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.