LONDON senior football manager Ciaran Deely says his first season at the helm has been a challenging yet rewarding experience.
The Exiles bowed out of championship contention with a seven-point defeat to Offaly in Tullamore on June 25, bringing the curtain down on their competitive season.
Defeat to Mayo in the Connacht Championship preceded that loss, while they picked up one win on the way to finishing bottom of Division 4 after seven games.
“For me personally, I’ve learned so much,” Deely told The Irish Post. “In terms of preparing teams and managing the team, coaching too, it’s been a fantastic experience for me. It’s a challenging position, definitely.”
However, hard work pays off in the end and Deely is upbeat that 2016 has been a learning curve for him and the players, who have a bright future with the county in his eyes.
“As for the team and London GAA, we blooded through a lot of young players. A lot of London-born players are in the team now, like Ciaran Healy who started against Offaly.
“It would have been nice to pick up another few wins through the National League, but I think we came close quite often.
“Our big thing, which we said right at the very beginning, was that we wanted to compete in every game, and how we measured that would be to finish within six points of our opponents.
“Apart from the Wexford game, we achieved that in the league. In the championship, Mayo was obviously different given their strength, and with Offaly – a Division 3 team – we just fell short there.
“So I think we’ve been competitive but we now need to go to another level and push on to start giving these young players more game time next season, if I’m involved.”
LONDON’S 2016 RESULTS
All-Ireland Championship
Offaly 0-17 London 1-7Connacht Championship
London 0-9 Mayo 2-16National League Division 4
London 1-10 Wicklow 2-10
Waterford 0-12 London 0-13
London 1-11 Leitrim 1-16
London 0-11 Antrim 1-11
Wexford 4-20 London 1-6
London 1-11 Carlow 4-4
Louth 2-9 London 0-9
