Hopeful exiles to remain stuck in isolation

THE measure of the challenge facing New York this weekend is best gauged by their form booklet. Late last month they hosted Corofin at Gaelic Park and dished out a 13-point trimming to the All-Ireland club champions.

Little wrong with that but it was a result framed by a less-than flattering context.

Corofin started with half of their All-Ireland winning team and with the club understandably still in party mood after their success in March, it is fair to surmise that their focus was a tad more blurred than their hosts.

But even had they travelled with clear heads and fired-up bellies, it is easy to see how their concentration levels could have been affected by the journey at least.

They stepped off their transatlantic flight and practically walked straight on to the Gaelic Park pitch. Having started their journey at seven in the morning, it was close to 2am for their body clocks the following night in the Bronx when the final whistle was blown on that challenge game.

But while it was an exhausting day for the visitors, any sympathy doing the rounds should be spared for the hosts.

That match qualified as New York’s build-up to this Sunday’s Connacht Championship clash with Leitrim — a game they are perceived to have a 50/50 shot at winning.

There are all kinds of reasons why New York’s chances are being talked up, not least because they possess the poster-boy talent of Armagh’s Jamie Clarke.

And then there is the memory of two summers ago when they came within a single point and a botched, late goal chance of dumping Roscommon out of the Connacht championship.

Plus they are facing Leitrim, a team who are the closest things to an exiled football community because of their impoverished circumstances.

They, like New York, are in semipermanent state of transition as they seek to hold on to what they have in the knowledge that lost talent will never be replenished by the likes of Clarke being lured to Carrick-on-Shannon because of its coffee-house vibe, or Neil Collins to Mohill because of its status in the rag trade.

So in that sense it is easy to understand why there is a feeling that an All-Ireland Championship coloured by a sense of fatalism due to Dublin’s dominance might just get off to the kind of start that will remind the rest of the football nation that anything is possible.

And this sense of expectation is heightened by the prospect of London repeating their 2013 win over Sligo at Rusilip.

After decades of being the whipping boys, it’s the exiles who have got the kicking boots on.

As romantically seductive as that narrative is, it is unlikely to become a reality for a number of reasons. For starters, opposition complacency, which has traditionally been a friend to both New York and London, will not be a companion this time.

It never is when it comes to Leitrim because they have nothing to be complacent about.

On paper, they do not possess the same depth of talent as New York who, outside of Clarke and Roscommon’s Collins, boast Tom Cunniffe (Mayo), Vinny Cadden (Sligo), Enda Williams (Longford), Keith Scally (Westmeath), Daniel McKenna (Monaghan) and former Crossmaglen ace Aaron Cunningham.

Leitrim are painfully aware that one of these days they will be trodden over by New York, just as they were by London back in 1977.

However, that awareness has served Leitrim well. They were almost caught in 2003, when they were taken to extra-time by New York but they have won on their last two visits by a combined margin of 31 points. They were caught by London in 2013, while last year they barely got out of Ruislip alive (3-10 to 0-16), but New York and London are not equals. In one swift move back in 1993, London became only exiles in name when they were admitted to the National League ensuring that they became a real inter-county entity rather than a nominal one. The rewards of that move are there to be seen and not just in reaching the Connacht final in 2013, but also in how competitive they have become over a sustained period of time. London’s average losing margin this decade in Connacht is running at five points a game, while New York’s average is running at a deficit of 14. London have a shot at winning on Sunday, but they won’t deliver because they are a Division 4 team playing one level higher.

New York have a chance too but for all their talent, nothing can mask their isolation.

Their captain Cunniffe this week articulated the challenge of putting together a selection to play against game-hardened opponents for one game a season.

‘A lot of it was down to familiarity. They know each other’s movement, they know each other’s strengths, they know when to engage the run game, the kicking game, when to leave off that cross-field ball because they have been playing with each other for so long, whereas we have this huge turnover of players and that does not help us,’ he suggested.

The irony is that one of the reasons that Leitrim have been deemed vulnerable is because they only got to play five League games in a weather interrupted spring campaign.

Thing is, though, that compares favourably to one game against bleary eyed opponents.

And it will make all the difference come Sunday evening.

‘We have a huge turnover of players, it doesn’t help’