Mayo getting bang for their buck in Big Apple

THE benefits of a trip to New York for Connacht teams is well understood by managers, particularly with training camps now frowned upon by the authorities.

Foreign trips abroad became a staple of the leading teams’ preparations in the 2000s, allowing sides to prepare intensively in a way that would not be possible back in Ireland.

Mayo will effectively enjoy one of those from next week. They travel to Dublin on Wednesday, train at Abbottstown, at the National Sports Campus, and then fly to New York on Thursday morning.

They play New York on Sunday and then spend several days in the city thereafter on a training break.

Once a shock defeat is avoided, the advantages of the trip to teams in the Connacht Championship are obvious.

However, there are pitfalls that need to be avoided – as one Leitrim player learned at an almost calamitous cost in 2003.

The county travelled out to play the Exiles, duly won, and were at the airport on their way home when their baggage was being put through security.

One of their number, Ciarán Murray, joked to security personnel that he had a bomb in his bag.

He was arrested and at one point could have been facing a prison sentence before eventually pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.

The climate of the time is worth remembering: this was less than two years after the 9/11 terrorism attacks, when the intensive security procedures now common at every airport in the world were being introduced.

‘On reflection, he understands fully how wrong and downright silly this off-the-cuff remark was having in regard to what is happening in the world today and he is extremely remorseful,’ his solicitor told the court.

Murray was fined and completed community service.