5 days ago
- General
- Irish Daily Mirror
'It's like taking a huge family on holiday' New York have Tailteann contingency
The New York hurlers and footballers are like ships in the night as they cross the Atlantic this week.
The hurlers made history by winning the Lory Meagher Cup last Saturday against Cavan, seven days after beating Monaghan in the semi-final, with their presence in the fifth tier competition a bone of contention for some.
On Sunday evening, the Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final draw pitted the footballers against Offaly on Saturday and, by chance, they had already booked into the Tullamore Court Hotel so, as chairman Sean Price says, 'it's a home game for both teams'.
Indeed, managers from either side, Offaly's Mickey Harte and New York boss Ronan McGinley, brother of ex-Antrim manager Enda, both hail from the Errigal Ciarán club in Tyrone.
Westmeath native Adam Stones is a starter for the hurlers and footballers and so enjoys an extended break back in Ireland, but the bulk of the travelling party will land in Dublin tomorrow morning and the logistical challenges of getting two teams over and back in such a short timeframe is challenging, though Price deflects the credit elsewhere.
'I had to dress up and put on a suit and look smart,' he said of landing in Dublin last Saturday ahead of the Meagher final. 'That's all I had to do, really, in fairness.
'There's great people there. Mick Stones, he organised the hurlers. Sorting out the hotels and the buses and the whole lot.
'And then the footballers, Cayla Fletcher, she's from Kilcormac, outside Tullamore. She played underage for underage camogie for Offaly. So, she organised the trip.
'The managers, Richie Hartnett and the hurling, he carries the load, but everybody else is with him. And Ronan McGinley carries the load with the footballers. There's an awful lot of great people there.
'It's kind of like taking a huge family on a holiday. You've the lad that'll turn up on time. You've the lad that'll be late. You'll have the lad that'll forget his passport. You'll have the lad that'll have two passports. It's a whole family event, really.'
But while the hurlers were always likely to play two games while here, it's far from certain for the footballers - but a contingency still needs to be in place in case they beat Offaly to reach a quarter-final the following weekend.
'We have reached out to a couple of different hotels,' Price, a Kerry native, explained. 'The Tullamore Court, they're working with us. Just to have the contingency.
'The bus is the same thing. 'Are you available next week?' kind of job.
'And the same thing with the flights. We've booked some flights. We've asked all the boys that if they can take a week and use it as vacation, you know, that would be great.
'We see the enormity of the task. I mean, look, Offaly's young lads are mad for running. They're Division Three champions.
'That's a big step up for us, you know. But it's a challenge we have to embrace. But we do have a plan B and C. Because, look, you have to kind of plan that way,
'Some fellas might have to go back through work. We've identified them. Some fellas will have to come back on Sunday, no matter what.
'I think one fella can't fly with us on the Wednesday night. He just can't get the time off because a lot of guys have taken time off for different things. So we've contingencies in place for everything.
'But look, we just have to go with it and that's it. We can't complain. There's no point in complaining. It's not Offaly's problem, it's our problem.'
