London balling: Maher's men meet familiar foes

London's first native born manager was appointed in the dying days of the last decade - unfortunately around the same time as an unsettling new virus was being detected in central China.

Michael Maher crammed in five League games in early spring 2020 before Covid hit these shores and the London senior Gaelic football team was placed in mothballs for the guts of two years.

One might have forgiven them a touch of rustiness on their return to competitive Gaelic football. Not a bit of it. London have emerged as one of the stories of the League, winning two games from two, first coming from behind to overhaul Carlow in Netwatch Cullen Park and then holding off Waterford to win by a point in Ruislip.

The past month has been all the more impressive given that London are inclined to be slow starters in the league, even in normal years, their irregular scalps tending to occur at the back end of the campaign, if they arrive at all. The lack of a pre-season competition tune-up doesn't help matters.

London GAA squads tend to be subject to a bewildering degree of player turnover, given their reliance on an often transient Irish emigrant population. Maher's 32-man squad for the 2022 league contained only 13 of the players available to him in their last league campaign. Nine players were handed their debuts against Carlow. It made the one-point win all the more remarkable.

With no football for two years, London GAA chiefs have allowed free entry into Ruislip for the entire league campaign. 800 spectators were attracted in for the Waterford win.

It is assumed that the giddiness will end soon and London - like Heathrow bound pilots - will get a land at some stage.

On Sunday at 1pm - the early throw-in time to allow them catch the 5pm flight