'I didn’t want to have regrets' – Opting for Stateside football this summer
FIELD OF DREAMS: Gaelic Park in New York. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The what ifs. Roscommon’s promising championship flamed out just short on all fronts. Two points from a league final. Four from Galway in the Connacht semi-final. A single score sent them out against Cork. What might have been if they had their key performer from 2022?
At the beginning of his intercounty career, Ultan Harney walked along a treacherous rope bridge. They knew where they were starting from and where they wanted to go but no one knew if they had any chance of making it. It had been five years and counting since their last provincial title. They’d only made one final in that window. Sligo shocked them in the summer of 2015 and dumped them out of Connacht.
Harney came in for the qualifier victory over Cavan, notching three points from play. He repeated the trick in the third round against Fermanagh but they fell short. Post-match he was spent and angry and utterly devastated. When the offer came to play some ball Stateside that summer, he declined.
The path ebbed and flowed over the subsequent seasons. There were two Connacht medals, two county titles, a Sigerson Cup triumph and a dreadful run of injuries. Earlier this year he opted out and went travelling. Eventually Harney landed in Chicago, where he won the county final with Wolfe Tones last week. They will contest the North American nationals in Denver this weekend.
“Ciarian Murtagh left a few years ago, 2017 I think. He’d a great time. Seanie McDermott and the likes actually said to me during my first year in the panel, ‘go travelling if you can.’ They’d given their lives to it and there was a small regret there.
“I made up my mind to go away a year and a half ago. Myself and my partner Kayleigh were talking about it a long time. I’d one chance to go in my first year in 2015 but it didn’t suit, so I never had a chance to do a J1 or go away.
“I always wanted to see a bit of the world. Eventually we said we’d pick a year and go. It would never be the perfect time. I never spoke to Davy (Burke) about it. I told our chairman while they were searching for a manager. I was trying to make it clear to him no matter what I was gone. Davy never approached me to be honest. It was in the Roscommon Herald before he was announced. It was clear that I was going.” Harney played alongside the likes of Fermanagh star Ultan Kelm, Offaly’s Paddy Dunican and Louth’s Niall Sharkey. There were numerous positives from the move including a more open style of play and new team-mates. Some silverware helps too.
“It made it all the sweeter. We’d a good team. There is a good Roscommon connection with the Wolfe Tones. It felt like home in that way. The football was… freedom is the best word. At home you train and play to certain systems. With 13 aside there is an obvious difference, you don’t have four more bodies on the pitch to block things up.
“It is a nice change for guys who are in out and county of squads. We’ve been institutionalised with systems and gameplans. It takes football back a couple years. Even when teams play a sweeper, the pitch is so big that it doesn’t really work. You can still get a guy one-on-one. There is always a chance of goals.
“Our group gelled quick. We dug a few results out throughout the year. I felt the bond we built was a huge help with that. I used to love Sigerson football, I still chat to boys through that. I felt the same here.”
2023 was a whirlwind for Emmet McMahon. He went from a hectic Sigerson Cup run with UL into a frenetic championship campaign with Clare. Their season ended at the Sam Maguire group stage.
Clare were already mathematically ruled out before their final game against Derry and McMahon was aware the opportunity was there for him to play Stateside. The deadline is July 1, meaning if Clare had made it to a quarter-final he would not be able to travel.
“You get a call or text from a club about interest. If you’re interested you say it and if not that’s the end of it. The clubs over in America love to get their hands on players. I went to Connemara Gaels and it was unbelievable.
“I couldn’t believe the standard. I was in San Fransico last year too; the standard is excellent. We lost to Donegal Boston in the final and the calibre of players on show was unbelievable. 15 or 20 on the pitch had intercounty experience.” Whatever about county commitments, the impact on their club is an unavoidable heartache. Harney’s father is a selector with his native Clann na nGael this year alongside former Mayo All-Star Pat Fallon and former Galway senior coach Seán Conlon.
McMahon missed the first round of the Clare championship with his club Kildysart. It was his star performance in last year’s intermediate decider that saw them advance to the senior ranks after several close calls and four finals in six years. Even still, it stung to miss out on the tie against Ennistymon.
“Big time. Especially since we just got promoted. It was disappointing that I was going to miss a club game but the final was last Sunday. If I was going out, I said I had to do it right. In that sense, I had to keep my word to them. What I would say is you only get these chances once in your life. I’m 22 and I’ll be playing club another 20 years hopefully. They’ll always be there for you. Chances to go only come around once or twice. I didn’t want to have regrets either.” It is one of the consequences of the split season, framed as a flaw by the detractors and heralded as a net positive by the proponents. Players now have certainty and set windows. It is a simple pleasure, stresses McMahon.
“It gives most lads space for some down time. Intercounty is the real pressure cooker and you put so much into it. If you go from county straight into club, you can feel drained physically and mentally. Mentally is nearly worse. That bit of a break is lovely.” Harney is in complete agreement. You can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Intercounty means commitment and sacrifice with a few warranted rewards. The opportunity to get away is one of them.
“I’d encourage anyone to do it. It will be tough and you might miss out on club and county football but one of the few things you can get out of it is going away to America. It is one of the best things you can do.
“I’m looking forward to going back with Roscommon next year as long as the body is ready for it. I feel refreshed and hungry. Even lads who were knocked out of the championship, they got five or six weeks here and go back to their club then. I know it is tough to lose lads in the moment, but I do think for the good of them it is something that should be appreciated.”
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