Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh Presents European Honours to Amsterdam

Amsterdam GAC rounded off a great day at the recent Pan-European tournament in Belgium, when GAA legendary commendator Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh presented a number of European awards to the club.

Following Amsterdam's emphatic 22 point victory over Frankfurt in the final, the GAA legend was on hand to present the European Shield trophy to Amsterdam captain Derek Lowry.

The plaudits didn't stop here, as Mícheál then presented Mens Player of the Tournament Award to Amsterdam GAC newcomer Pete Jansen, and the Ladies Player of the Tournament Award to Amsterdam's Rose Holland.

With a European Cup and both Player of the Tournament Awards coming back to the Dam, the Pan-European tournament in Belgium must go down as Amsterdam's biggest day in the club's history. Roll on Guernsey and Limerick!

Amsterdam Claim Second Consecutive European Shield

The first of the 2011 Pan-European tournaments kicked off in Brussels last Saturday and Amsterdam GAC picked up right where they left off last November, by winning their second consecutive European Shield tournament with a convincing 22 point victory over Frankfurt.

The club once again showed its strength in numbers by entering two teams in the competition. Amsterdam B's took a big scalp when they defeated former European Champions Paris by three points having being down at half time to the French side. Strong performances in the middle and half-forward line by new players Patrick Sweeney, Ian Watchorn and the returning Daryel Murnin after his year away, led the B's very close on the day to claiming a semi-final spot but the team were unlucky to lose to Prague by two points to miss out. A great team performance overall which leaves a number of players knocking on the door of the A team and giving coach Brendan Finnegan plenty of selection decisions in the weeks to come.

However none of the A team will be looking to relinquish their spots after claiming five wins out of five on the day to pick up the European Shield tournament win. The A's had a hard-fought victory over Belgium in their opening match, but from there on in, the A's always looked likely to live up to their pre-tournament 'favourites' tag. Victories over Luxembourg, Niort, and a semi-final victory over Liffre followed, before the A's faced off against familiar competition in the form of Frankfurt in the final.

An early point from Frankfurt may have given the German team some hope, but it would soon be dashed as the A's played some of their most attractive football to date and claimed a famous 5-09 to 0-02 point victory including scores by Kenny Monaghan and a stunning Chris Taz penalty!

Big performances throughout the pitch, in particular Ian O'Malley in the backs, Pete Jansen in the middle and a gutsy performance from Fergal Walsh led to the convincing win on the day, and now onto Guernsey in October where a second tournament victory will keep Amsterdam in pole position to take home the overall European Shield in Limerick in November.

Holland Ladies Take Third

Holland Ladies were very unlucky to miss on a spot in the final of the recent Ladies European Tournament in Belgium. 

The team were boosted by the weekend return of Heather McCormack and Catherine Smith and arrival of new players Louise Meegan and Martina Muldoon, but were missing a number of experienced players including the recently Dubai-bound Dani McCallion, the recently injured Mary McPherson, and the recently tanned Deirdre White who arrived at the tournament during the day straight from a 12 hour flight from Thailand!

 
The ladies took a number of big wins in their group matches including victories against Prague and Belgium but despite some coaching from GAA legend Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Holland were very unlucky to lose to Paris in the semis. However the girls bounced back to win the third place playoff against Stockholm. 

Big performances throughout the team, in particular from Heather McCormack and player of the tournament Rose Holland, as well as some stunning saves from keeper Jenny Samuels. The girls will look to round off their season with a final tournament victory in Limerick in November.

Euro's on the Horizon

It's that time of the year again with the European Tournaments kicking off in Belgium tomorrow, followed by a trip to Guernsey in October, and finally Limerick in November where the mens and ladies European Champions will be crowned.

Holland Ladies send a strong team tomorrow, and will be one of the favourites to make their second successful apparence in a Ladies final. 

Amsterdam Mens will again make club history by fielding two teams in a European tournament - a great success for the lads, and with the draw putting both teams in different groups, it could quite possibly be a Amsterdam A's vs Amsterdam B's final tomorrow.

Good luck to all competing and bring some silverware back to the Dam!

Coaching Weekend

Amsterdam GAC were fortunate to have former player, and current senior manager of London team Tir Chonaill Gaels, Mickey Kelly, come to Amsterdam in late August for a coaching weekend.

Mickey has a wealth of football knowledge and introduced a number of new training drills and methods over the course of the session and gave the team a chance to plan out their tactics for the upcoming European tournaments.

After a tough 3 hour session, we gathered in the Hole in the Wall in spectacular fashion as Amsterdam GAC hosted their annual (and by annual I mean once and never going to happen again) 'Dodgy Shirt Night'. 

 

 
Tadhg O'Shea was the overall winner...though Brendan Finnegan (despite not wearing a shirt) was awarded a very special commendation for his effort...we always suspected you had it in you Brendan!

Some sore heads then rose on the Sunday morning to go paintballing. No photos exist but plenty of bruises do. The team will also be severly disciplined for attacking their chairman when he may or may not have been dressed in a rabbit suit at the time!

The ladies team also got the benefits of a European Ladies coaching session in Belgium where captain Mary McPherson and Amsterdam's newest player Rose Holland attended both tactical and skills sessions.

Successful Summer

With Autumn now upon us, time for a quick recap of the summer for Amsterdam GAC. For the lads, the squad continues to grow with over 50 players currently registered to play. For the first time in the club's history, we've had strong enough numbers to enter two squads in all of our tournaments, starting in May with our home tournament which was a great way to open our new pitch and clubhouse facilities in Sportlaan. It's a fantasic achievement for a club of Amsterdam's size and credit goes to our coach and various trainers who are getting lads out training every week.

Highlights of the summer included a hard fought final against Belgium in Frankfurt in June, where Amsterdam A's narrowly lost out. We also entered our first European 7's tournament in August and again Belgium were a tough opposition in the semi-finals where the Amsterdam 7's cruely lost to a last second goal, for Belgium to pick up the win by a point.

The gap is narrowing all the time, and both Amsterdam mens teams can take heart that the Benelux region has never been so competitive as it currently is and we're right up there contesting finals. Roll on the European tournaments in September.

For the ladies, also a summer where a number of new players have joined the club and unfortunately the team said goodbye to ever-present players such as Dani McCallion and Lynn Mullin. Catherine, Heather, Jen, and Mary all headed to sunny Spain in June to join up with a Estonia/Holland/Pamplona combined team and compete in the Barcelona tournament.

 
They were subsequestly expelled from Barcelona for drinking the city dry and rejoind the Holland Ladies in time for their adventures in Munich and the Maastrict tournament in August where they faced off against the Belgium Ladies in the final. Unlucky to be on the losing side, though the girls have been buoyed by a number of team-bonding weekends and novelty type trainings, and are gearing up for their final Euro tournaments starting in September.