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Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good  THE
London GAA scene awakes from its slumber this Saturday as reigning All-Ireland
Intermediate club champions Robert Emmetts prepare to defend their crown
against Galway outfit Tommie Larkins.
The teams clash at Ruislip on Saturday afternoon with the London side
hoping to continue their march towards retaining the title they captured
last March in Croke Park.
Manager Mick O’Dea has been putting his side through their paces
and is happy to report a robust bill of health ahead of this much-anticipated
clash.
“Preparations have been going great,” said O’Dea. “We
had a Christmas break and have had great turnouts at training since. We
have no injury concerns at the moment and everything is going as good
as can be expected.”
O’Dea is quick to admit he is unfamiliar with Saturday’s opponents
but points out that he didn’t know much about last year’s
opposition either yet performed more than admirably, beating the Leinster,
Munster and Galway champions en route to victory.
“To be honest I don’t know much about them,” he confessed.
“But when you live in London it’s not easy to do anyway. There’s
a lot of expense involved with travelling and accommodation so it’s
not really viable for us. We took a line last year that we wouldn’t
look into any of the opposition and it didn’t do us any harm at
all. Instead of worrying about our opponents we’re concentrating
on our own game.
“We had a fantastic team last year and I know how difficult it was
to win. We had an immensely difficult route to the final. Against Ardclough
(Leinster champions), we were taken to extra-time and needed to draw on
all our energy to progress. Then against Clonlara (Munster champions),
we won courtesy of a last-minute point. It was very difficult and to do
it again this year with an almost completely different squad will be even
tougher.”
Looking at the line-up from that momentous day in GAA HQ when Emmetts
became the first London side to win a club Championship, one would notice
precious few similarities between it and Saturday’s team sheet.
Following their success, Emmetts had the guts ripped out of their side
with 10 players opting to return home to pastures old.
The team required significant rebuilding, which O’Dea and his staff
quickly set upon. But not even he could have imagined the success they
would enjoy, winning both League and Championship for the second season
in a row — a remarkable feat.
“When you lose 10 players from a club it really deflates you,”
said O’Dea who has retaken the London hurling manager reigns for
2008. “It was a hard loss to take but to come back from that and
win the double was phenomenal. I don’t think anyone gave us a chance
of qualifying out of the group stages of the Championship this year and
to be honest I wasn’t entirely confident myself.
“But as the year went by we managed to get in a couple of players
which strengthened us a bit. We scraped through to the semi-finals on
the back of St. Gabriels beating Sean Treacys. We beat Fr Murphys in the
semi-final — a team who beat us in the group stages — and
from there everything just seemed to gel really quickly.”
Emmetts went on to defeat St. Gabriels in the final ensuring a crack at
defending their All-Ireland crown in the process.
So can Emmetts continue on their All-Ireland adventure? O’Dea feels
his side are underdogs but with a bit of luck, anything is possible.
“I would imagine Tommie Larkins will be strong favourites,”
he admits. “It’s hard to replace the quality we’ve lost.
But the players that we do have are a good, honest bunch of lads.
“We’ve still got players of the calibre of Fergus McMahon,
Kevin McMullan, Sean Quinn, Mark Traynor, Sean McLoughlin and John McGaughan
who form the heart of the team. They’ve always stood up and been
counted and I hope they can do it again on Saturday.
“We’ll need a bit of luck on the day. Sometimes it’s
better to be lucky than good!” |
