And so it came to pass that Basel GAA participated for a 3rd year in a row at the youth u-15 tournament in Amsterdam, on Saturday May 3rd on a beautiful sunny day. We travelled together in hope and with no little confidence that we could make an impact, given our learning curve having taken part at feile previously in both Berlin 2023 and Vigo 2024.
Preparation
Our preparation for feile had kicked off three months earlier, with a first training session on a Sunday in early February, where we met in Schützenmatt Park, back to the roots of Basel GAA. On that cold morning, we discussed our plans for feile, the preparation and commitment required by the players, their parents, and the coaches alike. Also the logistics needed to be planned including hotels, flights etc. to Amsterdam. For the great help and support of our parents and members and for all aspects to prepare us on our feile journey 2025 we are very grateful. Thanks also to the committee who provided financial support for the hotel booking and most importantly for the players who were gifted a feile track suit top! A big shout out to our unsung hero Brian, who does great work behind the scenes ensuring the kit got ordered and arrived on time! 😊
Training
During the three months, we completed a total of 15 training sessions, which included three mid-week sessions in April. The commitment and support of the players and parents was excellent. A highlight this year as part of our feile prep was the opportunity to travel to play Strasbourg Gaels in March and to return their hospitality in April, when they travelled to play us in Basel. This helped us greatly in terms of getting match practice, which we never had previously and allowed our players to get a better feel for the game. The focus of our training, particularly in the first six weeks, was on improving our collective and individual fitness, build some strength and conditioning so that we would be able to get out first to the ball and support our team mates playing our “triangle” fist passing game. Special thanks to Tom for driving the fitness standard including bleep tests during this important training phase so that we all were working together towards the same end goal! Also big thank you to Shane for ensuring we got Pfaffenholz for the indoors in February and later St. Jakob outdoors as early as possible, so as to get a feel for playing on grass. This stood to us in Amsterdam as our ball skills and movement and interplay were excellent!
Team
Basel feile team 2025 was a mix of experience with older players on their last feile including Tim, Rory, Naoise, James & Louis as well as first time feile players Dora, Sofia, Dara, Julian. Added into the mix was Killian, Nieves and Aidan who had played before as well as brothers Cian and Ronan from Zurich Inneoin who completed our feile panel of 14 in total. Our team were ready and determined to do well and give their best performances in a sporting manner!
FEILE – AMSTERDAM
The big day started well as our New West Hotel was perfectly located within a short cycle or taxi ride from the Sportpark De Dendracht. When we arrived at the venue, we were however informed of a change to the running order. Nevertheless we tried to stay focused as a group thinking of our first pool game, which was against the feile winners 2022 & 2024 EC Brussels.
We played well as a team and transitioned the ball effectively out of defence, avoiding the traditional Brussels goalkeeper kick out press by ensuring that Louis came deep as an extra player to midfield. It took us a while to find our rhythm and get scores on the board, the nerves were showing a little with a few close misses in the first half as we settled into the game. There were great tussles all over the field, particularly in the key sector around midfield where Rory and Naoise had their hands full with two very strong opponents. Our defense played extremely wellnand we managed to come away from the game with a clean sheet, final score 2:4 v 0:3. What a great start to our tournament to beat the reigning champions!
Our next game was against Eintracht Frankfurt who although put up a good performance were no match for our stronger and more experienced group of players. We were starting to move well for each other and transitioning the ball from defence into attack where we found our kicking boots. In the end the final score showed our dominance 6:9 v 3:1. This gave us a lot of confidence going into our next game against Vannes from Brittany, who were also previous winners of the tournament in 2023.
Vannes had beaten us in Vigo in the plate final and so it was a good motivating factor to play against them again this year to try and go one better! As it turned out we ran out comfortable winners on a score line of 3:7 v 0:0. We had not expected the game to be so one-sided, however we found out soon after that they had been due to team up with another club from Brittany who unfortunately had to pull out from travelling at the last minute. This of course had a direct impact on the quality and standard of the opposition. We used the opportunity to make a lot of changes to our team and to try out players in different positions which was a good experience.
Our final pool game was against Luxembourg GAA. We know them well over the years, but what was noticeable about them this year at feile was the depth of players that they had at their disposal. They fielded two mixed teams as well as a girls only team. Their girls team went on to win the inaugural girl’s feile competition and their mixed team reached the feile final, both very good achievements. This final pool game against Luxembourg was a tough affair and more like some of the tough matches we had the previous year in Vigo. The standard of the game was higher and it seemed to catch our players by surprise, including both the tempo and physicality of the opposition. As this was our fourth game on the bounce it did feel that the concentration and hunger that we had shown in the previous matches we were not able to bring to the required level.
Luxembourg were a big physical team all around the park and it showed in the way that they played the game. Of course, the referee can always impact a game for both teams and there were times in this game where we questioned some of his decisions particularly around the tackle of our players. However, the referee has the prerogative and decides accordingly and this was the game after three excellent performances where we never really could find our groove.
Surprisingly, we were only down a point at half time and the game was still there for the winning. In the end we conceded a couple of early second half goals, which made the task too difficult for us. We lost on a scoreline 1:5 v 3:6. This was a critical result as it meant that as runners up pool 1 we now played the winners pool 2, Estrela Vermelha from Galicia.
In the semi-final we fought gallantly, however Estrela from Galicia had too many strengths around the field and could attack from any part of the field. We did try to counter their main strength down the middle by moving Julian into the forwards to play a long ball from the kick out. This variation did work and we were able to win a lot of primary possession and make some chances on goal. However, having lost the final at home last year, this Galician team were an extremely highly motivated group and so with their strong drive and determination they ran out winners. They would go on to beat Luxembourg in a rather one-sided final.
CONCLUSION
This was a tremendous effort by our players and they put in multiple excellent performances that got our supporters, parents, and coaches very excited to watch. Each player should be very proud of their contribution to the overall team and for making a very positive contribution to the feile. From a coaching perspective there was great satisfaction to see how well the players bought into our system of play, keeping possession and working hard for each other to bring our best performance. As said, it was particularly satisfying to watch the team work, the ball transition along the lines from the back into the forwards and our ability to hold onto the possession and support each other. All players please take a bow😊
Off the field there was great excitement and atmosphere particularly when our supporters realised that we had a bag of Basel GAA jerseys all of which were used to support our team! Thanks to all parents and members for travelling, for their vocal support in what made for a special day for all our players full of great memories. Thanks to the coaching team of Shane, Tom, James and Niall for their commitment to ensuring the players were ready for the big day!
Also, Thanks to David Kent for his help with other aspects relevant for feile, in particular the mental preparation such as the power of good habits, positive thinking, and hydration. The feile journey might be over for this year however there is a great sense of pride in Basel GAA for the achievement of this group to make the feile semi-final for the first time with some fantastic performances along the way. We sincerely hope that what has been achieved in Amsterdam will inspire some of our up-and-coming players to train and work hard on their skills so that someday they might also represent their family, Basel GAA and indeed Switzerland at a feile. Basel abu!!
Finally, as a recognition of the positive contribution of Basel GAA to feile, we have the great honour of three of our players being invited to play All Ireland feile based in Bellaghy Co. Derry next month in June. A special congratulations to Rory, Naoise and Julian for being the first to represent our club with this great honour as part of the European all start panel. We wish ye the very best of luck!!
Niall Ryan, Youth Officer
Our feile coaching team Tom, James and Niall (missing Shane o’Neill)
Basel GAA 