down, we will not enact that rule so as to be fair to everyone in our panels and make sure they get sufficient game time.

Our second team has a serious looking edge to it and should have a minimum aim of qualifying from their group into the semi-finals. It’s the strongest team they’ve had with regulars like Ollie, Ruairi, Matti & Co joined by the new recruits Martin Brennan, Shane Ryan & Pearce O’Caoimh. The third team will be up against it but they are no motley crew either. Established players like Alec Elliott, Adrian Hiel, Conor Aylward and Mickey Keane will lead their charge alongside newcomers like keeper Brendan Lynch, Lorcan O’Flaherty and Liam Kelly.

The A team have a slightly rejigged outfit from previous tournaments with Rugby convert Diarmuid Laffan making his debut. Veteran Enda Rice returns and is joined by a former Belgian great Paul Gavin who makes a return to his spiritual home after being a mainstay on The Hague team for the last number of years. The panel will be completed with the pesky diminutive figure of former captain Stephen Cluxton, who lines out with us for the first time since Clare Island. Drawn in separate groups from rivals Den Hague, we will have to navigate through some tricky waters if we are to lock horns again. That’s the goal and hopefully we can drive on from our win at the previous tournament.

I expect our ladies to storm their competition with a star studded team. Caragh, Caoimhe, Sylvia and The Bomber have some quality support in intercounty talents Grainne, Ciara and one or two more. They too have a second team which should benefit from the filtering down of A team players.

An army under the command of Becky has been putting in phenomenal hours to make sure our club is represented in the best possible way and I’m sure their efforts will be reflected in the smooth operation that should result. It promises to be a fantastic occasion, hopefully one complete with some silverware at the evening function in de Valera’s on Saturday night.

Getting the right names in the right boxes

I’ve had an easy ride so far when training teams. Be it hurling or hockey, I never had sufficient players to have a selection headache. Belgium was my first football gig and in 2008, the team picked itself whilst last year, there was a fairly clear line between the A and B. 2010 has brought an influx of players and committed ones at that.

On Saturday, I have a list that is approaching 40. The dilemmas will start when we choose whether to break new ground by entering a third team or to have two bumper panels. On Monday night, lads were putting the hands up. Some of the biggest hits we’ve seen went in with more than a few lads being put on their backside. In a competitive environment you won’t get much sympathy if you start dragging your arse. Fellas were bouncing back up and back into it.

The selection puzzle is not black and white. At home, you have a time period in which you can judge a players ability and commitment. You have fewer comings and goings and so fairness and consistency can be more easily defined.

If a guy shows up a week before a tournament and looks the business, you have to throw him in, even if he will be gone in three or four months. That’s the nature of the beast here. Then you’ll have your old war horses with family and other sporting commitments but who will always be there for you to call on. How do you treat them? They’ve soldiered with you all over and will do so in years to come. Leave him out in favour of one of the passers through or tolerate his personal situation and stay loyal.

What about the lad who perseveres through all sorts of ups and downs? How do they feel? I’m certain some trainers have no awareness of this but I’ve felt the pain and injustice of it all, so I can relate to it. Does it mean I won’t make the same mistakes? Am I trying to justify hard decisions which will have to be made? Probably.

Even whether we have two or three teams will have a big bearing on selection. Three Belgium teams means two groups of three, a semi and possible a final. That gives you less chance to rotate and so less chance to blood a less experienced lad. Two Belgian teams means one group of 5 so four games and more chance to rotate. In the player’s eye it is black, white and personal but in reality it is far from it.

One thing for sure is that it doesn’t get personal. I’ve an immense amount of respect for how some lads structure their personal lives to commit to the team. Balancing the respect for that and giving your team the best chance for success is the challenge.

Fighting Against The Tide

Uncle John, me, Dad and my brother John in The White House, 1999

The blog is heavily focused on football activity, more because I’m training the team than anything else and as a result there is more to discuss on an ongoing basis. However, it gives rise to my father accusing me of being more of a big ball merchant than a small ball one. It irritates me no end.

Hurling has always been a sensitive thing for me and I suspect my brother John too. The pitch at home is named after our Grandfather who hurled with Cork and won an All-Ireland medal in 1941 and a litany of Railway Cup medals. He even had the honour of captaining Munster to one of the victories, back in a day when the Railway Cup nearly had equal billing with the All-Ireland. Later, my Uncle John would win an All-Ireland Minor at his second attempt. Dad didn’t represent Cork but played his share of Fitzgibbon and Senior Hurling. The stories of his tough, uncompromising style are often told.

I always felt a need to prove myself as a hurler more than a footballer, but also a frustration that I never managed to. It’s against that backdrop that my irritation burns I think. Events never lent themselves to me matching those that came before though. The first blow was in 1986 when Jimmy Barry won his final All-Ireland against Galway. I got left at home that day. Imagine how that experience could influence a 5 year old.

With one school blitz to my name I was whisked off to Indianapolis, Indiana for just short of three years. My head was turned to Basketball and Soccer, even though we did keep in touch with 5am drives to Gaelic Park in Chicago to see the All –Ireland.
Back into sixth class and a solitary outing against Courcies before being sent off to a Protestant orientated boarding school. Rugby and Hockey followed for the next five years until Gaelic Football was brought into the schools. No hurling though and I wouldn’t play again until Ballinhassig beat us in the Minor in ’98. So by the time ’99 came around I had two competitive hurling matches to my name.

