As the first team squad and management headed to South Africa to prepare for the coming season, those unwanted players that were left behind headed off on their own ‘guerrilla’ tour to celebrate the clubs centenary year and prepare for the coming season.

While the official tour was organised and supported by the executive the guerrilla tour was organised and planned through top secret meetings and clandestine planning sessions.

While the firsts packed bags in the Merrion Shopping Centre and had a wine tasting evening to fund their tour the guerrilla’s packed bags at their local Centra store and had a lemonade stand at the Red Cow roundabout. The bag packing and lemonade stand were not as successful as we had hoped so upon Joe McGinley’s advice we lumped all the takings on England to win the world cup. We might as well as stuffed the money in a vuvvuzela and waved a magic wand….. !


 

The 28 players and staff not wanted in South Africa met in Belfield at 11 am and promptly headed to…..Courtown in Wexford for a week of training and bonding. While it took Kev Kenny’s crew 3 days to get to South Africa we arrived at O’Neill’s caravan park within two hours, this included Pistol Pete being stopped for speeding. Surely that is the first time Pistol and the word speed have been seen in the same sentence.


Anyway the squad was divided into seven groups of four and were shown to their mobile homes where they would stay for the week. The management team of Killian Keane, Mark Flanagan, Ian Wyse and tour supremo Shane Geraghty had their own van for the week. It must be noted that Killian swapped the sights of Miami’s south beach and the Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados to make the camp but he was still not a happy camper as we had chosen Wexford over Skerries.

After the long and arduous journey the coaching team had the players play a few games of touch to loosen out the legs and get over the jet lag. After the touch the tour squad ventured into town to enjoy a dinner of Fish and Chips from ‘Mario’s Take Away’. Lar McKenna gave this dish a seven out of ten in terms of chipper food ‘nice enough but wouldn’t head down especially for it’ were his exact words.

After the meal the lads headed back to base camp for an early night in order to prepare properly for Tuesday.

A 6am start for the group today as the lads hit the local Curves gym to get in a heavy weights session. Keen to impress in the gym were Lar ’feel the burn’ McKenna and Ger ‘Macho Man’ Moran. The locals were suitably impressed with the squad’s efforts.

After the early morning gym session the players and staff ran back to camp. On our run we were encouraged by Gero playing the Rocky theme full blast on his car stereo. Unfortunately for Gero once Rocky had finished Take That’s greatest hits came on. Gero could not explain how this happened but we all know he is a huge fan of Gary and the boys.

Upon reaching camp the lads enjoyed a light breakfast and soon joined the grazing cows on the training paddock where Killian & Wysie took them through a tough skills session. Following this we broke for lunch which had been prepared by Chief Red Coat Shane Geraghty. Needless to say the ham and tomato sandwiches went down a treat and everyone retired to their vans for a siesta before the afternoon’s session.

After the siesta Mark Flanagan took the lads through a Game Planning / Management session. This was followed on by a speed testing session. This got Gibbo’s hopes up as he misread his daily planner and came out all prepared for some Speed Dating.  The lads finished off with a recovery session in the Irish Sea.

Dinner was prepared by Van One which has Stephen O’Dwyer in charge. Their efforts were appreciated by all as the squad finished off their Pasta and Salmon Dish.  After the days exertions most people retired to bed but a number of the young guns partied away in Van 1 much to Stiffler’s annoyance. Click this link to see some party footage


 

Once again we hit Curves early in the morning and this time we cycled back. The lads are using bikes to get around this week; thankfully we have had no accidents yet.  After Breakfast we had a Defensive Session where the coaching staff had invited Less Kiss to take the session. Once again Gero had made up a packed lunch for us all (crisp sandwich today). The afternoon session centred on the Breakdown and the way the referee’s are to ref the tackle law this season. Once again we had a top class guest to help us here with Alain Rolland kindly joining us for the session.  After this the squad jumped in the sea for their recovery session.  Unfortunately Eddie Conlon was asked to wear a tee shirt on the beach as a few children took fright at his hairy physique.

Before dinner the management had to deal with their first discontented camper when Doug Lynch complained that the hair dryer in van 2 was broken and he could not live with that. Thankfully the lads in van 3 (Jambo , Piwi etc) said Doug could use theirs.

Doug and the lads in Van 2 were in charge of dinner and it had soon become clear we had a bit of a Master Chef competition on our hands. Doug’s gang produced a rather tasty chicken Curry. After dinner the lads settled in for a video session (The Wire season one).

