Taking a bite out of the Big Apple: Ronan McGinley on becoming New York manager

Declan Bogue

IN SEARCHING THROUGH ALL the reasons not to be the new manager of New York’s county team, eventually Ronan McGinley realised he could put a hundred entries into the ‘cons’ column, but one in the ‘pros’ outweighed them all; why not?

After all, New York has been his home since 2011. He represented the stars and stripes in a few sweltered afternoons as the All Ireland championship got off to its’ traditional soft-launch.

It’s where he cut his teeth as a coach, with the Fermanagh ladies not long after he arrived with his wife Kerri as a player, and it’s where he was brought in as coach last year by former Cavan goalkeeper, Alan O’Mara.

When O’Mara could not make the same commitment, having now taken up employment in Pennsylvania, the rest of the management team had a long, hard think about it.

They nominated McGinley as the front man, and here we are; a county manager, helped by Jeff Farrell, Davids McNamara and Dean O’Donnell.

If things were different, he might be still home, knocking around Ballygawley, perhaps even helping out his brother Enda as he manages Errigal Ciaran into an upcoming county semi final against Killyclogher.

That particular pairing shows that while he may reside in Pearl River now, distance means little. Kerri’s brother Emmet is a prominent Killyclogher player. They’ll be buying the stream and hooking up the TV for a tense 60-plus minutes. Their son Tomás, coming 5 in November, will have to pick a side eventually.

But the role of manager of New York is a funny one. Is it the hardest job, given the persuasion and coaxing in compiling a panel with some faraway game beyond the horizon? Or is it the easiest with the complete absence of expectation?

And when you are due to face Galway next April, where do you even start?

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The new manager could tell them a few war stories.

In his time as a player, there was no end to the hardships. He was captain in 2012 when they fell to a 24-point landslide to Sligo.

He was there again for the 16-point trouncing by Galway in 2015. Grim reality hitting hard on sunny afternoons when they wondered if all the nights scraping back the snow off the pitch in the Bronx on December nights was worth any of it.

But within any Irish person that strikes out for New York, is the dash of romanticism and optimism. A year later, he was on the team that scared the bejaysus out of Roscommon, by then under the management of Kevin McStay, in running them to a single point.

Their long record without a win had to end at some point. When it did, against Leitrim and a win on penalties, it was achieved with a smattering of born and bred natives.

“When I started it was mainly lads from home,” McGinley says.

“Whereas now, it’s neatly 50-50 or maybe even slightly more of lads who are American-born or else came up through the minor board here in terms of playing.

“And that’s great. That’s the way it should be in terms of sustainability. But there are things that have changed a lot in the numbers of Irish who are coming over here and who is available to play.”

That’s not the only thing to have changed. When he played, it was a case of turning up and doing what you were told at training. Nowadays, the players know their worth a little more.

“There has to be provisions made; standard stuff now. Food. Physio. Strength and conditioning. All those things have to be put in place,” he says.

“To be fair to the players, you want to provide those things to them so that they can do the best they can. No point asking them to make a commitment now for five months, what with the Tailteann Cup, if things aren’t in place. You have to be respectful of their time and their commitment.”

That’s the other carrot the panel have now that wasn’t there before; the Big Apple gets to have another bite, in the Tailteann Cup knockout series.

The other side of the new calendar is how any prospect of pre-championship tune-ups are now kaput.

In years gone by, by Cavan and Donegal came out for pre-championship training camps. As well as the usual shakedowns of patriotic exiles, they fitted in games against New York.

Now, the cramped league season, segueing into championship last year left New York relying on nothing but the competitiveness of in-house games.

“We did the best we could in making them as competitive as possible and the lads kind of responded to that,” says McGinley.

“But you are faced with a reality that there are some players who are making their championship debut against Mayo last year. And it was their first time ever playing 70 minutes.

“Back when we were playing games in Connacht, we were going out and we had really no idea of where we were and what we were doing.

“Our thing was that when we are giving the second chance with the Tailteann Cup, we have to take as much learnings and information that we can figure out about our team and our style of play and players and try to apply that to be better for the Tailteann Cup.”

The optimism of the exile shines through. You can only wish them well as they set out on their adventure.