The year 2023 has already been a good one for New York following their victory over Leitrim in the Connacht championship and now they have a chance to make more headlines when they play Carlow for a place in the quarter-finals of this year's Tailteann Cup tomorrow.
The draw for the preliminary quarter-finals last Sunday pitted Johnny McGeeney's crew with a Division Four outfit who have surprised people by beating both Wicklow and Longford to progress thus far in the new competition now in its second season.
A win by the Exiles at Cullen Park, Carlow, would be a great boost in the arm for football on the ground in the Big Apple and would be welcomed at home everywhere with the exception of the Barrowsiders.
New York will start as outsiders given that Carlow have had three meaningful games since McGeeney’s men exited at the semi-final stage of the Connacht championship to Sligo.
But if the visitors can bring the same intensity to the occasion that the managed in Gaelic Park against Andy Moran’s side, then they are indeed capable of causing another big upset in this GAA calendar year.
In the other preliminary quarter-final games, Offaly will entertain Wexford, while Fermanagh will meet Laois in Portlaoise and Down will host Longford in Newry.
The team to lose out to New York’s automatic qualification is Tipperary, who finished third in their group but were eliminated because they had the worst record of third-placed teams.
The four group winners after the three-game round-robin series were unbeaten Cavan, Colm O’Rourke’s Meath, Limerick, who were surprisingly routed by Wicklow on Sunday and Andy McEntee’s Antrim, all of which go through to the quarter-finals proper of the competition.
Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-finals: Offaly v Wexford; Fermanagh v Laois; Down v Longford; Carlow v New York.
