Limerick stars inspire Amsterdam GAA to historic Leinster Hurling Championship Success

THREE Limerick men played a key role in Amsterdam's Leinster Junior Hurling Championship success last weekend. Dara O'Farrell of Croom, Fionn Murphy of Kilteely-Dromkeen and James Naughton of Na Piarsaigh were all part of the Amsterdam side. 

The Dutch outfit defeated Longford Slashers in the Leinster Junior Hurling Special final 0-15 to 0-14 in Pearse Park, Longford last weekend. Galway native Grahame McDermott scored the match winning point late on to seal a historic day for Amsterdam GAA. The Leinster Junior Special Hurling Championship is essentially a Junior B Hurling Championship. 

Dara O'Farrell was the player manager of the side and he said it was a special moment to create history last weekend. 

"Three Limerick lads were involved, it was really good. Myself and Fionn are actually friends for years, it was very nice to have him involved. James Naughton is a lovely young fella, he joined us this year when he was a student, it was good to have a Limerick contingent there, I think we are still outnumbered by the Cork lads but we are building. Hopefully this might entice a few more Limerick men to come over the pond," Dara O'Farrell told Leader Sport. 

O'Farrell himself moved over to Amsterdam four years ago and before that he played GAA for Croom GAA club. 

"The GAA was a big part of my life when I was at home. I played with Croom all my life since I was about five or six, one of the first things I did when I came over was sign up for Amerdam GAA club."

Amsterdam GAA club created history befoe the final by becoming the European club to reach a Leinster final when they defeated Rathmolyon of Meath in the provincial sem-final. In order to compete in the Leinster championship Amsterdam needed to win the European championship and O'Farrell's side recorded victories over Luxembourg and Copenhagan in September to book their place into the Leinster championship.

"It's been a rollercoaster over the last couple of days. Since the final whistle blew it's been crazy, the amount of support, the amount of attention we are getting has been surreal. And to come back to Amsterdam with silverware and represent ourselves, Amserdam and Europe in that fashion was really incredible," said O'Farrell. 

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"It's massive, we knew we were capable of this from the start of the year, obviously we had to win Europe first. It was always at the back of our minds, we had a really strong squad. It's a historic win, it's really nice to be part of and we are just kind of basking with all the attention we are getting."

The Croom native said the celebrations since returning to Amsterdam with the Leinster title have been enjoyable. 

"We celebrated in Dublin as a team on the Saturday night and then a good contingent of us flew back to Amsterdam on the Sunday and continued the celebration inside in Mulligans pub. The match was on all the TV's in Mulligans and even inside in front bar and had people who had nothing got to do with us watching it and cheering us on."

O'Farrell did admit that Amsterdam GAA face their challenges throughout the year for training. 

"The Leinster championship was the only time we played fifteen a-side games, we play nine a-side games throughout the year. On a Tuesday, we train on a soccer pitch, on a Saturday we train on a rugby pitch when we are playing nine a-side tournaments the pitches are smaller but it is a big change playing fifteen a-side games.

"It's a player run, player funded club, we play tournaments throughout the year and we have to go to places like Luxembourg, Brussels and Maastricht, we all pay our own way to get down to these mini tournaments. When it comes to gettting home to Ireland for games, the club helps out. It does have it's challenges but it adds to how unique this is," added the Limerick native.