The Collingwood Cup 2013 Monday, 04 March 2013 16:53

A look back at UCD's 2013 Collingwood Cup campaign which saw the boys in blue win their their Collingwood in four years and their second in a row

Just before he boarded the team coach to on Monday evening, Captain David O'Connor took a look ahead to the tournament

DOC’s Collingwood Preview

Another year, another season, another Collingwood Cup to defend. For many students Semester 2 often revolves around preparing for final exams, thesis submissions and essay deadlines, for myself and a 20 man strong UCD squad, it centres on the Collingwood Cup.

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Tonight we will be travelling to Belfast in preparation for our first game of the tournament tomorrow against Mary Immaculate from Limerick, the team we defeated in last year’s final. As with many previous years, UCD travel up to as the tournament favourites, 'the team to beat' and the reigning champions. Not only do we enter the tournament as last defending champions, we enter as being the most successful team in the history of the tournament, a record that we all are determined to extend. We also enter this year’s tournament with a lot to prove and are under no illusions about the task ahead of us.

This season we had a disappointing campaign in the colleges and universities league. As a group we all know that we underperformed in crucial games and so the Collingwood represents an opportunity to redeem ourselves on the pitch and prove once again why we are the best and most successful university in the country.

In many ways preparation for the Collingwood Cup began on our first day of pre season with the Airtricity League squad. Since then, we have been working as a group to get fit and focused not only for the season but also for this tournament.

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