Shanghai Invitational Sep 2009
The Wolfhounds traveled to Shanghai at the weekend and a great time was had by all. Our first game was against Shanghai's B team and we emerged victorious after a goal each from Stephen and Chris and a few points from Bob. Next up was a feisty encounter with our old friends from Shanghai A. There was skin and hair flying in this one but the Wolfhounds never really performed. We failed to score and Shanghai gave us a good beating. In the third game we struggled past Suzhou with a last minute free from Stephen and so we qualified for the dubious honour of facing Shanghai again. We managed to put up a much better show second time around and while we never really threatened to get close to them, it was at least a bit more respectable than our first encounter.
Honourable mention must go to Angelo and Scott who made their Gaelic football debuts playing for Suzhou and also to Deborah who wowed everyone with her skills and athleticism in the girls' games.
A great night was had afterwards at the Punjabi Indian restaurant and the beer flowed freely all night. It continued to flow from about 10 am the next day and the Maglev was great fun on the way back to the airport. Tragedy threatened to overshadow the weekend when we found that the beer vending machine in the airport wouldn't accept notes. Aaron come up with the ingenious solution: another vending machine WAS accepting tenners so you could buy a packet of hankies for 2 kuai and the 8 kuai change in coins was enough to purchase a fine cool can of Qingdao. For this out of the box thinking Aaron is a worthy winner of our Wolfhound of the Weekend award. If we can all follow his example there is no way we will ever be defeated again!
Finally a massive thank you to Dec, Catherine, Dave, Geoff, Noelie and Michelle for making us so welcome and sorting out all the details. Special go raibh maith agats to our own Rosie who met us at the airport and made sure we all made it on time. Thanks also to Wayne in Brooklyn Bar who very generously fed all the returning Wolfhounds on Sunday for free. Cheers Wayne!Now it's back to Dalian for our winter training. Time to get ready for 2010!
Dalian Wolfhounds players this weekend: Mikey Farrelly, James Kenny, Peter Donelan, Keith Maher, Aaron Luo, Bob Jenkinson, Stephen Dillon, Brian Farrelly, Chris Vaughan, Tom Murphy, Levi Meadows, Angelo Alaestante, Scott Templeton, Deborah Dillon.
Sept 09 Challenge games in Shanghai
On Saturday 26th September, the Wolfhounds take to the road again as we saddle up for an Autumn challenge in Shanghai. There we will play games against Shanghai's A and B teams and against Suzhou. It should be a great day and hopefully we can win a few games.
Many of the usual suspects are traveling - Peter, Mikey, Levi, Bob, Aaron and James. Making their debuts for Dalian will be our Intel blowins - Chris Vaughan, Brian Farrelly, Angelo Alaestante, Scott Templeton, Keith Maher, Tom Murphy and Stephen Dillon who has done such a brilliant job with the training over the last few weeks. Deborah Dillon and Olwyn Vaughan will hopefully also get a run with the Shanghai girl's teams down there. Hopefully it should be a great weekend. Full report next week...
China Games - Shanghai 09
The latest Wolfhounds adventure in Asian GAA took place in June 2009 in sunny Shanghai. For once we received a favourable draw and managed to avoid Hong Kong and Shanghai. We were pitted against Beijing B, Shanghai B and Shenzhen. We accounted for Beijing B in our first game relatively comfortably. We then had a great struggle against our old friends Shenzhen. Their midfield powerhouse - Greg - had to be contained by hook or by crook and no better man than Levi to do it by crook. In the end we won quite comfortably. The Wolfhounds gave a smashing performance against Shanghai B in our last group game, moving the ball around very well and taking some excellent scores. So three wins out of three and spirits were high.
That left us top of our group and ready for the semis. There awaiting us were our old nemesis Shanghai. Once again they managed to put one over on us. They marked tight and we never really got going. In the end we were well beaten. In the end Hong Kong triumphed overall, beating Shanghai in the final.
So all in all a good tournament for the Wolfhounds. Special mention to Steve Hashim who traveled from Kunming to play with us, Andy Joseph who traveled from Seoul and Fran Kevlihan who traveled from SE Asia. Fran was also awarded the Player of the Tournament trophy which was a magnificent achievement.
Again there will be no Asian Games for the Wolfhounds this year. The Games in Bangkok in October will take place without us. However we are training hard and have an influx of new blood with the new Intel boys and a few other new recruits. The future looks bright and we have lofty ambitions for 2009.
- To win the China Games
- To compete in the Asian Games
- To bring down the government - the Irish one of course - we love you Hu Jintao!
Daliangaa.com goes live!
Gaelic football friends and fiends, the all new Dalian Wolfhounds website is alive and kicking, and as you can see tis looking great.
