Living the dream. The Donegal Derry Vipers are still walking on air three years on.

The Vipers have barely had time to take breath in the past two seasons, but they have come on in leaps and bounds regardless.

They are now two games into life in the IAFL1 and already the challenges are clear. Quicker, stronger, more experienced and physically tougher opponents means the Vipers will have their toughest season yet this year.

Two games in, that is already obvious. A defeat in horrible conditions against West Dublin Rhinos on the opening day of the season was followed by a narrow victory over Kildare Soldiers on Sunday past, a game in which the Vipers d to come from behind to win. Nothing can be taken for granted in 2017, agrees full back Derm Brown.

“We’ve worked really hard on adding new plays to the playbook,” he explained. “We have probably about 40 new plays so it’s a brand new playbook. It took us a while to get it right but everything started to click in the third quarter on Sunday. We just knuckled down and everybody started doing their jobs a bit better than they had been doing.

“It was really difficult in the first game because of the conditions we were playing in. It was like a quagmire. It was an absolute swamp and we couldn’t get a drive off the ground for any longer than 20 or 30 yards. But on Sunday everything clicked. We started slow in the first quarter. These guys beat us two years ago and we had that in our minds and we knew, coming off the great season we had last year, that we had to give the crowds something to look forward to in our first home game of this season.”

The Vipers have a new weapon this season, which has already proved more than effective. Cincinnati-born running back Gabrielle De Luca scored the winning touchdown against the Soldiers and his inclusion could prove vital in the remainder of the campaign, argues Brown.

“The man’s a beast,” he laughed. “It’s cool playing with Americans who have grown up in the sport. Firs us, we are learning in every game, but playing with Americans helps us feel more at ease because if you give these guys the ball. They will make things happen. Gabriel ran the winning touchdown in the third quarter. He put a great tiff arm on one guy and the guy just bounced off him. It was a thing of beauty.”

Two years ago, the Vipers were finding their feet but in 2017 everyone knows their name. From sponsors to opponents, the Vipers name is associated with progress on and off the field of play.

“Everyone in the league is talking about the Vipers,” Brown agreed. “Thanks to Cathal (Curran) and the rest of the committee we have one of the highest numbers following on Facebook and other social media. Other teams are talking about us; we are the team to beat and we don’t want to hold ourselves arrogant because we do our talking on the field.

“It’s really exciting. We are in the mid-stage of where we want to be. We want to be playing against the best teams in Ireland. It’s been a massive step up so far and we have seen that in the quality we’re up against. The sport is also a bit more dangerous because the hits are harder, which is another reason why there are new plays to help us move the ball around the field safer.

“Everybody is on board and we showed on Sunday just how much we want it. We’re living the dream and hopefully next year we will be moving up again.”

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