The 2014 League season hasn’t yet reached its crescendo, though it will do so this coming weekend, but already our focus is turning sharply in the direction of the championship and our first outing in same in just eleven days time. Okay, it is just the jaunt over to New York we’re talking about here – which we last got to do back in 2009 – and it’s a fixture that’s unlikely – Nicky Joyce, Ross Wherity and Brendan Quigley notwithstanding – to prove to be the same kind of banana skin that tackling London in Ruislip has now become. It is, however, still a championship match – Game One, if you will – and so needs to be approached in this frame of mind.
There’s no word as yet, of course, about members of the playing panel who will and who won’t be taking the transatlantic trip for the Gaelic Park fixture. That’s all next week’s fun when, seeing as we’ll be the only county in championship action that weekend (it doesn’t get going elsewhere for another fortnight after then), we can expect the national papers to be chock-full of the usual regurgitated shite they tend to write about us. We could write it ourselves for them at this stage, in truth.
Ahead of all that, though, anyone planning on making the trip over to New York for the game could do a lot worse than read this excellent primer on the Club ’51 site by Jarlath Coady about the city and its various attractions. If you are heading over, then you’ll also no doubt be interested in the County Board’s plans for a Cairde Mhaigheo get-together in Manhattan on the eve of the match – details here.
Sadly, this is one championship match I’ll be giving a miss to – the photo above, by the way, was one I took from the Empire State Building when we were over there for a family break last Hallowe’en – but I know there are plenty of supporters heading over for what should be a memorable weekend in this city to beat all cities. Providing we bate them, of course.
Wont be heading over myself next week. Id say this is one New York will give a good go to and will expect to do well especially over our standard enough display in league . Hopefully we will see an improvement in the lads . Looking to see a tighter unit and ill be happy enough with that. Is anyone heading to croker on sunday? Im going up for look.
What happens if we lose? Are we still in the championship?
I wouldn’t cross the road to watch the Dubs!
ifmayodont beat new yorkby at least twenty points ,then theres something wrong
i hear ya Pete but Donegal and Monaghan are playing too 🙂
OK The real fun starts now .We as Mayo people are about to start this years championship and hope we can reach the holy grail in croke park in September .It may be a bit bumpy of a road this year as its not easy to achieve this year after year .
We seem to think Mayo players have a god given right, to reach the all Ireland final every year . Have we forgotten these lads are not paid professionals but working lads who have to go to collage or work every day .
I for one have been very grateful for what James and this team have achieved and the pleasure they have given me , this last 3 years . I have been following Mayo for 40 years and have seen many a time Mayo championship was finished in June .
So as WJ said in a early piece appreciate what we got in this team, and support them wherever it takes us bumpy road or not .
Thanks for the info WJ.
I’m staying a few minutes walk away from the Cairde Mhaigheo do, so I’ll head for that.
Are Club ’51 planning anything for the weekend? Anne-Marie??
JPM, Mayo go into the first round of the qualifiers if they lose to New York, while New York would then come to Ireland to play the Connacht semi-final. The rule was changed when New York put a fright into Galway one year, as I recall. 2010, I think, but I could be wrong.
This is an awkward fixture. If I were in charge, I’d honour the New York GAA by restoring the home-and-away League Finals. The winners of the home League, Derry or Dublin this year, play New York in October for the League proper. Suits everybody – incentivises teams in the League final, keeps New York in the mix and makes Championship planning a little more straightforward.
@ Peter Murray I would be surprised if we did beat them by 20 points. Let’s respect them and see how New York perform on the day. They could play out of their skin and make it difficult for us, and we could be playing somewhat of a second string.
@ WJ, is it deliberate or accidental that the “Reply” button is gone. I have to admit I prefer it without the reply button, as with the volume of posts now, it’s tedious to see a reply to an early post when there’s 100 more after it!
Hey Dan, we’ll have some info up on the site before the weekend on what’s on over there.
There are a heap of events already organised, hence we didn’t organise a big meetup ourselves, but you can be sure that Club ’51 will be strongly represented at most things 😉
We’ll more than likely be at the Cairde Mhaigh Eo do too.
MayomaninGalway I’m thinking of heading across to it for a look – will print the ticket and see how the weekend and the weather pans out!
It’s deliberate, Digits – I felt it was causing confusion rather than anything else and so switched off that feature.
