New York are realistic about their Connacht SFC quarter-final against Galway but hope to learn lessons that might spur them to a first championship win on Irish soil, says captain Shane Brosnan.
The Exiles host last year's All-Ireland runners-up at a sold-out Gaelic Park in the Bronx on Sunday (8pm Irish time) and though there is little expectation of a shock that would eclipse the 2023 win over Leitrim, the New York native is eyeing longer-term benefits.
"We've been training hard for the last three months," he told RTÉ Sport.
"We know Galway's a strong test and they have a lot of good players. We're just hoping that playing a team like them, we can take a few things away from it.
"Just testing ourselves against some of the best that they have in Ireland and seeing where we stand.
"Our main goal for the year is to get a good run in the Tailteann Cup. To push on and try to get a win back in Ireland.
"That was our goal the last two years. We fell short. The last two years we probably left the games behind us.
"We're just hoping now that we can push on and train hard for the next few weeks and hopefully get a result."
One consequence of not participating in the Allianz Football League is that New York have yet to play under the trial new rules of Gaelic football.
"We've been playing in-house games since January, so we've been getting used to them ourselves," said the wing-back. "[It will] be nice to test it out and see.
The son of Kerry parents, Brosnan and his younger brother Mikey, who scored the winning penalty against Leitrim, were born and raised in the US and he is hoping for "More New York fans than Galway fans" in the stadium on Sunday.
"My dad is from Knocknagoshel. My mom's from Castleisland. There's a big football background there. They've always pushed it on me and I've always enjoyed it.
"I was big into basketball and soccer when I was younger, but by the time I was 16 I probably knew that I wanted to play football more than anything else."
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