By John Harrington

Regardless of what happens in this weekend’s replay, last Sunday’s drawn New York Senior Football Championship Final was a seminal moment for GAA in the Big Apple.

In one corner you had a Sligo team very representative of the traditional make-up of a New York club – a team of Irish ex-pats sprinkled with well-known inter-county players like Sligo’s Niall Murphy, Galway’s Peter Cooke, and former Galway hurler Johnny Glynn.

But what made this New York Senior Football Final such a landmark occasion was the make-up of the team in the other corner.

St. Barnabas featured a starting 15 made up entirely of American born players and are the product of the huge work done at underage level in New York through the Minor Board over the last 15 years.

Their players would have won multiple Continental Youth Championships in their juvenile days, represented New York with distinction in the Féile Péile na nÓg, and tested themselves abroad in competitions like the Trench Cup and the British Universities Championship.

"We're really a ground-roots organisation through the Minor Board here,” explains Shane Hogan, one of St. Barnabas’ star players.

“12 of the guys that started on Sunday came up through Barnabas. Two guys played with St. Brendan's, a club up in Monroe, and one guy was born in America but then went to Westmeath to play for a couple of years and now he's back out playing with us.

“We've certainly put in a lot of groundwork. We've been senior now for five years and bringing in a guy like (Coach) Johnny McGeeney, he was able to bring a lot of these young kids through so now we've had a kind of a rebirth.”

Hogan is just 26 years old himself but still counts as a relative veteran in this youthful St. Barnabas team.

Something of a trail-blazer, he made his debut for New York in the Connacht Championship at the age of 17 and has been an ever-present in the panel ever since.

For a long time he exemplified the high-standard that native born players in New York could hope to reach, and now he’s been joined by a cohort of younger players who are ready to make their mark in the same way.

“A lot of the guys who were there when I first made seniors with St. Barnabas have nearly all dropped off and now we have all these 21 to 23 year olds who have made the club a lot stronger,” says Hogan.

“When I was growing up there wasn't as much emphasis on the minor development and now there's so many teams. I think last year New York had an U-16 team go over and play the likes of Laois and Carlow.

“We've also had teams competed in third level in the Trench Cup. And of course the Feile team is in Division 1 every year. These kids are getting exposed to good football from a really young age.”

Hogan might have grown up in the Bronx, but he couldn’t be more steeped in the GAA.

His Grandfather was one of the founding members of St. Barnabas, and for as long as he can remember his life has revolved around Gaelic Football.

“I've been playing since I was about five,” he says. “My brother Conor is two years older than me and I remember going up to watch him play. Being a kid, I just wanted to try to play myself.

“I remember the ball kept going over the bar and I was, like, this is horrible, I'm no good. But people were saying to me, no, that's actually good, that's how you score. And I was, like, 'oh!' So, from there on I was hooked.

“My Grandfather coached me when I was real little and then my dad was my coach from U-8s on.”

Gaelic Football is a way of life for many young boys and girls growing up in New York and they’re being nurtured by clubs that are deeply rooted in their local community.

The only difference between a young Gaelic Footballer making his or her way in New York and one doing the same in Galway is the Atlantic ocean that separates them.

St. Barnabas now field teams in ever age grade from U-8 right through to adult where they field three teams, and their club-grounds, ‘Paddy’s Field’ in Woodlawn, is the beating heart of their community

"After any of the games and even when we're not playing we'll be all hanging out there with each other,” says Hogan. “We're more like a family than we are friends.

“There's a second American-born team that joined the senior ranks this year. Rangers won the Intermediate last year and they're mostly comprised of Irish-Americans and they're doing just as good a job as us.

“They had a tough time in senior this year, but I told them when we first got up to senior we were also the whipping boys and you just have to go through that and do the dirty work.”

The club-scene in New York is being steadily re-shaped by the increasing numbers and improving standard of native-born players and Hogan believes it’s inevitable that the county team will be too.

“Had we been able to play this year we certainly would have had a lot more Americans in the team,” says Hogan.

“Gerry Fox (New York manager) and Johnny Glynn (New York selector) wanted to put a lot more emphasis on getting the American kids playing. So there would have been a lot more American kids in their early twenties playing which I think is the best way forward for us.

“The biggest problems with New York teams over the years is the turnover rate has been a killer. I always joke that I've probably played with the most county players of all time because every year there are only nine guys that return.

“If we're able to build up to the point where we have up to 20 guys returning year on year and we're able to add in five or six guys coming over for the year, then that's really what the goal should be, I believe.

“When we're looking for a county to replicate we shouldn't be looking at the Dublins or Tyrones or anything like those counties. London would be the perfect example of a county we should be aspiring to emulate.

“They're a team that's put together of really great home-based players and then they add to that with a lot of experienced players who come over from Ireland. That's what we should be aiming to do.”

The prospect of a New York team dominated by players with New York accents is a dream for another day, though.

For now, all any Gael in The City That Never Sleeps is talking about is Sunday’s County Final replay.

The drawn match which went to extra-time was a barn-burner of a contest, and more of the same is expected in the replay.

“I remember walking off the pitch and everyone was like, 'Oh my God that was the most exciting game I've ever seen'”, says Hogan.

“And, I'm like, I can't even feel my lungs or my heart! I think my heart might have stopped a few times! The lead was just constantly traded back and forth, the game was all over the place.

“It was good that both teams have a second chance now and it didn't have to go to a penalty shoot-out. A draw was probably the fairest result. They could make the argument that they could have won and we could do the same.”

Hogan is hopeful that a youthful St. Barnabas team will have greater room for improvement going into the replay.

Nerves shouldn’t jangle as much now that they know what a County Final feels like, and he’s hopeful they’ll be more mature in their decision-making this time around, especially in the attacking third of the field.

Contests of fine margins tend to come down to the great divider of who wants it that little bit more. So how badly does Shane Hogan want to be a New York Senior Football champion?

“I've been playing senior since I was 17 and this is the first Final I ever played in,” he says.

“Even though I have all the experience that anyone could want, I was still as shook as anybody going into the first game because of what it means to me.

“Winning a county title with my home club would just mean everything. It would mean all the work I've put in since I was six years old is coming to fruition.”

New York GAA’s hard work on the ground looks like it’s coming to fruition now too.

A bountiful harvest beckons for the Big Apple.