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Sport

05th Feb 2016

Around the World in 80 Clubs: Penrith Gaels, Sydney, Australia (#11)

Conor Heneghan

A home away from home for the many Gaels that find themselves in Australia’s biggest city.

The first stop for many Irish people making their way Down Under is Sydney and the first stop for those who want to get involved in the GAA is often Penrith Gaels.

There are no shortage of options when it comes to GAA in Australia’s biggest city and Penrith Gaels are still going strong over 40 years after the club was first established way back in 1974.

With 80 members and teams for both sexes full of wonderful character and personality, club member Teresa Connolly-Hughes assures us that anyone who comes on board will join a wonderful bunch to kick ball with and will never be short of a laugh either.

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Pre-season training only began a few weeks ago and the club are hosting their first ever tournament, the All-Australian 13s Club Championships, this weekend.

Teresa urged anyone in the Sydney area who might want to get involved to get in touch via the club’s Facebook page and she also shed some light on the wide array of characters that make up one of the best-known clubs in Australia.

Focus on Penrith Gaels GAC

Club: Penrith Gaels GAC, Sydney, Australia

Year established: The club was set up in 1974 by a few stalwarts who are still floating about; a group of legends who even managed to set up and continue to run a successful club house (the only team in Sydney to have one).

Number of members: 80

Biggest rivals: Michael Cusack’s for the men’s team; they’ve battled in a few finals together. For the ladies, well… probably themselves, they’re fond of the auld socialising.

Biggest representation from club/county in Ireland: Both teams are a little diverse; we’ve a bit of a mixed bunch. The Galway contingent is quite strong in the men’s team (a few would beg to differ) and as for the ladies, we’ve a sensible bunch from Tyrone who like reading, strolls on the beach and going to Mass.

Most famous ever member: Probably Owen ‘Mugsy’ Mulligan (Tyrone). He was still showing off his little dummy and man bun on the Aussie soil. Although he could learn a thing or two from his better half, Neamh.

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Most memorable moment in the club’s history: In football terms, the men’s Championship win of 2013; a long tough year topped off with some success due to an outstanding team effort!

However, some might say the singing of Mr. Philip Cox (Galway) is the most memorable. It happens only once annually and is just an amazing opportunity to see that his talents definitely lie off the field.

Most eye-catching scoreline in the club’s history: Hmmm. I suppose a negative scoreline counts as well? It would have to be when our ladies’ team first started out a few years ago.

We may have conceded 11 goals but what was most memorable was the point we got in the same game!

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Player who makes the longest commute to training? That would have to be Declan Keating, from Portmagee in Kerry and Aidan Smyth, from Roslea in Fermanagh.

The two buddies travel from Burwood to Bondi for every training, although Keating would be a temperamental trainer. It depends on the hangover and the weather.

Most dedicated club person: Barry Devine, from Cookstown in Tyrone, AKA Mr. Penrith, AKA Mr. Chairman, AKA Mr. Real Estate, would like to think he is but think we’ll agree to disagree on this one. There’d be quite a few vying for that coveted title.

Player who could have made it big if love/career/drink didn’t get in the way: Drink seems to be the downfall of a number of our players and one of our sponsors, The Tea Gardens Hotel, helps aid this downfall!

However Niall O’Shea, from Dromid in Kerry, could definitely have played for the most successful county of all-time and possibly still could.

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Niall, a super-skilful player, is now loved up in Australia with a fellow Kerry lady named Laura. We at Penrith are only glad he has chosen to share his talents here in Oz for now.

Biggest Character: Brian ‘Barney’ McPeake, a true Gael with a huge personality.

Hailing from Derry, Barney loves to entertain, as you can see from a few of the snaps below. A super-shooter for our B team, a mastermind of a manager and, in general, our club jester.

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Loudest in the dressing room: A lady would have to win this award, of course, and it would have to go to Caroline McAree, from Emyvale in Monaghan.

Although a bit of a motivational speaker, Caroline is a great one for weekend gossip as well as one or two selfies to get the day off to a good start. 1, 2, 3, POUT!

Number of romances that started in the GAA club: Jaysus, there are too many to even mention!

We’ve had a few that played a bit of tonsil tennis but overall, there are nine Penrith couples to date, with the club having recently playing cupid to Cara Fenlon from Dublin and Philip Cox from Galway (pictured below), as well as Niall O’Kane from Derry and Caroline McAree from Monaghan.

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The number of in-club romances hasn’t stopped us from building cross-club relationships either.

Duck to water award – Best new player who had never played GAA before: Again, our ladies players definitely take the titles here with Christine Cassidy from Cavan, Susan Laverty from Louth and Cara Fenlon all showing their great ability to adapt to this new sport, showing complete dedication ever since they joined the club.

They’re all wonderful team players.

Most annoying person in the club WhatsApp group: The easiest answer of the lot, this most definitely goes to Conor Leydon from Galway, AKA Leydo, for his utterly ridiculous messages; we don’t think the lad is half-quarter.

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He also likes to give out a few racing tips, but we don’t think it has made him many friends because he hasn’t won many races yet, isn’t that right Conor?

Best story involving a club player (that is fit for print): There is an annual pre-season tournament in Gosford (about three hours from Sydney) each year, so all the teams travel by bus and the journey back is always eventful.

Last year, with drink flowing, the need for pit stops was great. We had our stop and continued on our way, however, we hadn’t noticed that we had left two girls behind – Shannon Guare and Rebecca McKenna, both from Monaghan.

Not only that, we were so far down the motorway the girls had to/managed to hitch onto a men’s team bus that had travelled from Melbourne for the tournament. Not knowing the boys, the girls managed to make friends quickly, with Shannon even stealing a quick kiss while Rebecca helped the boys drink their 24-can crate of beer that they had to share between their entire squad.

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To make it worse, Rebecca’s boyfriend Dermot Coyle was also playing for Penrith at the time and didn’t even realise Rebecca was missing. The girls were eventually returned to the right bus with Shannon not happy about being left behind.

Poor auld Snowy, Ryan McErlean from Derry, got a little abuse that day too.

True friends and excellent boyfriends to be found at the Gaels club; a true Penrith journey.

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