Three More Old School Graduate

It's hard to keep up with the ins and outs these days. The exit door is swinging again though and another trio have departed or are soon to depart. When it’s old school, it cuts a bit deeper.

Tom Lane

Tom emailed pre-Munich to say he was already gone. He moved to Brussels sometime around 2007 having played with Amsterdam for a few years. He was there with myself and Conan the first night we started hatching plans for a football team in the Oak in November 2007. He'd be a constant in our first year and deservedly claimed his European Championship medal down in Maastricht.

2009 wasn't so kind to him as a skiing accident curtailed his involvement and he had a lot of other commitments. They continued into this year and now he has taken the decision to pack his bags, put them up on his shoulders and head off around the world. Good luck to him. He leaves with his place in our story secured.

Philip Roche

Rochey strolled into an interview with me early in 2008. He'd been in the recruitment process the previous year and did well but timing meant he could not pursue his application. It made for an easy first interview. I fired a couple of standard questions and he says we spent the next 45 minutes talking about football. Anyway, he did enough and I sent him on for his final interview and he landed himself a job.

It was all hunky dory in the first year as he followed the party line and did as was expected. Despite the irritable D4 accent, he led by example at training and in tournaments. He was a key man for us when we won the Championship.

He drifted in year two and word filtered back about his waning interest. I wasn’t impressed. His girlfriend Ciara started to try and wrestle him from my clutches too and was largely successful. When we did get him out, he had miserable luck with injury. He first hurt his knee in Lux in May and then made a mess of it in Maastricht in November.

That injury has effectively kept him out of action all of 2010. Still, it offered an opportunity to get him involved with the training this year and that was a massive boost. He has the respect of the lads and a serious attitude when he is actually there. I needed his help and the lads needed another voice. It’s worked very well and we will miss his presence on and off the pitch next year.

He heads for London now to live with Ciara and we wish him luck. I no longer look at her with the bitterness I used to so he goes with my blessing. I’m sure they will both sleep easier knowing that.

Oliver O’Callaghan

Greeted by Mickey Keane’s infamous words down in Maastricht. Two years sitting across from Eoin Sheanon would have broke many a man much sooner. Ollie stuck it out much longer to his credit. He is also destined for London and will do a PhD in some Law stuff with the ultimate goal of getting back into the London student social scene. If you are small enough, you can claim to be young enough.

Interestingly, it was only after he announced his departure that he became as quick on the pitch as he is in the wee hours. He started kicking points, winning sprints and knocking fellas over.

A few tournament highlights...Rennes 2009. Eoin said he’d give him something like a tenner for each point scored. When his first score flew into the top corner, we all erupted on the sideline. He added a few more but never saw a cent. Then there was that equalising goal in the Intra-Club league. I think everyone knows what I’m talking about. We must of course mention his ridiculous behaviour after getting any type of score. Yes, he is one of those guys who suddenly becomes animated, punches the air, dishes out instructions and generally thinks ‘he da man’ for the following thirty seconds.

He’ll be missed all round; on the field, at work I’m sure, by the ladies and by the lads. His intelligent humour went way over my head most of the time but he was always entertaining, either through his jokes or just to look at!!