New York have announced that if they lose to Roscommon in their opening match of the Connacht Football Championship tomorrow evening, they will play no further part in the Championship this year. New York Board President Monty Moloney confirmed yesterday that, while they have every intention of carrying on if they beat Roscommon, the losers' group has no appeal for them at the current time mainly due to financial reasons.
New York have already received a guarantee from the Connacht Council that the five teams in the province will travel to New York for the opening championship game for the next five years and this will help with their expenses in the future.
Because of the on-going foot and mouth crisis in Britain which rules out London's chance of participating in the losers' group, it now looks likely the group will have only 15 teams involved rather than the initial plan of 16. This means that one team will get a bye into the second round of the qualifying group.
Meanwhile, New York have named their team for the game against Roscommon and it includes seven of the players who featured in the defeat to Galway last year. New additions to the line-up include Kerry's Bingo O'Driscoll, Donegal's Niall McGreedy, and Peter O'Loughran of Armagh.
New York: E Doherty, B Kelly, O Cummins, K Walsh, PJ Lanigan, M Slowey, N McGreedy, P Maloney, G Dowd, P Sloan, P O'Connor, B O'Driscoll, K Lilly, P Loughran, J O'Driscoll.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
