Some set-up.
It's been a rough week. All across Ireland, matches and training sessions have been called off due to the goddamn snowpocalypse.
The GAA were forced to completely wipe out this weekend's Allianz League football and hurling action, with hundreds of GAA clubs taking to social media to advise their players to stay indoors.
England isn't faring much better. The conditions have been equally treacherous across the Irish Sea. Basically, The Beast from the East and Storm Emma are fucking everybody's shit up, but some are luckier than others.
Take this Gaelic football team in London. Like pretty much everyone else, their outdoor facilities are unplayable but have been able to use a glorious indoor set-up, training under a glorious-looking dome at QPR FC.
https://twitter.com/CiDeely/status/969331831186317312
Money talks. Considering that QPR once spent £12.5m on Christopher Samba, it's fair to say they have a bit more spare cash knocking around than your typical GAA club.
Thanks to their financial muscle, they were able to launch a state-of-the-art academy training dome at Cranford Community College. It's officially called SuperDome, which makes us like it even more. Ciaran Deely, London's manager, has a day job as a sports scientist at QPR, so he clearly put his connection inside the club to good use to ensure that Thursday's training session would go ahead.
https://twitter.com/CiDeely/status/969565827904294914
Armed with a full-sized 3G pitch, it's come in very useful for London. Yes, the irony of the finest facilities being available to a Gaelic football team outside of Ireland isn't lost on us.
It's interesting, though, that Deely told the
official GAA website just last month that London GAA not having access to a full-size GAA training pitch with floodlights has been a source of frustration.
You can't help but feel jealous. It's completely, 100% snow-proof.
Compare that to what your average outdoor pitch looks like right about now. Yep, living in London certainly has its perks.
https://twitter.com/parkratheniska/status/969570178383142912