Once again, the whole site has been designed and developed by one-time Dalian resident and lifetime Wolfhound, Jonathan Clarke, who is just as lethal with his hurley as he is with his mouse & keyboard. On behalf of the Wolfhounds we say a big big thank you to Jonathan for putting the site together and for his continued dedication to the Wolfhounds' cause.
The new site has loads of new features such as automatic feeds of the latest Gaelic football news and flickr photos, game fixtures, and a nifty little comments section for the blog. If you want any of your flickr photos to be automatically fed into this website, just tag them "daliangaa". We have lots of new stuff to update over the coming weeks, including news from this year's All-China Gaelic Games, players' blogs, upcoming fixtures, and more. So stay tuned!
And if you're in the vacinity of Dalian, don't forget to come to Olympic Square at 7.30pm every Monday for Mikey's Balltastic Bootcamp (Gaelic football training).
No Asian Games this year for Wolfhounds
The Dalian Wolfhounds will not be competing at this year's Asian Games in Penang, Malaysia in October. In the end, despite the generous support of friends both here in Dalian, in Ireland and around the world, we decided that it was just too much financially to ask people to pay just to go and play football for a couple of days. That does not for one moment however lessen the gratitude we all feel for those people who donated some of their hard earned cash to the Wolfhounds cause. Go raibh mile mile maith agat go leir (a hundred thousand zillion thanks) to: Â
Aidan Vallely, Jer Laffan, John Colivet, Niall Farrelly, Maura Farrelly, Ciaran O Broin, Sheila Quinn, Nigel Parks, Anthony O Rourke, Eleanor Heffernan, Stuart O Brien, Rossa MacManamon, Dermot Devine and Monaghan Fionn - all in Ireland.
Rick Martin and everyone who supported our fundraising quizzes and poker nights here in Dalian. Thanks guys.
Special thanks to Wayne, owner of Brooklyn Bar and restaurant in the heart of Dalian, and a nifty half-forward what's more, for his constant support. Blair Atkinson a former Wolfhound, proud Kiwi. Karen Deignan Brendan Sweeney Irish, living in Sydney. This is a list I will add to when I have all the names. Thank you all so much. Training continues every Tuesday night at 7.30pm. 16 last Tuesday including 7 girls. Countries represented China, Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and South Africa. We are going to hit next year's China Games like a ton of bricks.
Appeal to help send the Wolfhounds to the 2008 Asian Games
At the moment all efforts are being directed towards trying to send a team to the Asian Games in Penang Malaysia on October 11th and 12th. If anyone would like to contribute, we would really appreciate it. Your money will be going to help grassroots GAA in northeast China.
The account details are: Bank of Ireland, University Branch, Galway. Account Holder: Michael Farrelly. Account Number: 43733976, Sort Code: 90-40-18
If money is being transferred from any other country (apart from Ireland,), you will need to give the following details also:
IBAN: IE66 BOFI 9040 1843 7339 76 - BICÂ / Swiftcode:Â BOF II E2D Â
If you would like to pay by Paypal the email address (mine - Mikey) is maiyunlong@gmail.com
Thank you all very much. A full report on the tournament will be posted when we return.
Wolfhounds Farewell to Andy Barbeque
A mighty barbeque was had at Jinshatan last Sunday (Fair dues to Rosie!!) to say goodbye to the great Wolfhounds net minder Andy Joseph. Andy will be greatly missed and we all hope he will be able to link up with us again in Malayisa in October. Slan a cairde!!
All China Games 2007 - Thanks Beijing
On Saturday June 7 the Dalian Wolfhounds contested their third ever major tournament as they entered the All China Games in Beijing. It was an absolutely memorable weekend for all of our traveling party and we flew the Wolfhound flag proudly for Dongbei with both the guys and the girls teams bringing home silverware. The girls, along with our friends from Shenzhen and Shanghai, played brilliantly, winning 4 games and losing just 2 on the way to winning the Bowl. The guys, despite being placed in the tougher of the two groups, also performed creditably to win three games and lose 2. They eventually triumphed in the Plate Competition. The Mens Cup was won by a strong outfit from Shanghai with Davy Hayes winning Player of the Tournament for the second year running. They defeated Beijing A in a tight final. The Ladies Cup was won by Beijing A who saw off Shanghai in a high class final. For all 20 Wolfhounds who wandered south to Beijing for this competition, it was a magical weekend of fun and games which will never be forgotten. Beijing put on a wonderful tournament and everyone in Dalian would like to congratulate them on the success of the whole weekend. In particular we would like to express our appreciation to Aoife and Eve for all the hard work they put into making this tournament the huge success it was. We were treated with wonderful hospitality throughout and many of our players, new to this game, are now absolutely hooked. For this we want to say THANKS BEIJING! You will never know how much your efforts are appreciated up here in Dalian.
