Ice baths have become common place in the routine of a GAA player before and after a big match, but 30-odd Amsterdam hurlers might be taking it to the extreme as they get set to leap into the Herengracht Canal ahead of the biggest ever game for the club – a Leinster Special Club Junior final against Longford Slashers on Saturday.
On 17 March, 2003, as Gary Hanniffy was lifting the Tommy Moore Cup as Birr defeated Dunloy in the All-Ireland final, seeds were being sown 750km east as the Amsterdam GAA club was formed on a chilly St Patrick's Day in the Netherlands.
History was made at Croke Park that day as Birr became the first four-time All-Ireland winners, moving clear of Cork’s Blackrock and Galway’s Athenry, and 22 years later it’s Amsterdam who have made a bit of history by becoming the first mainland European team to reach a Leinster final.
The special club tournament – essentially a Junior B grade – was first run in 2007 and won by Offaly’s Kullrin, before their amalgamation with Killeigh to form Clodiagh Gaels, and the prize on offer, by coincidence, was a trip to the Netherlands with a match scheduled against a European selection in the Hague.
It ran until 2015 before being placed on hiatus until its return this year - and this weekend, a crowd of club members will gather in Mulligan’s Irish Bar in the Dutch city to watch the final while for the second time in a number of weeks, the panel will make the trip to Ireland.
Earlier this month, the side travelled to Ashbourne and faced Meath IHC finalists Rathmolyon.
Five points down at the break, and four behind with just 10 minutes left, the four-in-a-row European champions fought back down the stretch and fittingly it was Galway’s Grahame McDermott who moved them ahead for only the second time in the contest with a penalty in the 63rd minute with their player-manager, Limerick’s Dara O’Farrell, putting the seal on a famous 1-13 to 1-11 win.
They’re off to Glennon Brothers Pearse Park for the final against Robbie Stakelum’s Slashers, who won their county’s senior title this year with a win over Wolfe Tone's and defeated Wicklow’s Aughrim in the other Leinster semi-final.
With history already made, the hope is they can add some more, but whatever the outcome, it’s going to be a day to remember for club chairperson Eimear Lafferty.
A member of the famed Gormley clan in Tyrone – her aunt Eilish is one of the best ladies players in Ulster history - Lafferty was always likely to find her way to the GAA club when landing in 'Mokum’ four years ago. It only took hours in the end, the player heading to training on the very same evening she arrived.
She still plays with them, helps with the management too and, of course, chairs a committee that is completely player-led.
"We’re a long-established club, but we seem to be growing year-on-year," said Lafferty.
"For a number of years, the ladies' team was an amalgamation of teams from the Benelux region (the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) but we’re lucky enough now to have the numbers for our own team.
"We’re quite lucky with our facilities, it’s outside the city but with the bike culture, we can all cycle there – it's about a 45-minute cycle each way for me.
"The biggest challenge for us is that we are an entirely player-run club. A lot of the European clubs don’t have that older generation to turn to who did a lot of that managing in terms of the logistics of the club.
"It is difficult to separate those roles when you’re still a player, but we’ve worked really hard on it.
"In the last couple of years we have established a camogie team and they won their first tournament this year, we’re building our youth team – we hosted Cúl Camps last year and the European Féile this year – and we’ve also set up a handball team this year; I suppose you could call us a fully-fledged GAA club for the first time.
"It’s certainly given myself and the committee members a deeper appreciation of all the work our Irish clubs carry out to keep us playing and invested in the sport we grew up with - particularly my home club, Aodh Ruadh, now Thomas Clarke’s, which was founded by inspirational and dedicated women of the GAA that had to push and campaign to have their voices heard, and to become a successful club."
Two trips to Ireland in a fortnight is what the club wanted, but it brings with it a serious financial burden.
That’s where the dip in the canal comes in with a Go Fund Me campaign promising a series of forfeits for each milestone met, with players set to shave heads, perform a song in the middle of Dam Square and – for a target long since reached – jump as a group into water in their full club kit. The city is set for a temperature high of 6 degrees this week, according to forecasts, so it’s cash well earned.
"It’ll cost about €500, €600 to send each player over to Ireland and we have a panel of 30," Lafferty continued.
"We’re lucky the lads are happy to do all these challenges. There’s maybe a few girlfriends unhappy with all these shaved heads and shaved moustaches, but we’re very good at pulling together as a club.
"You can take being player-run as a negative as there is that extra pressure, but it does mean that everyone who is involved is really dedicated and wants to see the club flourish and thrive."
It's an all-Irish squad travelling to Longford, although the club has - and continues to - attract players from both the Netherlands and a number of nations. 'Big' Thom Verweijen has played a key role in midfield at times for the hurler while the club's female teams in particular attract players from various nations.
It adds another layer of pride for all involved with the club. That pride will be on display at Pearse Park.