With John at the helm, myself and the team made rapid progress that year, beating Tracton in a massive tussle in the South-East final. To a man, the players on that team would probably say it was their finest day in our club jersey.

As if intentionally trying to halt my momentum, Dad took over the adult team a couple of years later. I was handed the goal keepers jerseys against all sorts of protestation from me. Secretly though, I probably loved it and found a position on the team where i could have a decisive impact on a game, be it with saves or carefully placed puck-outs. Donal Og’s puck-out strategy was still only in his dreams when I was hitting short ones into wing forwards hands and out over the sideline, to the furious objection of the Kinsale crowd!!!

So, the final nail in the coffin didn’t quite fit. Even off the field, the first team I trained was our U-16 hurlers in Kinsale, at a time when only the most committed would work away in the face of the footballing tornado in the club. Despite having my head turned away at every opportunity, my interest never waned though. I may find myself training a football team now but that’s because it’s the job that needs doing. Simple as.

I think what Dad wants me to admit is that the joy of winning a hurling championship trumps all else. I said already that the ’99 win was the greatest of all. Add to that one of the biggest upsets I was involved in, when we beat Courcies in the U-21 in 2001, and you have two of the top three memories. I’d swap all the South-East football medals for a hurling one. Toyota and Belgium deprived me of my place on the 2005 team and again when they won it in 2007. Every time I think about that bus trip to Shannon in 05, with the lads in Innishannon playing Shamrocks, I curse my luck. I was named in the programme that day but events conspired against me once more.

Dad will complain that this entry is too long winded but it is important to recount the evidence of his work. Add to all of the above his retirement from farming to pursue a desk job and you know why I don’t carry the rugged look of a fella who spent his idle time lifting bails and hopping gates. The absence of that experience is reflected in my style of hurling. With no quick route back to make amends for unfulfilled ambitions, I must be happy in my skin. The challenge is no longer to be pursued with Kinsale, it’s now to be chased across Europe and will be done as always, with equal vigour in both codes.

7up

Victorious Belgian Team


Teaching kids new words

I’m slightly paranoid that without success our club will lose momentum. I nearly lose sleep over it at night. We must always be building, driving forward & winning trophies. My fear is borne more out of the transience of the GAA scene in Europe and the lack of control that any of us (in any of the clubs) have over it rather than anything else. Our structures are good, our committee active and our door open to all. It’s that transience though.

We last lost a Hurling tournament in July 2008, by a point, to an extremely talented Luxembourg outfit. Six tournament wins and a European Championship later, we sought further silverware in Den Haag last weekend. I mentioned how depleted we were in a previous blog and with the withdrawal of Aonghus, Jim and Pearce at the 11th hour, we were down to the minimum.

Endeavour is great though. So is a bit of balls. Crusher has both in abundance and he needed it to fetch the ball from above his man’s head, turn and take on the onrushing defenders before dispatching the ball to the top corner on his weak side. From an ominous position where his team trailed Den Haag midway through the second half of the final, he had injected life into his troops.

The day didn’t start so spectacularly though as we showed off our rust in all its glory, losing to The Hague 2-3 to 0-5. Myself and Shane hit enough wides to carry a team to an All-Ireland. I can consider myself an old pro at this tournament lark at this stage and know well that situations can be reversed quickly.

Our game against Lux would decide who would face off against the hosts in the final. It was a tight enough game with both sides having to pick off scores from distance. Our forward line of Conor, Ciaran and Dan were making life difficult for their backs too which helped us keep and build on our three point half-time lead. They won their share of frees too and that was enough to see us through.

Going into the final I thought we had a chance. Our defence looked steady with Dad’s Army hero Fergal Mythen bolting down the full back zone. Gordon, who sometimes moonlights as an Adrian, and Yann also had a big game in them. It was nip and tuck until they popped up for a goal. It was sloppy, we should have got a hit in but didn’t and found ourselves behind.

It would be easy to throw in the towel and head into the evening traffic tailgating a litany of excuses about absent players. Excuse making is no longer our favoured dish though and we had that long winning streak to defend. Everyone stepped up and Crushers goal was just the topic to see us through. Conor Magner started fetching ridiculous ball out of the air and Shane Ryan began to flirt more closely with the uprights. Just when we needed him, he switched from school disco mode to Celtica mode and became even more acquainted. A point up with time ticking away, he surged (maybe a bit generous) up the wing and put over a cracker, a la Ben O’Connor in the ’99 semi-final. We held our nerve and claimed a hurling and football double on Dutch soil.

It was a fantastic result on the day and gives hurling a big lift. The footballers have been going at things in a much more determined fashion this year and there was a danger that the hurlers may have lost their hunger. Anyone who was there on Saturday, well and truly has it back now though and with numbers good at training, we can hope to drive things on again in a few weeks time.

Our Ladies were also in action over ‘two legs’ against Luxembourg. Having one the first game, they fell at the second hurdle and lost on aggregate by a solitary point. Still, they’ve come on leaps and bounds since last year and Olga’s coaching is visibly paining off. It should bear fruit sooner rather than later.