Well lads
What a weekend! One I’m sure we’ll never forget, and we played our part in another successful Asian Gaelic Games. Almost 30 men’s teams and 12 ladies teams took part.
The ThaiGAAs travelled down Friday afternoon – minus Frank who had slept in (for a 2pm flight) – in time for the opening ceremony with Michael O’Muiraheartaigh, and the free Guinness and Tiger beer.
The boys certainly took advantage of the free alcohol and unfortunately the effects were all too obvious when we took the pitch against a weak Taiwan team in our first game on the Sat morning. A very disjointed performance saw us fail to score and Taiwan ran out 5 point winners. However the cost of defeat was more than the loss of points. Padraic Ellicott, bringing some Mayo determination to proceedings, suffered a nasty clash of legs with one of the Taiwan players, and ended up being carted off to hospital with a fractured shin bone.
The lads regrouped after the poor start and restructured for our second game against Malaysia. Tom O’Dowd went into goal and this allowed the team to push further up the pitch. The ThaiGAAs came flying out of the blocks against a good Malaysia team. Trevor Corcoran drove the team forward and we scored a couple of early points and a good move saw Richard McNutt being fouled and a penalty awarded to Thailand. Yours truly dispatched the peno for our first goal in the tournament. Another goal followed soon after when a clever free kick found Derek Martin free in the area and he slotted past the keeper. We went in at half time with a 2-2 cushion, after what was a fantastic performance from the boys and a truer reflection of the team’s capabilities.
The efforts of the first half had taken its toll and Malaysia came out more strongly against us in the second half. They pulled a goal back and had us under some pressure; however we were confident we could hold on. However misfortune continued to look upon Thailand when a freak accident saw Tom O’Dowd suffer a nasty leg break. The game was abandoned with the players in no mood to continue. The loss of the two players and impact on the team meant we had no choice other than to withdraw from the rest of the days games, and we spent much of the time with the lads at the hospital. They were well looked after by the medics at the hospital and I’m happy to report that they both travelled back to Thailand on the Sunday and we’re hopeful that they will both make a speedy, full recovery.
The ThaiGAAs regrouped for Sunday and managed to field a team for the bowl knock-out competition, reinforced by a couple of our friends from Taiwan, Barry and Dave, and by Frank O’Shea, who had travelled down the night before.
We took the field against a Japan-Jakarta team and stormed ahead in the first half through goals from JC and Trevor and points from Derek. The heat had taken its toll on the team and again we suffered through our first half efforts but managed to hold on to record the win. Another excellent performance from the ThaiGAAs.
The semi-final saw us come up against the biggest club in Asia – Singapore, who had sent 5 mens teams and 3 ladies teams!! We drew the Singapore D team and put on another tremendous performance. The game was end to end and saw another great performance from Trevor Corcoran. The game was also notable for Frank notching his first goal. We matched Singapore throughout the game and at the final whistle no-one knew who had won. We were unlucky to lose by 1 point.
The final saw Malaysia, the team we had previously been leading, defeat the Singapore team. What could have been ! The ThaiGAAs showed we have the players to compete and with some more preparation and fitness training we could have achieved much more. Roll on next year.
First of all best wishes to Tom and Padraic in their rehabilitation.
Thanks to the support from back “home” and to all the lads who travelled down including
Derek, Andy, Mike, Frank, Ruairi, Dylan, Richard, Padraic, Tom, Trevor
Well done to Kat, Nicole and Catriona who took part in the ladies tournament for Malaysia and Singapore. We now have the beginnings of a ThaiGAAs ladies team.
Roll on next year!
All for now
John Campbell