Sunshine, old friends and slogging it out with Maughan

FOR some time, we have been unsure about what we have in this Mayo team. Unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll get those answers next Sunday in New York from a footballing sense.

The likelihood is that the game in Gaelic Park won’t be that great of a challenge for Kevin McStay’s men. So what can be garnered from the weekend?

As a player it’s enjoyable, there’s no doubt about it. It is a weekend to be really emraced and it’s something that I always really looked forward to in my playing days. 

I’ve played FBD league games and championship games over there. There’s a different feel to the championship game. The weather is a bit better and there's a big buzz around it. The pitch is a bit weird with all the markings and the astroturf, and the train line runs along one side. It’s a totally different setup, but it's a mighty experience.

One time, I do remember being shocked to come in after the game and see the sun shining and a crate of beer lying on the floor of the dressing room!

We didn't know what to do and were a bit heistant to be the first man over to to take one. However, we needn't have worried. We took our cue from the management to crack one open, and it preceded a pretty hectic evening of craic.

BEAR ATTACK

I remember going out to New York with John Maughan in 2004 and we had a training week up in the Catskill Mountains the week after the game.

It was a tough few day’s training but it’s something I look back on really fondly.

We trained so hard in the Castkills. Maughan didn't spare us. One night, I remember lying fast asleep in our two-bedroom chalet and being woken up by one of the lads in the middle of night.

He was sharing with one of the younger fellas – who was still getting accustomed to Maughan's training sessions - and woke up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. All he could hear from the bed beside him was ‘Do you think will it be hard in the morning?’

It was very Mike Tyson-esque up there. One of my first memories of the trip to America was the journey up to the Catskills after a particularly heavy night out after the game.

I didn’t play so I knew - while I was dying with    a hangover on the four-hour bus trip – that if there was going to be training that evening, I was not getting out of it.

I remember getting off the bus and the film crew from the Breaking Ball TV show pointing their cameras directly at us.

Of course, Maughan picked the hilliest bit of ground he could find and put us running around among the trees.

Apart from being worried about puking, I do admit that in the back of my mind I was fearful of a bear attack in the strange surroundings.

But anyway, I survived it and I was never as glad to get through a training session and get a bite to eat afterwards.

We also had a crazy night out in upstate New York in Albany at the end of the week. I think we hired a bus, the whole lot of us - management team included! It really was brilliant craic.

SPECIAL OCCASION

Jokes aside, going to America was always something that was important for me as a person from Belmullet and Erris.

I always found that the couple of hours you had after the game were absolutely priceless.

There you are in Gaelic Park, the sun is shining and you have a couple of hours to kill before you go back to your hotel in the city. Invariably, you meet people from home and from college who made their lives over there.

So many people a generation ahead of me had to emigrate to make a better life for themselves and this game was a real opportunity to meet those people.

In some respects, it made me feel lucky that I was able to stay at home, was able to get a job and was able to play for Mayo and Belmullet for as long as I wanted.

I think a trip like this is very useful for players – even though it’s not as pressurised as preparing for a National League game.

Some of this current Mayo team have played together for a long, long time. They know each other inside out.

But this weekend offers an opportunity for some of those players that maybe haven’t made that connection to get a little bit closer and to come away feeling really good about what they’ve been working towards.

I know the Roscommon game is not that far away, but I think you have to take that opportunity to unwind, have a few drinks, not go crazy and enjoy yourselves.

Even the very highest level of professional sports still needs those sorts of outlets to generate that camaraderie.

I think it’s very difficult for New York to be competitive without playing National League football. Of course, it’s not viable for them to fly over and back playing seven games, but in future I think there will be more games played there and not neccesarily all involving Ney York either.

As the GAA looks to develop the global dimension I look forward to the day when it’s not just a Connacht team and the home side playing in New York. Could you imagine going to Gaelic Park for Kerry against Donegal; two counties like us that that have a huge    expat community in America? That would just be an amazing occasion.    

Those trips to New York really did bring home to me how important Gaelic games, the GAA, and the Irish diaspora are in bringing Irish people together for events. No organisation does that better than the GAA.