Eoin Marmion, captain of Greystones believes a long pre-season has helped them go unbeaten after four games, but they need to remain complacent if they want to win the 2B Crown.
Speaking on the FinalWhistle.ie The Rugby Show Podcast, Marmion recalled how the format of last season really left them feeling deflated going into Christmas unbeaten, they have bounced back as the league changed format back to the old system, but their heads did drop after an email from the IRFU before Christmas last year.
“It’s one of those things you can’t do anything about it, it’s out of your control so there’s no point moaning and groaning about it, but it definitely was a bit of a they let us know the night before our match before Christmas, was when they sent out an email so it was going into that we were I think it was eight from eight going into it.
I think the heads kinda dropped a little bit hearing that being like oh what’s the point those thoughts go through your head as much as you don’t want them too, that’s just the way it goes sometimes you just gotta deal with it and we knew it halfway through that we just had to keep pushing on for the rest of the season, which I think we did as well and we had a good second half to the season it was just that last game against Blackrock in the very very final play that killed us but we will have to just move on from that.”
Now they are back in the same place they were 12 months ago, unbeaten and looking like early contenders, they have been unbeaten in four as they defeated Belfast Harlequins at the weekend, putting a gap between the, and those below them, while they face Sligo in a tough game this weekend, Marmion says they need to have the right headspace and remain on track if they want to get the results they are aiming for.
“Yeah absolutely you can’t not be happy with four from four, of course you can’t get complacent we’ve been nine from nine at Christmas and we haven’t won the league so we learnt that kinda thing the hard way, complacency will kill yeah so we gotta keep the heads down and keep ploughing on each week, onto Sligo this week which is always a tough place to go it’s a long journey the weather’s never great but I was saying just there earlier I’ve only ever played there when it was sunny, I played once last year and the sun was splitting the stones down there which was a shock to everyone on the bus down, I’ll probably get the worst of the weather this weekend, but what can you do.”
A good pre-season is always helpful in getting teams prepped for the year ahead, new coach Dan Kenny has settled into the role and given new tactics to his players, they squad as Marmion says have come together a good bit and learnt new tactics under Kenny which as she says took time to get their heads around before the season began.
“We had a long pre season so everyone was with each other and around each other from July, we kinda come together as a group a lot, we have a new head coach Dan Kenny and Stuart as well and they kinda wanted to bring in their plays and their different kinda set piece early on so we’ve spent a bit of time together getting those right and it didn’t come together for awhile to be honest, but it’s starting to come together now and it’s come at the right time come the start of the AIL, it’s just the coaches and having time together to get a long pre season in.”
Full Interview on this week’s Podcast:
Diarmuid Kearney
Diarmuid Kearney is a freelance Sports Journalist based in Co Kerry. He has more than 5 years experience covering domestic and international soccer for different media organisations, while also working for local and national print and digital organisations covering GAA.