SGL Down Under – Perth 7s

Perth, Australia

The SGL’s first outing in 2026 saw the club heading to the Southern Hemisphere to compete in the Perth 7s on the 11th of April. The SGL were represented by a Men’s Hurling team, two Men’s Football Teams (Senior and Intermediate) and one Ladies’ football team. The venue for the day was the Tom Bateman Sporting Reserve in southern Perth.

Rumours abounded even before the tournament began. The cost of living in was Singapore apparently too much for some of the traveling party, who spent the Thursday in Australia working nixers, collecting kids from schools and all jobs strictly cash in hand. For the sake of their continued residence in Singapore, they will remain nameless but should definitely keep the others on their good side. On the other side of the coin, the Ladies’ football team was so low on numbers, they had to have some of the local 15 year old girls tog out for them. Still unconfirmed whether this was a paid gig and if official club funds were used.

In the absence of last year’s captain and club goalkeeper, Michael Neary, incoming Men’s captain Paddy Bourke graciously volunteered to play in goals for the day only to rather unfortunately break his thumb in the week prior. Many questioned the legitimacy of this injury, claiming it was just to avoid playing in nets. Funnily enough, the broken thumb did not stop Paddy from selecting himself as an outfield player all the same. Speedy recovery!

Once the rest of the traveling party arrived on Friday, the party really got started. In what was probably the tamest SGL night in the history of the club, everyone had left McNallys pub by 10pm and gone home. It’s saying a lot when Liam McGinley is the last man standing the night before a tournament.

Saturday morning started off great for the select few of Sean’s Flanagan’s elite Airbnb clique, being provided with a hearty breakfast of overnight oats and avocado sourdough toast by the man himself. Easy to tell Sean was not one of those needing to work on nixers while on his holidays. He is now accepting advance bookings for the SEAs and AGGs later this year.

Finally the club got round to kicking some balls and pucking some sliotars. The Senior men finished with two wins from four games, while the intermediate men won three out of four group games, losing only to the eventual Intermediate champions and finishing third overall. And in a first for the SGL, the hurlers took a win on Australian soil! The scoresheets for the remaining hurling matches have since gone missing and were not important. First win on Australian soil! The ladies had a tough day at the office, their scoresheets going the same way as the hurlers, but the most important thing is that they had fun.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent with some well earned beers at the pitch, finishing off the sandwiches provided by the Southern Districts club (ACB take note for future tournaments) and telling the gobsmacked Irish in Perth about the rich and hedonistic lifestyle that comes with living in Singapore, like buying a crate of beer at the pitch for your teammates instead of just a bottle for yourself. The evening started at McNallys again, and this time the club members very bravely managed to stay past 10pm.

Big thank you to the Western Australia GAA organising committee for the day out and in particular to Southern Districts GAA who were very helpful to the SGL in advance of the competition and on the weekend itself.