3 days ago
Nash hailed by London manager Rogers as huge asset to their Christy Ring Cup sucess
London hurling manager Neil Rogers has hailed the part played by coach and former Cork star Anthony Nash in their breakthrough Christy Ring Cup success.
The Exiles claimed an unlikely tier three triumph, securing their involvement in the 2026 Joe McDonagh Cup competition, by beating Derry in last weekend's final at Croke Park.
They'd previously lost to Derry in the group stage while they were beaten by Mayo - the eventual Rackard Cup finalists - in the late March National League Division 3 final.
But London were full value for Saturday's big final win over Derry, leading virtually from pillar to post.
Two-time All-Star goalkeeper Nash, who retired from Cork duty after the 2020 season, joined up with London last winter after moving to the English capital for work.
"He's been huge for us," said Rogers. "I got in touch with him in November. I didn't know him before that. Initially he was a bit reluctant. We met a couple of times, kind of became friends, and then he jumped on board. Once he was on board, he was all in.
"He's been brilliant and has worked really hard on the structure of the team, puck-outs, that kind of side of it. He's very good at taking lads one on one in training as well, just giving them nuggets of information. His experience is huge and he's a huge character."
Birr and Offaly man Rogers was keen to point out that Nash isn't London's goalkeeping coach.
"The first phone call I made to him, the very first thing he said was, 'Don't ask me to do goalkeeping sessions'. He said, 'I'm not doing goalkeeping sessions with you'. So he's done nothing with the goalies, we have another goalkeeping coach from Waterford, Alan Tobin, he's brilliant as well. Anthony is more involved around the structure of the team, the setup. He's been brilliant."
The step up to Joe McDonagh Cup activity next year will be significant but Rogers is hopeful they can take it in their stride, providing they hold onto their players.
"With the turnover in London, it's hard to know," he shrugged. "We don't know who we're going to have in the panel next year. We don't know who is going to come in or potentially leave, which is always the issue in London. We'll work hard and do our best. I'm sure Derry would have had aspirations of competing at that level so if we can keep most of our lads, I think we'll definitely be able for it too."
London GAA secured permanent access to a floodlit grass pitch last winter. Rogers said that it has been a huge development for both the hurlers and footballers.
"We used to train in a place called Grasshoppers, a rugby pitch," he said. "It was a beautiful facility but there's no full-length (GAA) pitch so we could never play 15 on 15 games in training. London Irish going into administration was to our benefit.
"London GAA did a deal with London Irish that we'd put a set of lights down there. There was always a GAA pitch there but there were no lights so we did a deal to put a set of lights up.
"We take turns with the footballers. On Tuesdays, they train on the main pitch and we train on the rugby pitch, and vice versa on the Thursday. It's been huge for us in terms of getting training games in. We've never had that before. I'm in London 13 years and we've never had that. The S&C company that we use is based there as well. So everything is involved in the one centre. That's been really helpful."
