By John Harrington

Johnny Duane hopes Galway hurling’s loss will be New York football’s gain when his fellow Tribesman Jonathan Glynn lines out for the Big Apple in tomorrow’s Connacht SFC Preliminary round clash in Gaelic Park.

Glynn was one of Galway’s star performers last year when the Westerners reached the All-Ireland Hurling Final, but shocked the county’s supporters when he decided to move to the States afterwards. Hurling might be Glynn’s first sport, but Duane is hopeful the man-mountain can throw his weight around with the same effect on the football pitch against Roscommon.

“I wouldn't have seen him play much at home, he played a couple of years with Caherlistrane and he's good athlete a big strong lad and he has a good head and he's a great addition. Obviously it was big decision to him to come over and that's put him but he's enjoying himself here and is he well set up and hopefully he can put in a big shift the next day and we can make a bit of history.”

Duane’s defection to New York didn’t quite make the same amount of headlines as Glynn’s, but he’s certainly a big loss to the Galway footballers in 2016. He admits it was a ‘massive call’, but was reassured by the support he got from Galway football manager Kevin Walsh.

“I had a good chat with Kevin before I left,” says Duane. “He was very helpful. He said if there was anything he could do to help me out he was fully behind me and he understood my decision to come over here. I suppose I'm only 24 and it's something I always wanted to do and hopefully maybe next year I will be back, who knows. The plan is to go home in November but we'll see what happens, I've nothing decided yet.

“It was obviously a massive call. Leaving Galway football was obviously hard for myself. But it's something I've always wanted to do, to go traveling, and it was my last chance to get a Visa to America so it was just something I couldn't turn down, something I always wanted to do. I'm loving it at the moment, and the fact that you can play inter-county football over here is a big advantage. It’s a different lifestyle than Ireland but it's going well. I'm set up with a good job so it's all good at the moment.”

The odds are always stacked against New York when they play this annual opener to the Connacht Championship because they have so little relative preparation compared to the team that visits them. And Duane admits their lack of competitive action is their biggest barrier to pulling of a shock again this year.

“It's a big disadvantage and with Roscommon playing in Division 1 they have everything going for them in terms of game time and preparation but there is nothing we can do there's no other county teams over here, obviously, so we just have to play what's in front of us, play it hard, and hopefully perform on the day.

“Obviously the lads have big advantage at home with your FBD in Connacht and League games. Out here you don't have proper game time but the training is good and we've had club championship already and that will stand to us. The big disadvantage is having no league and no competitive games but training has been going good and we've had tough sessions and as long as we perform as 70 minutes, anything can happen.”

Duane is only too aware of how much progress Roscommon have made as a team and acknowledges they will be roasting hot favourites for this match.

“In the past couple of years they've come on leaps and bounds. And with this year's Division 1 they were obviously the form team of the League in terms of where they were last year. They have good young lads, a lot of good players there. And obviously all the game-time they've had, they have all the advantages coming over here and will be hot favourites and probably rightly so going by the past few years. They're always hard to play against, so it's going to be a massive task for us.”

Duane was on the other side of this fixture last year when he played for a Galway team that eased to a 16-point victory. But even though they won well in the end, he admits it was a daunting enough experience going into the unknown, and is hopeful that might rattle the Rossies.

“Obviously it's nerve-wracking when you're coming out here but in New York we have nothing to lose here at all. All the pressure would have been on us last year. You'd feel that pressure leading up to the game, it's always at the back of your mind, 'What if we're the first team to lose out here? What happens if we lose and get knocked out of the Championship?' That's the pressure that Roscommon will have this year.”