Wheels Beginning To Turn

Appropriate content is difficult to conjure up these days. Not being the trainer and missing most of training leaves fairly slim pickings to rant about. The club has been active though and there is plenty to report about.

The change of football trainer has had no adverse effect on numbers and if anything we have a bigger group than last year. Considering regulars like myself, Collins, James O'Shea., Griff, Hough etc have missed virtually all the trainings, it's good to the see the group supplemented with newcomers. Conan and Eoin have been sharing the training burden and the lack of defections to date would seem a stamp of approval of sort. There's a few knew lads who have a bit of football under their belt also and that bit of quality will be required if we are to improve on last year's performance.

Already a selection has travelled to Dublin to play Cuala and Kilmacud and another group were in Coventry for the now annual tournament between ourselves, Roger Casements and Clare Island. The latter was in serious jeopardy of not happening but it's great it did because the longer it keeps going the more chance Clare Island 2013 has of going ahead. This Sunday, as part of the Paddys Day festivities which we co-organise with FC Irlande, their will be an inhouse game at 12h in the Parc. Over 30 players have signed up so that's further indication of the solid base from which we will launch our attack in 2011!

Of more concern is the hurling situation. All is well at the top with Martin remaining in place and the smooth transition between outgoing hurling officer Adrian and Shane. However, we've lost a good few with the likes of Pearce and Jim moving on. In addition to this, the gap between ourselves and the rest was wide in the last two years and that has led to some complacency amongst the group. That could be the biggest factor in blocking our ambitions to match Zurich's heroic three in a row. At their home tournament last year, we saw that they are again a coming force and we also know Den Haag are going to put much more focus on Hurling in the early part of this season.

I don't think lads have tuned into this yet. We're undefeated since July 2008 (when we lost to Lux in extra-time of our home tournament) but unless we give more committment this year, we can be sure that will come to a halt. We had our scrapes last year and we need to make sure we don't get caught napping.

The first puck around of the year took place last Saturday and it was good to see the like of Daire Cott there and seemingly willing to commit for another year. In a confusing occurence, Darragh Cotter, also from Cork, has returned and we expect to see more of him hurling this year. He's a big lad and should be a good addition. Keary is also back. His contribution was virtually null on the hurling front last year due to injury but he is back training injury free and will be in the reckoning. Conor Aylward is another man who is out training again and if both stay fit, our backs will be strengthened.

So whilst I saw the hurling situation is a concern, actually, if the players heads are right and everyone who is in Brussels is onboard, then we can be confident of challenging again in 2011. The hurlers will also be in action on Sunday at 14h in the Parc.

The last of the recent activities was the visit of former Irish, Ulster and British & Irish Lion rugby player Jeremy Davidson to Brussels last weekend. He was in town to open Conor's new pub, 'Six Nations'. Before the ceremony though, he took a mix of the hurlers and footballers for a short session. Whilst using a rugby ball, the principles of each drill are easily transferable to either of our codes and we can certainly take one or two things from the session. In the evening, we had a Q&A with him in The Dominican hotel. More to follow on that next week.

So, it's been a busy few weeks as the season starts to gear up. April 7 is the date the first ball will be kicked in anger down in Luxembourg and I'm sure everyone will be looking forward to getting going.