By Damian Dolan
London’s Masters Gaelic football team has come a very long way in a short space of time, and 2020 was shaping up to be a very big year indeed for the team in the Over 40s competition – until the coronavirus put everything on hold.
All bets are off at the moment, of course, and it remains to be seen what the GAA season will look like, if and when it gets back up and running.
Rather than resting on its laurels after last year’s landmark season – when London Masters played a record eight matches after getting embroiled in a three-way play-off to reach the Plate semi-finals – there has been a clear intent to push on this year.
The team started back training as early as October – once a week every Monday – augmented by some exciting additions to the panel and recently embarked on a training weekend in Kerry.
While the trip also served as a team-bonding exercise – after last year’s jaunt to New York proved so successful in that regard – it offered two days training courtesy of some Kerry greats.
James Costello – Kerry Minor manager since November 2018 – took the bulk of the coaching, aided by some cameo appearances.
Colm Cooper togged out and joined in with the team, as well as doing some coaching, while they were also joined on the Saturday night in Waterville by legendary Kerry manager Mick O’Dwyer.
On Sunday, Dara O’Shea, also stopped by training.
“It was brilliant; it was a really well organised trip with a great bunch of lads,” Paddy Donaghy told the Irish World.
Donaghy was part of the London team that travelled to New York last year and played a challenge match against the NYPD GAA team at Gaelic Park.
“You can see the camaraderie among the lads and that will stand to you on and off the field,” he said.
“It will just get bigger and bigger now, because although New York was good, this was a really good trip.”
He added: “The training was excellent – you’re learning new things. You’re learning what the top-flight footballers are doing from these guys….on game plans and understanding how to get into better positions and space.”
London had been due to open this year’s campaign against Roscommon on 2 May, but that game has been officially postponed.
Their next scheduled game is at home to Tyrone on 23 May. They are then due to travel to Antrim (6 June), before hosting Leitrim/Longford on 20 June.
They renew their rivalry with Kildare on 4 July, and welcome Laois to London on 18 July.
Of course, whether that remains the schedule, only time will tell.
2019 was the team’s best year since returning to the Gaelic Masters in 2017. The previous two years had brought one solitary victory – a dramatic win over Roscommon at Greenford.
Last year saw London recover from losing by seven points to Galway in their opening game, to get within a point of Cavan and put in an excellent display against Westmeath.
The final margin of defeat by seven-points was hardly a fair reflection of the Exiles’ efforts that day.
They got their campaign up and running with a 2-10 to 1-7 win over Clare at Ruislip thanks to goals from Conor McStravic and Mort Reidy.
The visitors had Marty Morrissey tog out for them that day, but chose not to unleash the legendary RTE commentator and presenter.
London followed that with a 0-10 a piece draw against Kildare at Ruislip – Reidy with the game levelling score from the final kick of the game.
Defeat to Down, however, in Round 6 put them into a three-way play-off with Mayo and Kildare, for a place in the Plate semi-finals.
It also took them into unchartered territory in terms of the number of games the team had played in a season.
London recorded their second win of 2019 with a fantastic 0-10 to 0-9 victory over 2017 and 2016 All-Ireland Masters champions Mayo at Castleknock in Dublin in the Plate play-off semi-final.
That set up a re-match with Kildare who’d received a ‘Bye’ into the play-off final.
But London would pay the price at Lawless Memorial Park, Swords, for the concession of two goals in the opening five minutes.
Kildare held off a strong London come back in the second half to win by 2-6 to 0-11 – and leave London still searching for a first win over the Lilywhites.
A landmark year, but Donaghy says they “should have done better”.
“We left the Cavan and Westmeath games behind us. If we’d had two or three more lads in Down we would have beat them, or at least got a draw,” he said.
“We drew with Kildare, but we had that game won as well. This year we’ve got a bigger squad and you need a big squad in the Masters.”
New additions to the panel this year include Gary Kane (Tir Chonaill Gaels) Stevan Sherry (St Clarets), PJ Meehan (Parnells), JP O’Donnell (Tir Chonaill Gaels), Eamonn Brennan (Kingdom Kerry Gaels) and Seamus Carr (Tir Chonaill Gaels).
Brennan played for London in the Connacht Championship against Roscommon (2005), Mayo (2006) and Leitrim (2007).
Kane and O’Donnell both won senior titles with the Gaels, and Kane played against Galway in 2004 and against Sligo in 2008. O’Donnell features against Sligo in 2003.
Another former London player, Aidan Dillane (Kingdom Kerry Gaels) is back. Dillane didn’t feature last year having been a key man in 2018.
John McDermott (St Clarets) missed last year through injury, and is also back.
They had up to 40 at training some evenings says Donaghy, before Covid-19 ground everything to a halt – including a couple of “young lads” to help keep the intensity up and allow them to play matches amongst themselves.
It’s fair to say that this London team was shaping up to be the best prepared since the Exiles re-entered the competition in 2017.
“We’ve got a good bunch of lads who are great at training. Things had been going well,” said Donaghy.
“We’ll be competing at a very high level this year, I believe. If we had the team we have this year playing the teams we played last year, it would have been a whole different ball game.
“We’ve got a lot of lads from last year still around and we’ve a lot of quality.”
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