@digits if our panel cant come up with a team that cant beat new york out the gate .then god helpmayo when they face the rossies in the hyde
Really looking forward to this now…as are the kids.
They are excited to be finally going to a real live gaa match, to see the mayo team that they have been watching on the TV here for the past few years!
There’s great interest here, so I think there will be a decent crowd at it.
Btw, that’s a nice snap WJ.
@ willie joe, good call it was getting confusing. Fair play
Is it Eugene Rooney’s pub that’s having the Cáirde Mhaigheo do. I hear it has been the Mayo HQ in New York for many years.
Regarding the “reply” button I feared it was something the surver at work had removed as I’m damn sure that mayogaablog.com shows up on every monthly report! A good call on that, by the way WJ, as it hsa removed 2 things. 1. As Digits explained above, reading a post back dated 2 days when another 100 have been posted since the initial comment. And 2, it has removed the tendancy for some posters to get involved in “heated debates” commenting over and back.
As regards the New York game, well my bags are packed, I’m ready to go. I’m standing here, outside your door 🙂
5 of us escaping from the wife and kids for a combined 40th birthday stateside. Booked the flights before last years All Ireland final and such was our confidence back then one of the lads wanted to book AND PAY FOR a seat for Sam Maguire! It’s a sad state of affairs that I’ve been at every FBD and league game (bar Derry at home) and I have to go to New York before I meet up with the club51 crew! Looking forward to that and we will probably stick our heads in at the Chairde Maigh Eo do also.
There does indeed seem to be a good few going over this year. Heading in a group of four myself next Thursday. I expect to see a few Mayo jerseys knocking around Dublin airport.
Rooney’s Pub is the Irish Pub and ajoining Oldcastle and is located here:
https://www.google.ie/maps/preview?ie=UTF-8&q=The+Irish+Pub&fb=1&gl=ie&hq=the+irish+pub+new+york&cid=14846535863711329983&ei=QN9YU8qMA8-u7AbO1YG4DA&ved=0CJ8BEPwSMAo
The bar with the Cairdre Maigh Eo do is Connollys on W 45th St, here:
https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Connolly's/@40.7572164,-73.9837929,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c2585579862e01:0xe21f27dec63cf83d
Peter Murray, if we beat them by a point or 100 points, it doesnt mean a whole lot come the next fixture. Hammering them brings issues of its own, as we should know by now. Let’s nip these doomsday prophecies at the bud this year. They are only putting pressure on ourselves, and in truth they are never accurate. If a team gets it right there is no limit to what they can achieve. Sport is never straightfroward, look at liverpool in the premier league for example. There are better teams and better squads that boast bigger names, and liverpool had some bad results earlier in the year, but they got it right and now they are going to win the thing. We should take heart from that and also look to how their fans just kept backing them and backing them, not getting carried away when they won or lost, not making predictions, not saying what they had to do here or what they had to do there, but just taking each game as it came and getting behind them. You can also see how their players are playing with confidence under these conditions. This is what we should be doing.
Pebbles, call into the old castle, we’ll all be ther friday & sunday nights. Will most likely be in connollys on saturday night. Hard to beleive its 5 years since we were there! Huge huge crowd going, there could be problems with numbers at the gate! Make sure everyone gets there early, its a small ground, or else you’ll be listening to it from the punch bowl! Dont forget to bring your season tickets and any spare ones for family or friends. $25 at the gate!!
Thanks Anne-Marie, I’ll keep a look out on the website.
I hadn’t even considered the situation with tickets for the game, can you just pay on the gate?
I don’t have either of the season tickets
it matters a great deal if you cant hammer aonce a year a team,
mayo.mick, thanks for the invite. As regards the numbers travelling, I don’t know if you saw the tweet today but it is estimated to be in excess of 2,000 members of the Red & Green Army en route to the match. As I explained to my wife, when you follow Mayo you cannot just pick and choose which games you go to, you have to follow them home AND away. It’s not like i WANT to go, it’s more like I have to go 🙂
That’s it Pebblesmeller, it’s not a choice! 😀
I won’t make the Old Castle myself on Friday night (I’m unfortunately only there for three nights and I have grudgingly conceded to my travelling companion’s gentle suggestion that spending the three nights on Mayo GAA-related activity is probably a bit unreasonable) but I hope to see a few of you in either Connolly’s on Saturday or indeed at the game or after on Sunday.
