London

[AidyMac]

irunthev, I would say that you are a happy man these past few days.  Hopefully they can continue with this and build on the great work they have done

[irunthev]

irunthev, I would say that you are a happy man these past few days.  Hopefully they can continue with this and build on the great work they have done

It funny how after you have spent 25 years living in a place and devoting all your spare time to football there, the team really gets under your skin. I played for them for ten years as well as training them for several years on top of that. I also played minor and u21 with them too, so while I'm no Englishman, I'm very much a London man when it comes to football. Any Sunday in the NFL the first score I look for is how London done and the next thing I want is to know the team and so on. Lucky I have still got  lot of well connected contacts in London and manage to keep tabs with what's going on. People who have never lived long term away from home maybe don't understand that. It's real anorak stuff I guess I'm pleased for the county, but even more so for the management team because those guys have been super servants to London for as long as I can remember. Typical of Paul Coggins in all his interviews, not once has he focused on himself and it has always been about what other people have brought to the table. Great lad, great character.

[ck]

Delightd for London but in beating Fermanagh they beat a shambles of a team with a joke of a manager.
They will get more credit if they beat Waterford. Hope they do.

Has anyone a list of the London players and where they come from, and maybe pen pics to see if any of them played county underage?

[irunthev]

Delightd for London but in beating Fermanagh they beat a shambles of a team with a joke of a manager.
They will get more credit if they beat Waterford. Hope they do.

Has anyone a list of the London players and where they come from, and maybe pen pics to see if any of them played county underage?

Go to www.londongaa.co.uk and there are profiles of many of the players. It mightn't be totally up to date, but not far off it.

[ross4life]

Delightd for London but in beating Fermanagh they beat a shambles of a team with a joke of a manager.
They will get more credit if they beat Waterford. Hope they do.

Has anyone a list of the London players and where they come from, and maybe pen pics to see if any of them played county underage?

Having seen both in the league this year i would have tipped Fermanagh before the game, we needed a last minute goal to beat them while we comfortably beat London without Shine,Kilbride etc..

Nothing should take away from what was a fine championship win for London last Saturday.

[ExcellentDriver]

Funny how Cockney Geezers tried to disown the Irish whilst most Jellied Eels were obviously fished in Lough Neagh.

Also, the Pogues met up at a Clash Gig in the 70's. Joe Strummer produced a Pogues Album (think it was 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash').

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

4 lads from Kerry played the last day anyway I think. Mike Moloney at full back (former Kerry minor and U-21), Shane Doolan at wing back (both Dr. Crokes men), Kevin O'Leary at centre forward and Cathal O'Sullivan who came on.

Some great men working tirelessly in GAA clubs in london...helped out manys a young lad who landed off plane/boat in their time.

[ExcellentDriver]

4 lads from Kerry played the last day anyway I think. Mike Moloney at full back (former Kerry minor and U-21), Shane Doolan at wing back (both Dr. Crokes men), Kevin O'Leary at centre forward and Cathal O'Sullivan who came on.

Some great men working tirelessly in GAA clubs in london...helped out manys a young lad who landed off plane/boat in their time.

Ah, the joys of having Sterling.

[irunthev]

4 lads from Kerry played the last day anyway I think. Mike Moloney at full back (former Kerry minor and U-21), Shane Doolan at wing back (both Dr. Crokes men), Kevin O'Leary at centre forward and Cathal O'Sullivan who came on.

Some great men working tirelessly in GAA clubs in london...helped out manys a young lad who landed off plane/boat in their time.

You are absolutely right with that comment, but the downside is that this ability to give lodgings and get work for lads has meant that there has been very little focus on building clubs from within and as a result, during those Celtic Tiger years, over 25 clubs folded in London. When I arrived there in 1985 there were 52 football clubs, when I left in 2007, there were 24. I know that times were good in Ireland etc, but too many of the clubs focused solely on what was coming through the arrivals hall at Heathrow and not enough on what was on their own doorstep. The reason for this.... well it was the easy option. Senior men in these clubs coveted new recruits like half of them do their housing portfolios.
A few clubs, and they were the exception, managed to get a decent balance between home grown talent and imports. After all isn't it better to have a poor team than no team at all.
There are a  few clubs who boast fantastic under age systems at all levels that they invested  lot of time in and you might see one home grown player on their senior team, if even that. The mindset is the lad from Ireland will always be better, even if he is only going to be about for 6 months.
The question is often asked about the number of English players on the London side? Well there will always be a few on the panel, and over the years there have been a few exceptional talents, but at the same time, the pickings for the county manager are poor because the number who get the chance to play for the big clubs regularly in the SFC is pretty low. Not the county manager's fault... more to do with the clubs.

