The New York team stand for the national anthems before the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship quarter-final match between New York and Mayo at Gaelic Park in New York, USA. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
The New York footballers have had plenty of time to ruminate on their Connacht SFC Quarter-Final loss to Mayo.
Nine weeks to be precise, which should be more than enough time to flush any disappointment about the nature of that 15-point defeat from their systems and regather themselves for a Tailteann Cup campaign that begins this Sunday with a preliminary quarter-final clash with Laois.
Team captain, Jamie Boyle, is hopeful they’re in a good position to put the lessons gleaned from that loss against Mayo into practice this weekend.
“Mayo are obviously one of the best teams in Ireland so we always knew it was going to be a huge challenge,” says Boyle.
“We definitely learned a lot from it. There are areas we've identified after watching back the game a number of times that we know we need to work on.
“There are so plays and situations that we've looked back on where we know we need to be a little cleaner with the ball at times and just maintain our structure a little bit better.
“There were also some very positive things that we did as well. We've focused on the things we need to improve after watching the game but also highlighted some of the things we did do really well. We had worked on our shape in attack and we felt we did that pretty well at times.
“There were good and bad things to take from it, but overall I think we put forward a good show against Mayo and we're really proud of that.
“We obviously don't get any games before any other opponent before our Connacht championship match. We carry a large panel so we do scrimmages or training matches as you guys would say, but we're obviously at a disadvantage playing against teams from Ireland that have played a bunch of games together in the League.”
New York made history last year when winning their first ever match in the Connacht Championship by beating Leitrim, but it’s a testament to their ambition that Boyle feels like they didn’t do themselves justice thereafter.
Beaten in the Connacht semi-final by Sligo, they then fell at the first hurdle in the Tailteann Cup against Carlow.
Jamie Boyle of New York runs out before the 2023 Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Sligo and New York at Markievicz Park in Sligo. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
This year he’s hoping they’re better prepared to peak for a competition he believes New York should really be targeting this year and in the coming years.
“We've talked about how after the high of beating Leitrim last year and then playing in a Connacht semi-final our energy dipped a little bit coming in the Tailteann Cup,” says Boyle.
"So, the big focus this year was that playing Mayo would be Peak One, and then we'd continue climbing and building from there. Visually looking at the season we previously would have looked at just that one game in the Connacht championship and that was the top of the mountain.
“But this year the game-plan was that we would only build from Mayo and keep climbing from there. Our management have done a really good job on keeping the energy high.
“You can get bored of doing the same drills in training when you have no competitive matches, but our management have done a great job changing things up and keeping things interesting and keeping the energy in the camp really high.
“We see the Tailteann Cup as a great opportunity to go to Ireland and try to get a win and continue the season. We're definitely extremely excited by the opportunity.
“Last year we became the first New York team to beat a team from Ireland in the championship. Now this year we want to be the first New York team to win over in Ireland. That's the next goal for us.”
New York players and supporters celebrate after their 2023 Connacht SFC victory over Leitrim.
Boyle turned 33 this year and knows he won’t have many more opportunities to compete at the highest level.
He’s hopeful though that a new generation of native New Yorkers like him will be able to bring the team to new heights in the coming years.
“We've a nice group of kids between the age of 20 and 25 who will continue to develop as they get older and bigger and stronger so we can see the future of New York is going to be bright,” he says.
"Right now we're training in Rockland which is in upstate New York and the facility they have up there is incredible. The kids are out on the field before we go training and there's definitely a lot more numbers now than when I was growing up and playing.
“Even at my own club St. Barnabas the amount of kids that are out on field before us is huge.
“Hopefully the win last year against Leitrim might have sparked a bit more interest. The amount of kids that ran onto the field after the game, you hope that brings on the next generation.
“You can just see it in the numbers now competing at youth level and the standard they're playing at and all the upgrades that clubs are doing with their facilities. It's an exciting time for New York GAA.”