Football

Gregory McCartan glad Corofin clash is finally here after weeks of waiting

The Fulham Irish players celebrate their London title success against Tir Chonaill Gaels
The Fulham Irish players celebrate their London title success against Tir Chonaill Gaels The Fulham Irish players celebrate their London title success against Tir Chonaill Gaels

EVEN for a man of his experience, the past six weeks have proven difficult to navigate for two-time All-Ireland winner Gregory McCartan.

Sunday, October 22 was the last time any of McCartan’s Fulham Irish players kicked a competitive ball in anger.

Victory over Tir Chonaill Gaels sparked celebrations that carried on towards the middle part of the week and a first London title in six years could be rightly savoured, with the next game on the horizon barely visible in the distance.

But the time between has provided its fair share of challenges.

The night after winning the championship, McCartan and the players resolved to give it a real go when whoever came out of Connacht rolled into town on December 10.

Two challenge matches against London blew off the cobwebs, while they had a good workout against St Mary’s University College on a trip home last month. But there has been an element of life, inevitably, getting in the way.

Long before the London championship had been won, men had made plans for the winter months, whether it was breaks back in Ireland, stag dos, golf trips or whatever.

When they faced the Ranch, Fulham Irish fielded without 10 of the team that started against Tir Chonaill Gaels – and former Tyrone star Owen Mulligan was the only one of the six forwards.

“I’d say that’s maybe been the most difficult thing because we’ve been gearing ourselves all year towards winning the championship. That was our aim, and when you achieve that obviously you’ve got to reset your goals,” said McCartan.

“The night after the championship you’re saying ‘are we going to go through the motions – some of us turn up at training, some of us not – or will we give it a proper go?’. Because we knew it was going to a top team coming over, no matter who won Connacht.

“The players bought into it and the training’s been very good, but you’re waiting so long for a game which isn’t ideal. Challenge matches are challenge matches at the end of the day…”

Contrast that with Corofin’s preparations as the big day finally comes around.

The Galway heavyweights, All-Ireland winners in 2015, needed extra-time to see them past St Brigid’s on November 12. Two weeks later, they required an extra 20 minutes again before squeezing past Castlebar.

McCartan has watched on while Sunday’s visitors have sharpened their tools, and the former Down midfielder is all too aware of the challenge his men face at Ruislip on Sunday.

He added: “They’re a pretty seasoned outfit.

“I watched the St Brigid’s game and Castlebar, and that day some of the players didn’t play as well as they did previously. They have good players, you go right through the lot of them.

“We’re aware of what they’re capable of doing but you have to hope their player ratings are littered with fours and fives while ours are hitting nine and 10.”

Injuries and unavailability mean McCartan doesn’t quite have the pick afforded him heading into the London SFC final.

Forward Liam Staunton is struggling to recover in time from a knee injury sustained in that game, while late sub Daniel Eastwood has since moved to Australia.

The bookies are offering Corofin at 1/20 to progress to the last four, but McCartan insists his players intend giving their illustrious opponents an afternoon they won’t forget in a while.

“We really want to do ourselves justice - we don’t want to go out there and it be a half-assed challenge match. It’s an All-Ireland quarter-final, 99 per cent of the players will never play in a game like this in their life again.

“We’ve been going a long time, it’s added two months onto our season. This will be the 88th team we’ve met this season, and then they’ve done individual training themselves.

“The commitment they’ve shown has been first class, and we’ll be going out to give it our best shot. We want to at least offer those boys a challenge. We’re going in thinking we’ve got a chance of causing an upset.

“Not too many people are giving us a chance but it’s sport, and sometimes mad things can happen. It’s our last hour of football in 2017, so for that hour we’re going to give it everything we have.”

“I’m hoping the players realise that this is a really tremendous opportunity, and a game where we have nothing to lose.”