[ludermor]

Keirans seemed to have a lot of English accents playing with them last year, good to see so many coming through to senior level

[Denn Forever]

Dublin get Jedward to do the half time entertainment, why not ask Tinie Tempah to do the same?  Didn't he play underage for St Pauls?

[irunthev]

Keirans seemed to have a lot of English accents playing with them last year, good to see so many coming through to senior level

They do, and both John Gallagher and Philip Morgan have played senior for London and neither has embarrassed themselves. I think Philip's progress was halted a few years ago by injury, but from the age of 18 he had been on the county panel for 5 years and played Championship several times. Kiernans and TCG are probably the best two clubs at developing players all the way through from youngsters to senior. Parnells are good up to minor and then abandon all loyalty to the homegrown lads as soon as some lad from Ireland lands on their mat. The fact that they haven't won a SFC since 1991 has left them undeterred in their pursuit of glory through imports. Round Towers also have a decent contingent of English lads as well as St Clarets. Thomas McCurtains develop very young players well, but then seem to lose their way a bit around under 16 or so. That's my opinion anyway, I'm sure plenty will argue different. Tara also have traditionally had a lot of English players in their side... not sure if there has been a fresh injection recently though, but they did win a SFC in 2003 or 2004 with six or seven London born players playing with them.

[mick999]

Dublin get Jedward to do the half time entertainment, why not ask Tinie Tempah to do the same?  Didn't he play underage for St Pauls?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3252314/Tine-Tempah-was-model-pupil.html

http://www.stpaulsacademy.org.uk/gallery/gaa-ireland-tour-2011

http://www.stpaulsacademy.org.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/county-championsagain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udi9oDl9-g0&feature=player_embedded#at=13

Great to see a London School with a Director of Gaelic Football:

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

I agree with what you are saying irunthev...Was just speaking from my own perspective really....I've spent a couple of years over there,played with a team who don't have any underage structure and rely heavily on a group of long term settlers and an infusion of new immigrants each year..they do have a few English born lads alright but not many. Still, they were A1 and really worked hard for the club. I do admire Kiernans for bringing through so many native players to senior level..TCG have a good few aswell making the grade it seems. There is some savage work being done, like the St Pauls academy mentioned above..its great to see.

[ludermor]

Keirans seemed to have a lot of English accents playing with them last year, good to see so many coming through to senior level

They do, and both John Gallagher and Philip Morgan have played senior for London and neither has embarrassed themselves. I think Philip's progress was halted a few years ago by injury, but from the age of 18 he had been on the county panel for 5 years and played Championship several times. Kiernans and TCG are probably the best two clubs at developing players all the way through from youngsters to senior. Parnells are good up to minor and then abandon all loyalty to the homegrown lads as soon as some lad from Ireland lands on their mat. The fact that they haven't won a SFC since 1991 has left them undeterred in their pursuit of glory through imports. Round Towers also have a decent contingent of English lads as well as St Clarets. Thomas McCurtains develop very young players well, but then seem to lose their way a bit around under 16 or so. That's my opinion anyway, I'm sure plenty will argue different. Tara also have traditionally had a lot of English players in their side... not sure if there has been a fresh injection recently though, but they did win a SFC in 2003 or 2004 with six or seven London born players playing with them.

Yeah my cousin played with Keirans underage and 2 of his mates play senior with them now ( they would be around the 20 mark) i was surprised how technically good they were if maybe a bit flimsy. Surprised to see an old warrior from home playing full back for Keirans who has been on the go for a long time, still putting in the big hits !