 

Rather than hitting Curves (the local lawn bowls team had it booked) the lads participated in a Strong Man Competition which included amongst other things, flipping tractor tyres and pulling cars. Captain Ger Moran won the event and he has now decreed that he is to be known as The Hulk.

After the Strong Man Competition the lads hit the pitch once more for a session on Starter Plays and Restarts.  This session was followed up by a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The afternoon session focused on Unit Work and the now daily recovery session at the sites private beach.

Van 3 was cooking dinner tonight and this was followed by a team bonding session. Once again the Master Chef competition ensured that the lads put a fair bit of effort into dinner and everyone enjoyed the Tiger Prawn dish the lads prepared. Unfortunately for Screech (Mark Jennings) he must have misread his daily itinerary as he turned up for  dinner and the Bonding Session in PVC suit and some whips and chains………..

We had our first attempted breakout last night but Eddie & Mitch forgot to take their GPS units off after training so Gero was alerted to it after they broke through the camp fence. As punishment  the lads have to help the housekeeping staff clean the Vans tomorrow.

 

We had no weights / conditioning session this morning so we were able to sleep in until breakfast. Thankfully the weather has been really nice so we have been able to eat outdoors all the time. The morning session focused on continuity work. After the training session spirits were high as we had the afternoon off. While the firsts climbed Table Mountain in Cape Town we were set to enjoy the Sugar Loaf and its breathtaking views.  The lads really enjoyed this and it the afternoon will live long in the memory for those lucky enough to be part of the Guerrilla Tour.

Upon returning to camp the tour squad met up in the conference room attached to the managements van where we outlined our goals and code of conduct for the year.  After the gruelling hike up the Sugar Loaf we were all pretty exhausted so it was an early night for the squad.

 

Once again we had an early start to compete in a Triathlon. Stephen O’Dwyer won the competition just finishing ahead of Joe McGinley.  After Breakfast we had a full contact session where the coaching team were keen to emphasise all the aspects of play we have worked on all week. Rather than have a Siesta after lunch (egg sandwiches) the squad headed into Courtown to do some shopping for their friends and families at home. In Joe’s case his family.

After the tough morning session the squad sat down to watch the SA v NZ test game. This was followed by some beach games (beach volleyball etc) before dinner.  It was the managements turn to cook dinner and they duly obliged producing a tasty BBQ. After this the squad hit the amusements in Courtown, where the young guns of Jordan Egan, Conal Cremin and Ben Young were a bit too scared to go on the ghost train.

Jordan Egan & Ben Doyle at the amusements.

Needless to say everyone was late to bed after another enjoyable day on tour. The lads in SA might have Long Street to enjoy but it is hard to beat the sights and sounds of a mid summers night in Courtown.


 

The squad (the majority of whom were feeling a bit worse for wear) were woken up to face a nice five mile run prior to breakfast. After breakfast they had some fitness testing and a skills session. This was followed by lunch (salad sandwiches) and a much appreciated Siesta.


The afternoon session was a trip to Wicklow Gaol (the South African guys are going to Robben Island) and a sand castle competition. Jambo took the honours here where his architectural skills shone through.

That night we held our end of tour dinner and court session. Killian was our tour judge, Gero represented the defence while the prosecution flew in Fred Gilligan to act on their behalf. Once again it was a thoroughly enjoyable night where everybody ended up getting fined at some stage.

 

We left Courtown to return home just in time as heavy overnight rain saw a number of vans springing a leak. We managed to cover an awful lot of work this week and the lads have returned home in top physical condition and looking forward to the season ahead.

Many thanks to all those who helped fund the tour, it could not have been achieved without your generous contributions.


Finally the management realised that the modern player needs access to their social networking sites twenty four hours a day. Because of this the players were allowed full access to Twitter etc during the week.

Here is a selection of Tweets sent during the week:

Killian Keane    
“Courtown…………………..why not Skerries!”


Mark Flanagan
“Accommodation great but cannot believe Wysie got the big bed”


Mark Jennings 
“So embarrassed, I did think bondage session was a bit strange…but it felt good to have the PVC suit on
again…”


Joe McGinley
“I wonder what Fionn is doing now?”


Eddie Conlon 
“Survived the first night with Lar, Ger & Mitch. We might need to leave the windows open this week!”

 

 

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