Den Haag GAA Club - Amsterdam Gaelic Football Tournament 2007.

Saturday was early in Delft but at least there were no bells or mercifully Kenny Rodgers. Arriving at Den Haag Central the group assembled slowly to get the bus to Amsterdam, again many thanks to Mary Galvin for organising. Leaving “nearly” on time we arrived at the pitch with a squad very slimmed down on numbers compared to what had been in the Hague a few week before. Still I have found with this team every member will always stand up and be counted so we knew we could match any team for football.

Warming up on something that might have resembled a rugby training ground in October stock was quickly taken. The day was warm already and clouds would be in short supply. The closest phrase from the horses that could be used to describe the pitch would be “road”. We had a small squad giving us a limited number of replacements that would be needed for rotation leaving the prospect of injuries putting us in trouble. Declan Bonner got the warm up going and Mick Breslin started getting us focused on the games.

Playing Amsterdam first this could potentially be the trickiest game of the day. Neighbours, be they in west Tipp or the Netherlands will always push that bit further to beat each other. The Hague are European Champions and had beaten Amsterdam two weeks previously, they were not going to lay down, we wouldn’t have had it any other way. We started strong and never let up. Strong defensive work by Paul Galvin, Stephen Hough and Shane O’Sullivan proved a foil to the Amsterdam attack and provided a platform to attack through Declan Bonner, Mick Breslin and Peader O Toole. We finished strongly and were looking good throughout the field.

The second game was against Maastricht and Mick and Declan got us refocused. Maastricht are a dangerous team to start against daydreaming because they are determined fit and never give up, they have some good footballers as well. Both teams started well and to be fair about the pitch it did allow some quick football to be played by both teams. Maastricht took better advantage of this and took the first score. Unfortunately that is about all of that game I saw going off injured after 5 minutes spending the next half an hour with my foot stuck under a tap. Reports suggest we dug deep quickly and came out with the win that would put us into the final.

Some diplomatic work by Mick was undertaken after it became apparent that Luxembourg also managed to qualify for the final with one group game remaining. It was not in the interests of the either team to have to play an extra game unnecessarily and so we would meet Luxembourg once only, in the final.

A Den Haag Luxembourg final, a repeat of the Den Haag home tournament. Having been beaten by 5 points in the final 2 weeks previously by a team we had beaten that day still rankled. Fitness had won that day and it would be interesting to see how the teams compared now.

Starting quickly it both teams matched each other in terms of scoring. The Den Haag full back line of Orson McMahon and Paul Galvin were very effective at keeping out Luxembourg goal seeking attacks and they resorted to distance point scoring, unfortunately the defence at the other end was fairly water tight as well. Shane, Steve, Declan, Mick, Dave, Mick, Janwillem, Sean, Graham, Mattie and Garrick never gave up. What became apparent during the game was the impact a strong bench has in tournaments, Luxembourg were able to rotate a number of players giving relatively fresh legs in crucial positions. Our fitness was very high but we just needed that other option.

At the final whistle we were 2 down, a big disappointment in terms of the tournament however there are some very good points to be taken. The Hague has a small squad however everybody has and will stand up to be counted, for the club this is a great strength, on a more mundane level, fitness and skill levels are improving rapidly as was shown throughout the tournament and this only bodes well for the rest of the summer. We have seen what we can do with a small squad against the rest of the Benelux and have to be confident we can win where ever and when ever we play. Our chance to prove that is in Luxembourg on the 26^th of May.