Good call Mayo Mick on getting there early. Does anyone know what the Gaelic Grounds capacity is? It’d be a bit mortifying to go all the way to New York and not be able to get into the game 😀
Dan, you can just pay at the gate, but if you can get your hands on someone else’s season ticket that will work too and save you a few quid – they are transferable so all within the rules!
It will be very interesting to see how we will line out against New York. The experiment of playing Aidan O’Shea at CHF ended after our league semi-final defeat to Dublin last year, will some of the recent experiments tried in the league come to an end in this game? Who will play at no. 4 and no. 11 will be the biggest decisions to be made. Will Sweeney start? Has Adam Gallagher been held in reserve recently to be unleashed in this game, surely if he is fit, he deserves to get some game time. You’d think that more natural scorers up front is what we are crying out for. Will Kenneth O’Malley, Chris Barret and Alan Dillon be back in the reckoning for this match? It’d be nice to see Richie Feeney, Seamus O’Shea and Barry Moran get back their match sharpness as well, will any of them see some action?
@ Anne-Marie
~2,000 …not much.
New York, New York, so good they named it twice.
Mayo, Mayo, just one in 63 would be very nice.
Thursday morning in Dublin Airport and a few days away on a Mayo football pilgrimage.
Looking forward to the banter and good crack in all those well publicised venues, and of
course the match itself.
Good advice on Gaelic Park – be there early, even with minor match. My weather App say 15 degrees and clear skies for this coming Sunday in NY, and 12 degrees and sunny in Dublin, so if it”s similar the weekend after, all the dehydration problems will be with the supporters,
As far as I know Gaelic Park today has a capacity of 5,000 with comfortable seating for at least 3,000. Reading on Hoganstand, according to John Prenty, he said (We’re expecting a crowd of around 5,000 people to be there on the day, and a lot of Irish people, and Mayo people, from right around the United States and Canada will travel).
Sounds like Cusack Park, doesn’t ?
I hope that info is accurate anyway, I just relied on google. The article I came across was from 2011, in relation to Gaelic Park’s current capacity, so hopefully it has not changed much since then.
For all Mayo supporters. There is a Bar B Q on on Friday night from7to 10 at the Dunwoddie Golf Club Meet the Mayo team they will be there after training for a meet and greet This is been organized by the Mayo football club and a great evening is expected $50 all you can eat , open bar. ” beer and wine ” live music address is1 Wasylenko Lane Yonkers NY. Or contact Mick Morley at 914 882 6606 or John Burke at 914 837 8743
Sorry Bar B Q date is Friday May 2 nd
I was in Gaelic Park in 2004-big Mayo crowd down from Boston and in from Chicago.
Huge crowd and unless you get in early you won’t get a good view
I’m going to go out on a limb about Rooneys/Irish Pub and give my honest opinion. If I never set foot inside the place again it would be too soon…I have been in there 3 times and one experience was worse than the next. After my initial bad experience I gave them 2 more tries to redeem themselves and it only got worse.
In a city with 1000’s of bars don’t limit yourself-go in for a drink but also check out the Perfect Pint and Mulligans
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mulligans-pub-new-york
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-perfect-pint-new-york
Folks the ticket prices are up – it’s not free in for Croke Park season ticket holders (as Croke Park had said it would be) but there is a reduced rate of $15. Which won’t break the bank, in fairness!
Ann-Marie, do Chairdre tickets holds get in for free?
Willie McBrides across the Hudson in Hoboken is also calling all Mayo fans for a night of craic and music with a tribute band (Bruce Springsteen I believe) – http://www.yelp.ie/biz/willie-mcbrides-hoboken
Good question Steve – I have asked them and will let you know if/when they come back to us.
Details of the weekend’s main events are up on the Club 51 page now – we’ll share others on FB/twitter as they come through. Good point Whitey re not limiting yourself – important to branch out a bit too 😉
It’s disgraceful, of all the comments above not 1 person has mentioned where a man can get mass or confessions 🙂
Another question, would there be a good butchers on main street New York town where you can get good thick sliced hang, for making the hang sandwitches. You have to have the bottle of tae and hang sandwitches for half time.
Pebblesmeller…I remember in 1985 oul fellas listening to Mass on the transistor radio on the train to Dublin……while mayhem and madness was unfolding all round them