All China Games Beijing 2008 - Mens Team
The All China Games Beijing 2008 have come and gone and the Dalian Wolfhounds have enjoyed their most successful and enjoyable tournament so far in their brief history. Both our mens and ladies teams (the ladies in collaboration with Shenzhen and a couple of Shanghai renegades) brought home silverware to northeast China. The men won the Plate while the Ladies won the Bowl (and the dish ran away with the spoon).
The lads kicked off the tournament against a strong Beijing A outfit in the early morning drizzle and it was definitely our worst performance of the day. We froze and never really got going but despite that were only a couple of scores behind a Beijing team that would ultimately go all the way to the Cup Final.
In the second game the Wolfhounds finally showed their teeth as they comprehensively outplayed Shanghai's B team. That left us faced with a crunch match against Hong Kong in what was undoubtedly by far the tougher of the two groups. The Wolfhounds fought hard against Hong Kong and missed a number of glorious goal opportunities before finally going under by a score of 1-7 to 1-5.
Into the plate semi-final we went where Beijing B were well beaten by a team featuring our three Chinese heroes - Song, Stone and Aaron - all playing starring roles. In the plate final Dalian comfortably defeated the Beijing Legends team with goals from Steve Hashim, Steve Rowland and two from Duane Bhasin. All 13 members of the squad played brilliantly and everyone saw loads of game time. Andy played amazingly well in goals all day with some stunning saves allied to flawless distribution to say nothing of his graceful charge forward in the final. Over the course of the day James, Song, Mikey, Aaron and Bob all defended well and ensured that anyone who scored against us would earn the honour and get some bruises in return. Indeed Song might have revolutionized throw in tactics with his now legendary Blind Mans Buff move!
Midfield was where lots of running was done and most of it was done by Steve Hashim, Levi and Mikey. All three covered enormous amounts of ground both in attack and defence. Our forwards performed brilliantly. Jake was always a threat. Duane bagged a whopping seven goals. Stone weaved his magic and scored a fantastic chipped goal in the semi-final. Steve Rowland grew into the game as the day progressed and by the end was making runs and kicking points like a complete natural. Emiliano returned from injury to play his part and would have scored a wonder goal if he could have figured out with which limb of his body to hit the ball.
And then there was beer.
So all round an amazing weekend for the Wolfhounds mens team. It's fair to say we have established ourselves as a force in Chinese GAA and the hope is now that we can kick on from here and grow stronger and stronger.
Wolfhounds Salute Beijing
The Dalian Wolfhounds once again joined up with our old friends Shenzhen and a couple of lassies from Shanghai to form a very successful Cobra force at the All China Games in Beijing. Whereas last year Shenzhen supplied most of the troops, this year Dalian upped its contingent to six and powered the team to glory. The team played absolutely magnificent football all day Saturday. Edna was unanimously considered by all present to be the outstanding Goalkeeper of the Tournament (with apologies to baldy Brummies). She caught endless balls and cleared her lines brilliantly. Some of her saves were spectacular both in terms of athleticism and bravery. At midfield Laura yet again turned heads with her brilliant play - powering through for endless scores kicked off both feet. In the forwards the KK American force of Katie and Kathleen alternated all day and won lots of ball and competed tigerishly in the tackle. Portia made her bow at the great catch and kick game too and did very well. Rosie was also absolutely brilliant and was considered by many (non-Dalian) observers to be the player of the tournament. She kicked an amazing array of points from all angles, in between breaks for exhaustion to keep the scoreboard ticking over at all stages.
It was by no means an all-Dalian effort though. Captain Fantastic Louise from Shenzhen was great in defence all day and Niamh at midfield was an absolute tower of strength. Throw into the mix Eimear, Prab, Vito and Maria from Shanghai and a powerful ostrigen cocktail of football beauty was concocted. The ladies started off with a game against the strongest team in the competition, Beijing A and rattled them with some strong early attacks. Eventually however the Beijing girls' overall power proved too much and they won well in the end. Next up was the Beijing B team and in this game the girls really started to flow. A flurry of brilliant points and goals gave us our first win of the day. Then came a titanic struggle with Hong Kong who would never have expected such a stern challenge from these unknowns from the wild north. They were stunned and despite a late comeback Dalian held on to score a memorable victory. That meant a final group game against Shanghai with the tantalizing prospect of a place in the final could Dalian / Shenzhen pull off a famous win. Alas it was not to be but the experienced team from Shanghai were given a big fright before eventually winning narrowly.Undeterred our ladies marched on to the Bowl final where Hong Kong would be seeking revenge for their earlier defeat. There was never the slightest chance though as the Cobras were totally tuned in and scored a great 2 goals and 6 points. Amazingly Hong Kong were held scoreless - a stunning achievement for our team.What a wonderful weekend for the girls team. Dalian has been put firmly on the map in Chinese ladies football and more importantly friendships have been created with girls from other cities that hopefully will be renewed the next time we enter battle. 1..2..3.. Cobras!!!
