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 back from Knock - they visit their most familiar of foes. The game has been switched to the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan (Mayo) as the Carrick surface recovers from the impact of Storm Eunice. It'll be on the outdoor 3G pitch adjacent to the futuristic Air Dome (Mayo's wonder dome stood up to the storm rather better than the Millennium one).
Leitrim, it's not unfair to say, have typically been regarded as London's likeliest championship prey. The two-time provincial champions are traditionally the most vulnerable of the Connacht quintet.
The first of London's total of four championship victories to date occurred in Carrick-on-Shannon way back in 1977, in only their third year of participation. Safe to say, no moving pictures exist of the event. The team contained one native born Londoner, Mick McGovern, a former professional footballer with QPR and Swindon Town, who was, he later told the Irish World, relatively new to Gaelic football. This didn't stop him scoring 0-03 in a 0-09 to 0-06 win. There was an added irony in that his mother happened to come from Manorhamilton in Leitrim.
This was to be London's last championship victory for 34 years. They continued to plug away, year on year, with a few near-misses and a larger number of far-misses. In 2011, having taken Mayo to the brink in James Horan's first game in charge, they downed Fermanagh in a Round 1 qualifier.
This was a relatively low-key event compared to what happened two years later. The long hot summer of 2013 provided London with their day in the sun. Under the stewardship of Roscommon man Paul Coggins, they beat Sligo in Ruislip before edging Leitrim in the replay in Hyde Park to reach an improbable provincial decider. The win sparked memorable scenes of celebration on the pitch and in the dressing room afterwards.
Then Mayor of London Boris Johnson was alerted to their progress by someone and announced "They travel to Castlebar on their momentous quest for victory with the good wishes of me and all London fans. Go London!"
They shipped five goals against an in-form Mayo in the Connacht final but this was to be expected. Their date in Croke Park was secured as they played Cavan in the last-12.
Coggins appeared on 'Up for the Match' that September and disclosed that the one London-born player in the starting XV, Philip Butler, was occasionally in the habit of turning up to inter-county training in an England top.
Since then, there is a slight up-tick in the number of UK-born players. Captain Liam Gavaghan, born in west London and an engineer on the London Underground, has been a stalwart for years, usually located at full-forward. Killian Butler, brother of Phillip, slammed home the penalty in the win over Waterford.
The majority of the team remain Irish emigrants to the UK capital. Chris Farley, who landed 0-07 from the 1-12 tally against Waterford, is originally a Dromid Pearses player, the same club as Jack O'Connor. He starred in a South Kerry championship win in early 2020.
However, the pathways are being established for more UK born players. Their junior team is entirely comprised of native Londoners, with the prospect of more graduating to the senior team.
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With the 2022 league already pencilled in as a success, they should be full of beans as they descend on the west of Ireland. There is a slight snag here, however.
Leitrim, viewed from the outside, seem uncommonly buoyant at the moment, their high-profile new gaffer from Mayo guiding them first to a strikingly narrow loss to Cavan and then a resounding win away to Tipperary. With the 2020 Ulster champions considered to be slumming it in Division 4 and the likeliest to top the table, the race for the remaining promotion spot is perceived to be a straight battle between the Connacht duo, Sligo and Leitrim.
The Connacht championship is shaping up to be unusually strong this year, with all five of the actual Connacht counties going great guns in the league. But there's the carrot of the Tailteann Cup afterwards, which will appeal more than the death march of the qualifiers.
Maher was an enthusiastic backer of the second tier competition, saying it would be invaluable in keeping the players engaged.
"If you look at it, you are starting off from the last 16, you are only a couple of wins from a semi-final, so you just never know," Maher told reporters after the Carlow victory. "There is the chance there to get to the latter stages of a national competition."
But all that can wait until the league adventure ends. As it stands, London still hold a 100% record. They may never have a better chance of escaping their natural habitat in Division 4. A third win from three games and people would have to start believing.
