London win All-Britain title with homegrown team
May 31, 2022
Sligo's Seán Carrabine and London's Liam Gallagher ©INPHO/Evan Logan
History was made in Ruislip last Saturday when a London team made up entirely of homegrown talent were crowned All-Britain junior football champions.
Traditionally, GAA clubs in Britain and beyond have relied heavily on Irish players to make up their teams, but that's no longer the case in London where a strong emphasis on underage coaching is starting to pay dividends. Managed by Stephen Lynch, London defeated Warwickshire by 1-12 to 0-5 and both teams will now go on to play Kilkenny and New York in the All-Ireland JFC semi-finals on July 8, with the winners meeting in the final at Croke Park two days later.
After a two-year absence from the inter-county scene due to the pandemic, the London senior footballers made an impressive return to action under their London-born manager Michael Maher this year, winning three games in Division 4 of the Allianz League before pushing both Leitrim and Sligo hard in the Connacht SFC and Tailteann Cup respectively.
TweetThe spirit shown on Saturday epitomised what this team is about. After 2 years out we started from scratch in December. Words don’t do justice the pride I have in these players and the backroom team for their monumental effort creating some amazing memories. A wonderful journey pic.twitter.com/d8xOcLfB4L
— Michael Maher (@moyla18) May 30, 2022
