London's record in the Tailteann Cup doesn’t make for great reading, but the feeling within the camp is that changes off the field will have a knock-on effect on it.
The Exiles opened this year’s Tailteann Cup campaign with an eight-point loss away to Limerick, their ninth outing since the competition came into being.
A resounding win last year over Offaly – their first championship victory in 11 years - remains the only time they have picked up two points. There have been some close moments, Laois were held two years ago, while it was late goals from Antrim that sunk them in last year’s preliminary quarter-final.
Saturday’s task looks a tall order as Westmeath travel to Ruislip looking to make it two wins from two. Keeping Luke O’Loughlin in check after his spectacular 1-17 display against Antrim will be one of many tasks facing London manager Michael Maher.
The accuracy and fluency of Shay Rafter and Ciarán Diver – the pair accounted for half of the team's tally against Limerick – is crucial to causing an upset in Group 3.
Dealing with issues around facilities, player turnover and travel are run of the mill for the Exiles, but at least the former has been addressed in a significant way.
In December London GAA welcomed the opening of its first floodlit pitch at The Hazelwood Centre, meaning that their inter-county football and hurling teams will be able to play practice matches under lights for the first time at the home of London Irish RFC.
"Last year we were in another ground up the road called Grasshoppers," midfielder Tighe Barry tells RTÉ Sport.
"It was on a rugby pitch and there was no gym really. So now you've got a gym, our S&C coaches and we can just walk out to a natural Gaelic pitch that's floodlit.
"It makes a massive difference because you can actually do realistic drills. Especially like kick-outs because a rugby pitch is just too small and even the goals are too big for the goalkeeper."
It's Barry’s second year on the senior panel having earned his stripes on the all-native junior team. He is one of half a dozen or so that have made the step up, a boost he says for all younger players.
Born and raised in London, he spent many summers on Valentia Island where his father’s side of the family hail from. Being Kerry, football royalty is never far away. After last year’s Tailteann defeat to Antrim, he got down to the Kingdom for a week and called into his neighbour, the great Mick O’Connell, for a chat.
His cousin, former Dublin footballer Paul Casey, has always been a role model to him and while he’s been to Croke Park to support Kerry, the ambition is to someday grace the hallowed turf as a player.
Defeat on Sunday would be a hammer blow to realising that goal in the short term, but Barry remains optimistic that London moving in the right direction.
"Everyone always writes us off but I just think further down the line more and more young players coming in, especially with our development squads as well, we'll keep improving," he says.
What would it mean to run out at GAA HQ one day in London colours?
"It would be a dream come true to be honest."
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