AS the club season enters the provincial stage, some wandering eyes will turn towards the county season, much more so the eyes of those in the wider GAA world.
New York has seen somewhat of a renaissance in terms of results of late, having won the last two junior All-Ireland football titles and won their first senior championship game ever against Leitrim in 2023.
Now, under the guidance of Tyrone man Ronan McGinley, the Exiles in the Big Apple are striving to show those on home soil just how far New York football has come.
“The goal is still, given New York’s record, to win a championship match at home in Ireland,” stated McGinley confidently.
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“That’s it, it may seem like a modest goal compared to other county teams that are involved in the championship, but for us, it’s very real.
“It’s something very tangible. It would be a sign of progress.
“It would be sort of a good boost to the whole sort of set-up out here, the county board, everybody that’s involved at club level, to see the team sort of being competitive and seeing that progress being made.”
McGinley, a brother of current Errigal Ciaran boss and former Tyrone All-Ireland winner Enda, has been a faithful servant to New York football since he first emigrated, which will be 14 years ago in January and when Cavan man Alan O’Mara’s time came to an end and his adopted county needed him, stepped up to the mark.
“Last year I was in as sort of a coach of the team, Alan was obviously the manager, Alan O’Mara, and he had asked me to get involved, and I kind of said I would.”
“He got married during last season, and then since then he has been more based down in the Pennsylvania direction, that’s where his wife’s family is from.
“The reality of it is, is that it’s probably not feasible for him to be able to make the commitment necessary.”
McGinley, despite being a Tyrone man born and bred, and an Errigal Ciaran club man, has dedicated a lot of his time to the GAA set-up in the city that never sleeps.
“I‘m more than happy to do as much as I can, for as long as it can to help, to help the lads that are playing.
“Coming from a player [background], being a player, I understand, you know, the commitment that’s there, the sort of the difficulties that can be, the rewards that it can be, and you want to try and get the most out of it for them.”
O’Mara inherited a side that was on the up, having gotten their first championship win against Leitrim on penalties under Culloville man Johnny McGeeney in April 2023 but he, Ronan, and the rest of the staff knew the task they had ahead if they were to build on that.
Following O’Mara’s decision to step back halfway through his term, his backroom team, Jeff Farrell, Dean O’Donnell, and David McNamara and McGinley, met up to see what the best course of action to take was moving forward as someone needed to take the reigns for the year that as left on the former Cavan player’s contract.
The four of them agreed that former defender McGinley was the best candidate and was ratified a month ago by the county board to stay for the year remaining on O’Mara’s deal.
It can be disheartening to train night in and night out for two outings a year and can leave doubt in your mind over the point of it, after all, who wants to kill themselves on the pitch multiple times a week to be used as a trip away for another squad?
Saying that, this year sees All-Ireland finalists Galway make the trip across the pond to Gaelic Park to fulfil their fixture that was meant to happen as the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
This is a baptism of fire for McGinley, who is realistic about his expectations ahead of the Tribesmen’s visit to the Big Apple.
“We have to do our best to make it as competitive as possible,” said McGinley.
”The players themselves, obviously, take pride in playing for the county, same as they would at home.
“They want to be in a position to perform as best as they can, whatever way that result goes.
“You know how it goes given, given all the factors and go that go into, but you know, we’re just here to try and do the best that we can with it and then, you know, whatever happens in Galway happens with that game.”
The objective of a win on Irish soil will be more likely to happen in the Tailteann Cup, a competition that McGinely and New York are grateful to for the games that it proves for the players who some may feel have been left out in the cold.
McGinley, who never won a championship game in his six years of playing for the Statesiders, said: “For years, it was one, it was one game, one Connacht championship game at the start of May, and that was, that was sort of the be-all and end-all of the season.
“So there’s very little in terms of, like consistency, or, you know, teams from one year to the next looked completely different, personnel-wise, everything like that.
“There was no sort of consistency across the board. Whereas now, with there being that second chance with the top like players are more inclined to stay involved, to see the progress to being there, to be able to do that.”
The Tailteann Cup has provided teams like New York and London, who were before seen as whipping boys of the championship, an away day abroad for stronger sides, with a chance to be competitive and measure their progress against county sides and bring their sides to Ireland for a change.
Last year, New York fell in the preliminary quarter-final stage against eventual runners-up Laois, running Justin McNulty’s side close and losing by a four-point margin.
On their early exit, McGinley, who was a coach for the side, said: “We had an opportunity last year when we played Laois.
“I thought the team performed really well, because, again, you’re kind of unknown going in against a team that has played in the last championship and played a couple of rounds in the Tailteann cup, they’re obviously a bit more cohesive.
“I thought we performed really well. We had an opportunity, and unfortunately for us, it didn’t go our way. We didn’t kill it. We didn’t manage out the game, or finish out the game the way we the way we should have.
“You could see it in the players that they were disappointed that we didn’t sort of finish it out. I’m hoping that that sort of drive for improvement and that sort of drive to do better, they’ll see that there is an opportunity there.”
The hunt for players can be the start of a difficult journey every year, as it’s potentially a new panel that needs to gel, communicate and perform well together each time.
It’s not exactly Junior B on a Sunday morning either.
This concern is not new for McGinley or New York, as their existence relies on their ability to adapt to different players year in and year out.
“Then the other side of that is like, you know, they’re given their commitment, they’re given their time. The set-up has to be a better standard of set-up, we’re seeing that.
“Whether that’s physio, treatment of injuries, traffic, conditioning, you know, basic stuff like food facilities, just equipment, everything like that like there’s an understanding of what a competitive or serious set-up requires.
“So our players expect that, if you don’t give that to them it’s very hard to ask them to make the commitment for four, five months, six months for two games; a game in the Connacht championship that you’re guaranteed, and one game in the Tailteann [Cup] that you’re guaranteed.”
This is where McGinley comes in, as he and the rest of Alan O’Mara’s backroom staff, who will all stay on, have already started their feedback and recruitment process.
The management team have been reaching out to players over the last number of weeks to be able to find out what they can improve on behind the scenes.
However, an encouraging sign is the increase in American-born and trained players that are in the New York set-up.
“There definitely has been a change over the years from a couple of aspects,” said the Errigal Ciaran clubman, who was watching his side throughout their county championship-winning campaign.
“If you’re looking at it in terms of playing pool, you’re looking at a much, much higher percentage of American-born players who have come up through the minor board system and the underage system here in New York and are now playing senior club football and now represent New York like there’s there’s been a massive sort of shift in that.”
Whilst it is looking up for McGinley and his side, their situation is still a far cry short of what the teams in Ireland have in terms of time to build their squad before the championship starts.
“You know, as a group, it is difficult, in terms of knowing where you’re at in terms of the overall, how you’re going to stack up again a team that you’re playing.
“We don’t have a league. We don’t have we don’t have seven games or eight games to, you know, try players, to build a team, a cohesive team, to build a game plan, to make the tweaks that have to be made.
“We’re we’re doing, we’re trying to short circuit everything. We’re trying to do more with less in terms of games.
“So that’s the difficulty for us. That’s the challenge. But look, that’s the hand that we’re dealt. We have to make the most of it, we have to do the best we can. You know what I mean?”
