Neil Ewing: Wembley, the Tube, Covent Garden. When the Connacht championship goes metropolitan
ATMOSPHERE: Supporters enjoy the prematch atmosphere prior to the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between London and Sligo at McGovern Park in Ruislip, London, England. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Ruislip, home of London GAA. A throbbing heart of football and hurling. Off a roundabout in one of the world’s largest metropolises.
For me, this GAA outpost will always conjure Munster rugby moments. The brave and the faithful. The Heineken Cup. My first visit to Ruislip was May 24, 2008. A quick runout on the pitch on the day before Sligo’s Connacht Championship game with our London hosts. Post-session we repaired upstairs to the bar, for sandwiches and the closing stages of the European Cup final. Munster’s shrewd keep-ball end game, strangling the life out of a star-studded Toulouse team to run down the clock.
However, the primary lesson learned from weekend was one I carried with me for the duration of my career – over-indulgence in the Asian culinary delights at an airport hotel is not your ideal matchday -1 nutrition.
There has been much talk this week about the short turnaround time Mayo have between their league victory last Sunday and their Championship kick off against Roscommon this Sunday. Seven days is ample time to recover.
Two things were largely overlooked. One, Roscommon did not have the same schedule. Two, the primary benefit of a Saturday game for Mayo would have been that Sunday would have been a non-working day for their players to recover. Recovery is psychological as much as physiological. A Sunday to relax is much less demanding than coming down the N4 setting the alarm for work on Monday morning. That said, Mayo will manage to make it into Castlebar this weekend primed for action.
If we are looking at scheduling, travelling and compromised recovery times, then why are we ignoring Division 4 winners Sligo? The Mayo players will pack their bags on Sunday for the short trip into Castlebar. The Sligo players will be packing their bags after work Thursday for an early flight to London on Friday. Same but different.
Overseas GAA Championship action can be distilled into two themes. The fear and the experience.
Travelling supporters will be excited about their trip and the opportunity to take in all that Oxford Street, Big Ben and Covent Garden have to offer. Clubmates will be jealous of the trip. Colleagues and friends will be asking who you play in the next round. For the player, these positive vibes are most definitely replaced with an overbearing sense of fear. A grey cloud of fear. The fear that is a looming presence from pre-season gets closer and greyer as match day approaches.
Which home-based 'stars' have London recruited this year? Recruitment is much easier when the targets know it’s one of Connacht’s perceived lesser lights coming to town this year. Have their new players secured eligibility by playing a round of club championship? Who is managing them? How has their league went? How many Tyrone, Derry, Mayo, Cork and Kerry lads do they have?
Coming from counties with strong club scenes they may not be big names but they can have big abilities that would get them on most inter-county teams. How many Sligo players do they have? Multiple motivations for these lads. Where are the lads over for the craic staying and will I get a few hours with them after? Have I packed my passport? Have I packed my boots?
Will we win? If we do, sure we were meant to. If we don't, jeez how bad are Sligo? No win situation is a cliché. The overseas championship trip ticks all the criteria for same: Risk? high. Reward? Non-existent.
6.30 am Saturday morning; one final check for boots and passport. Everything else can be begged for or borrowed. Bus from Sligo to Dublin. Check-in. Flight. Amazement at the fact one man has never been on a flight before. Laughter at the vulnerability of the on-pitch hard man who can’t hide his fear of flying. Juvenile nonsense from a good portion of the squad trying to spot stadiums on the descent into Heathrow. As if London may have other notable landmarks. The Wembley arch further appeasing us juveniles on the trip from airport to Ruislip.
Tog out to loosen the legs and get a feel for the pitch. Well, that’s the plan. 2008, no problem – lots of bumps and hollows, small dressing rooms but grand. 2013, no getting a feel for the pitch. As some players were applying the sun-screen to avoid a scalding, the London officials were informing management that we would not be allowed on the pitch. Too wet, would you believe. I think the most up-to-date word for their approach would be “s***housery”. And why not if they felt it would help. A new pitch and new stand. Phenomenal. The redeveloped McGovern Park is a shining validation of the work of London Gaels. A beautiful place to play football.
Post-Saturday training (or 'cancelled' training), back on the bus to the hotel. Sit in the London traffic ahead of an evening of team meetings, dinner and Match of The Day. Sunday morning offers the usual banality of an overnight league trip. 2013 was enlivened by a few groups of Borussia Dortmund fans smarting from their Champions League defeat at Wembley the night before. Their doom a precursor for our own? Borussia Dortmund and Sligo. Forever intertwined? Breakfast, rest, walk, meetings, meal. Bus and more traffic. But not the type of traffic one encounters on match day in Pearse, McHale, Hyde or Pairc Sean.
No Garda escort to steer the Sligo team through the catalogue of people spending their Sunday on cultural pursuits - and not of the variety we are used to - plastic glasses, booming Saw Doctors classics, feral but mostly pantomime abuse of an opposing team (and their own!). Arrive at the ground and decamp the bus, very literally, into the middle of a huge outdoor party that has a few hours' fuel in its tank. Negotiate through the mix of well-wishers and inebriated lunatics to the sanctuary of the dressing room. From there, it's standard practice.
No excuses. Live or die on the strength of your own preparation, decisions and performance. Thoughts drifting to the wheels touching down at Dublin Airport in a few hours. Will we be in a Connacht semi-final or....?
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