Vodafone Football All Stars Tour - Hong Kong 2005
Action from the All Stars match at the Football Club
The HKGAA had the privilege of hosting the 2005 Vodafone Football All Stars Tour. The All Stars Tour is a bi-annual event where the best gaelic players in Ireland from the previous two years play an exhibition game of football in a far flung destination, normally somewhere in America, but until recently, more commonly in Asia.
The All Stars first trip to Asia was in 1997, when the restored All Stars Tour visited Dubai. Following that, the tours as well as the intermitting Hurling All Stars tours visited America for the following six years. On the back of the succesful hosting of the largest Asian Gaelic Games, Hong Kong was selected to host the 2005 All Stars Tour.
Painstaking organisation went into organising the event, which was also attended by An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, many of his Government, an Irish Trade delegation. The All Stars match, which was deemed by many as one of the most exciting ever, was followed by a gala dinner that was attended by over 800 guests. Lauded by many within the GAA as the All Stars tour that raised the bar several notches, Asia has continued to receive such praise with the tours to Singapore and Dubai in the last two years.
Click here for Eamon O'Hara of The Irish News' report on the week
A memorable trip to Hong Kong
Monday, February 21, 2005 (from Hoganstand)
by Peter Canavan
What a backdrop against which to pen my first article for Hogan Stand - seated as I am in the plush surroundings of the Excelsior Hotel overlooking the Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. With the realisation that everyone at home has been well updated on our tour, I will recap on the 2005 All Star trip from a player’s perspective.
The tour for the All Star footballers of 2003 and 2004 departed from Dublin on Wednesday 19th January. A one and a half hour flight to Amsterdam was followed by an 11 hour journey to Hong Kong. It was early Thursday morning when the 90 strong party touched down in Hong Kong in good spirit (some with the help of good spirits). Before reaching the hotel, we stopped to receive our accreditation for the Hong Kong football club. This club has the largest range of facilities of any club in Hong Kong and is one of the most renowned sporting clubs to be found anywhere in the world. International sporting events are regularly held here, including horse racing, soccer, rugby and hockey. Its extensive facilities also include a large outdoor swimming pool, bowling greens, snooker hall, golf simulators, squash courts, driving ranges and tennis courts. As members for the week we were delighted to have the use of these marvellous facilities.
Matty Forde receiving the Player of the Month Award during a training session
After receiving our membership, it was then on to our elegant 4 star hotel, The Excelsior. With nothing scheduled for the rest of the day, most of the group caught up on lost sleep but by night everyone was well rested and ready to check out if Hong Kong really is ’the city that never sleeps’. Delaney’s bar in Wan Chai proved to attract a large contingent of the players and it was here that one of the highlights of the week took place. As the night progressed a dispute arose over the circumstances in which Tyrone’s Philip Jordan was ’mistakenly’ removed from a popular Monaghan nightspot a few weeks previously. To settle the argument it was decided to place Philip on trial. A jury was selected. Pat McEnaney (Monaghan referee and niteclub owner!) spoke on behalf of the prosecution and I was entrusted with the unenviable task of defending Mr Jordan. Jim Curran ex-referee, Tyrone County board official and highly respected entrepreneur was duly appointed as judge for the trial. After a heated debate, which at times threatened to boil over, the jury found the defendant guilty as charged. The verdict provoked outrage in the public gallery with two of the witnesses for the defence, Paul Collins (Today FM) and Pauric Clancy (Laois), having to be removed from the court. In his summary, Judge Curran, questioned the validity of the jury, in particular the fact that there were two Fermanagh men on it, namely Barry Owens and Marty McGrath. In charging the Tyrone man, Judge Curran sentenced him to spend the next week sharing his hotel room with Armagh’s Enda McNulty!
The following day the All Stars got a chance to train on the pitch at the Hong Kong Football club. The synthetic surface was in excellent condition and the surroundings were remarkable - the stadium was virtually surrounded by sky scrapers. After a light training session, we enjoyed a harbour cruise and a meal at the excellent Shanghri Hotel. It was here that we witnessed the Gooch Cooper’s burning desire to be a professional photographer. He also revealed his hopes one day to fill the shoes of famous Dublin photographer Ray McManus.
The Nevilles with Mickey Harte and Moya Hone
Saturday 22nd was the day of the match and an occasion that the Hong Kong GAA spent a lot of time and effort in organising and preparing. The All Star game itself was preceded by three other games involving local mens and ladies teams. The highlight of these was the appearance of GAA president Sean Kelly on the ’Rest of the World team versus Kowloon’. Despite his protestations, the president found himself sin binned after 10 minutes.
The All Star game itself proved to be more competitive than in previous years and the 2,000 plus crowd were vociferous in their support. The fact that a few wagers had taken place among the touring party before the game also added a little spice to the contest. John Maughan was very confident that his ’04 All Stars would triumph. Before the game he spoke to me about how well his team were bonding plus the fact that ’03’s Sean Kavanagh was suffering from a tummy bug! The game was played at a good pace throughout and after some great scores, superb catches and breathtaking saves from Diarmuid Murphy and Fergal Byron, the ’03 All Stars held onto win by 11 points. As captain, Declan Browne received the Vodafone Trophy from An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Following the game a gala dinner was organised and was attended by over 600 guests. The meal was preceded by speeches from the special guests an Taoiseach and the President of the GAA but it was Kerry’s Paul Galvin who stole the show by putting on a display of Irish dancing, the likes of which has never been seen in Hong Kong.
Without doubt one of the highlights of the week was the visit to Sha Tin racecourse the following day. Sha Tin, Hong Kong’s largest racetrack opened in 1978 and is one of the most modern racecourses in the world. The feature race on the card was the 450,000 euro Bauhina Sprint Trophy. Despite leaving the track minus a few Hong Kong dollars it was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion. Our hosts treated us like kings- seating us in executive boxes with all the food and drink you wanted.
President of the GAA, Sean Kelly makes a presentation to the HKGAA
The remaining two days of the tour were free from engagements and for most of the group they were spent either shopping or recuperating. The tour has been an uplifting experience - getting the chance to socialise with your opponents does not normally happen and I know many of them will be thankful I have not divulged everything they got up to in Delaney’s bar, Stormy Weather, Joe Bananas or other establishments in Hong Kong!
The tour was extremely well organised with both the Vodafone and Croke Park officials working hard to ensure everyone had a good time. A special mention will have to go to our hosts - the Hong Kong GAA. There has been a remarkable growth of Gaelic games in Asia in recent years - Gaelic football was even introduced to primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong and Japan during 2004. Let’s hope our games continue to flourish there and let’s hope those lucky enough to be selected for future trips will have as good a time as we’ve had.
P.S. If any readers possess any unwanted ACDC memorabilia please send them onto a Mr Enda Muldoon, Ballinderry, Co. Derry.
Click here for Eamon O'Hara of The Irish News' report on the week