A BRONX TALE
New York’s role in the Championship is vital to Irish abroad, says Trevor Mortimer
BETWEEN crossing the Atlantic to play New York in the Connacht Championship and making various guest appearances on the club scene, Trevor Mortimer reckons footballing duty has brought him to the Big Apple on a dozen different occasions. Yet nothing, he says, can prepare a player for the Gaelic Park experience.
James Horan’s team kick-start the 2014 Championship on foreign soil today. The last time Mayo travelled there for a game in the provincial series, Mortimer was captain. And he has vivid memories of the experience.
‘The whole surroundings of the match are unusual. You’re staying in hotels; you’ve no place really to train. You’re down in Central Park doing a bit of running. It’s certainly a different environment.
‘Even the match itself in Gaelic Park has a different atmosphere. Music is playing throughout it. It’s like a party atmosphere from the local supporters’ point of view. It can sometimes be hard to focus when you’re in the middle of it.’
Mayo won 2-19 to 0-10 that day in 2009, the first step towards the eventual Connacht title. But Mortimer remembers nothing soft about that game in particular – or any trip in general.
‘Although the last time we were there the scoreline would have suggested a very lopsided result, I’ve certainly been involved in a few struggles there. The level of players that are available to the New York board is improving all the time with people emigrating.
‘Even from a players’ point of view you can sense the importance of playing out there. For the people living in New York it’s a massive connect to Ireland. There’s a huge significance to that.’
Retired since 2012, after a career that spanned 12 years in a Mayo senior shirt, his work in the mining industry sees him based for the most part now in the Middle East and Africa. He is, therefore, well-qualified to put a value on what the GAA means to those based abroad.
There has been talk of cutting New York’s involvement in the Connacht Championship, whether it’s on the basis of the $65,000 price tag attached to Mayo’s trip this weekend, the scheduling issues that prompt such an early start to the Championship or the fact that visa restrictions means that a New York win would throw the Connacht campaign out of joint. But Mortimer launches a robust defence of their importance.
‘There’s a huge value to their involvement. I’d certainly suggest that the current structure of the Championship be reformed, but whatever way it is reformed should have a significant part to be played by New York and London.
SOMETIMES people are very short-sighted. They don’t understand what the games mean to the people that are living abroad. You can’t quantify it. It’s a huge link back to the country. What better way to entice players to improve and work on their game if they can have a chance to represent their county out there in the All-Ireland Championship?’
While the travel involved in his job means that he hasn’t been able to put down roots in a specific GAA club abroad, Mortimer explains that he’d ‘know an awful lot of players in various parts of the world involved in the
The matches at Gaelic Park have a very different atmosphere
GAA, and there is such a sense of pride attached to it. The majority of people going to the games here maybe don’t see that.’
New York can count on the considerable talents of former Laois midfielder and AFL recruit Brendan Quigley, who emigrated due to a lack of job opportunities as a carpenter in Ireland. Also in their ranks is Ross Wherity, a member of Donegal’s senior squad last year, who will be a key figure for New York when they take on last September’s beaten All-Ireland finalists at Gaelic Park today.
‘From a players’ point of view, whether it was in New York or Hyde Park or Pearse Stadium, we just looked on it as being the first round of the Championship,’ says Mortimer. ‘It was a case of get out there, get the job done.
‘There used to be a little bit more fun involved in the trip. I’ve been out there three times with Mayo and certainly way back at the very start there was a bit more enjoyment to the whole thing.
‘You could go out, focus on the match and get that out of the day. But after we might be told to “Go out there lads and enjoy yourself for a night or two and have a bit of fun.”’
Wttee has suggested sending the early round losers in Leinster and Ulster into Connacht to help rebalance the provinces into four groups of eight, Mortimer supports a more radical revamp of the Championship, even if that means a two-tiered model.
‘Certainly there is something to be looked at there. Realistically, from the point of view of the provincial championships you can pick two or three teams out of every province that has a chance of winning it every year.
‘It’s of no benefit to those teams at the latter end of the Championship that they haven’t got enough of a test earlier on and there is no be nefit to the other teams who aren’t competing. There’s a huge issue there. It can only
improve the game if they sort it out,’ insists the former defend defender.
A group-style Champ Champions League model is another forma format he thinks would appeal to players k keen to break free of the provincial s strait jacket. ‘There has to be a better way than the current system. You co could break it up into groups and run i it that way.
‘From a personal point of view, I’d love to be playing team teams from Leinster, from Munster or fr from Ulster in the initial stages of the Championship. ‘It can only help the d development of the whole thing, not only from a players’ point of view but a fans’ point of view. Mayo would w love to be playing the likes o of Kildare or Derry more often.
They bring great colour and great fans to any occa occasion and we don’t get to play them enough. I’m sure if you take the likes of Leitrim or Sligo, too, th they’d love to be playing differe different teams as opposed to Mayo, Galway and
Roscommon all the time.’
IN A family so associated with modern Mayo football – his older brother Kenneth was a two-time All Star on the teams that lost the finals of 1996 and ’97 while younger brother Conor holds the all-time leading scorer title with Mayo – Trevor would love nothing more than to see Mayo lay the All-Ireland bogey to rest.
‘I came back for the final last year; I was majorly disappointed.
‘I haven’t been talking to any of the players really but I certainly hope they’d give it a right good rattle this year.
‘Loo king at it from the outside, Dublin seem to be the team to beat. Mayo are certainly in the pack of two or three behind them with a chance of beating them.
‘It’s tough keeping it going after so many years and getting a couple of bad hits towards the end of the Championship. But look, they’re a young team and they’re fit, they’ve got a good management – everything is going for them.’