London snow the perfect preparation says Gabriels camp

Date Published: 30-Jan-2013

Killimordaly manager Tom Monaghan agreed that the deteriorating conditions in the closing stages of his side’s All-Ireland intermediate club semi-final defeat to London champions St Gabriel’s made the outcome of the championship tie in Birr a lottery.

Highlighting it was a gloomy end to their campaign, especially given all the hard work they had put in over the winter, Monaghan – a former St Gabriel’s player himself – added: “It is disappointing. In fairness to our lads, they showed great character and they kept going at Gabriels and they never surrendered.

“Even when we went down a man in the opening minutes of the second half, we coped well with it and came back and finished out to get extra-time. I thought we might have an advantage when it went to extra-time but then we conceded the [second Gabriel’s] goal from a free in the second period of extra-time and that was it.”

Monaghan believed the unfortunate sending off of Killimordaly’s Niall Earls for a second bookable early in the second half had an adverse effect as his 14-man side had to work even harder in energy sapping conditions to remain in touch.

“When you lose a man on a day like today, and the conditions that were in it, an extra man was always going to be a huge advantage. I think you are always going to have to give a player the benefit of the doubt on a day like this because conditions didn’t lend to good hurling. Unfortunately, though, that didn’t happen,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, most Londoners may have bemoaned the Arctic temperatures that almost brought their nation’s capital – and country – to a standstill last week but, as it transpired, the St Gabriel’s camp said it proved to be the perfect training environment ahead of their All-Ireland intermediate club semi-final win over Killimordaly.

Having had to train in snow and sub-zero conditions was not conducive to good hurling but, in saying that, both Gabriel’s manager Tommy Duane and team captain Aidan Ryan believed it helped to steel the London champions for similar weather conditions – with a little thunder and lightning thrown in – during last Sunday’s epic clash.

Given Irish people just love to talk about the weather, it was not a surprise it would become the hot topic of discussion throughout the afternoon in Birr. “You know, we have trained in all kinds of conditions and the last couple of weeks we have been training in snow,” said captain and Craughwell native Ryan.

“There were some awful days there in Northwick Park where John Kearney from Oranmore came over and trained us. You know, those conditions were worse than what we dealt with today. So, we were ready.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.