Our players are proud to be from London and all they’re seeking is respect
WHEN London hosted Carlow on the opening Sunday of the Allianz Football League it brought together two intercounty managers with that rare thing: an active social media profile on Twitter. Ciarán Deely is the former Wexford player who took the road less travelled: currently a sports scientist with QPR football club, he previously spent time working in the Indian Super League with soccer franchise Kerala Blasters.
On the same sideline, Turlough O’Brien: the Carlow manager who tested Dublin’s nerve in the Leinster Championship last year and who is as happy to document his love of Ireland’s cycling byways online as the latest training drill.
Two curious minds, not afraid to engage with the world.
After a Carlow team with promotion ambitions just squeezed through, it was a follow-up message from O’Brien flagging a book about geopolitics on Twitter that clearly struck a chord with his opposite number.
‘Prisoners of Geography. Brilliant read about global politics. Could’ve been written about county structures in Ireland!’ said O’Brien in a post that was retweeted by Deely.
Except both are doing their best to ensure their teams try to escape from the straightjacket of simple geography.
The home team that lined out at McGovern Park in that tie contained seven London-born players, four of whom combined for all but a goal of a 2-9 final tally. That included a green flag from team captain Liam Gavaghan.
Arguably the headline story of round two was London’s comprehensive 1-16 to 0-10 victory over Wicklow.
The London Project suddenly looks like a sustainable one.
‘It’s something I always wanted,’ explains Deely who is in his third season in charge. ‘I knew before coming in that I wanted a London-born captain.
‘That’s hugely symbolically important. London is their county. They were born here, raised here. Are of Irish heritage but a lot of them, if you asked them, if IrelandEngland is playing in rugby they might shout for England.
‘In soccer, they might shout for Ireland. I find it a very interesting dynamic that you have lads playing the highest level of GAA yet they don’t identify themselves as Irish, they identify themselves as English-Irish.’
With McGovern Park in Ruislip reopened after redevelopment and London in a position now where every League game this spring is at home after having to travel constantly in 2017, a second win against Limerick would leave Deely’s team in the dizzying position of being in the promotion hunt.
When he criticised the GAA for only flying Cork referee James Bermingham over for the Carlow game — with London officials assisting him — it landed him in hot water. It boils down to a simple thing, he insists: respect.
‘What we’re asking for is to be treated like every other county. For instance, if Kerry go up to play Donegal in a National League game, there is not going to be Donegal officials and linesmen at the game.
‘The second thing, we want to be treated seriously. We played one friendly game before the National League and yet we were able to compete against the likes of Carlow who have their eyes on promotion. We got the win against Wicklow. We didn’t look out of our depth. And that’s all with very limited funding, resources and facilities.’
When he looks at the €65 million being generated in the official GAA accounts, he sees London as being ‘vastly underfunded, vastly underresourced’.
With opposition to the Sky deal and the pay-per-view element of the current television broadcast deal still a hot topic back home, he sees a positive to it on the ground where he is based.
‘From a selfish London point of view, it has increased the profile of the game over here. When I go in to QPR in the morning I have the kids saying to me, “Oh I watched Dublin and Kerry at the weekend. It’s a great game. It’s physical. Good tactics”.
‘I agree that the GAA have to make money and they’re looking at the big games involving Dublin, Mayo, Kerry which make the big money. Looking at the [financial] report last week though, it doesn’t make sense to me that all this money is being made and yet the club players are being left for nine months of the year without being able to play Championship games.
‘Look at our place. We have no training grounds, don’t have any real funding in comparison to other teams. To be a county player from Mayo must be fantastic. You’ve a chance of a Connacht medal, an All-Ireland. A team holiday. A scholarship. An AllStar award. Loads of big games in Croke Park and Castlebar. Whereas we discuss this with the Waterford, Wicklow footballers, every year we get practically two Championship games. Prepare for months, lads are buzzing come the summer, and all of a sudden it’s over.’
He listened to a recent radio interview with performance consultant Fergus Connolly who has been involved with Jim Gavin’s Dublin as well as with University of Michigan and the elite end of American football in the US and felt that the talk of player humility in being successful was overstated, not to mention the various Mayo criticisms.
‘To say then that Mayo won’t win an All-Ireland because Aidan O’Shea goes and does a TV programme, I find that really insulting to the player and insulting to the whole ethos of team sport.
‘There is an attitude in the GAA of keep your head down, work hard, never stick your head above the parapet. Well actually, maybe Aidan O’Shea doing those programmes, being on Instagram, maybe that makes him a better player because it is part of his personality.
‘Somebody tweeting or coming on Facebook or doing interviews, that doesn’t mean they are not focused, or taking it seriously or working hard. You can still enjoy the journey along the way.’ Right now, London are
doing that.