By Eugene Kyne

While the GAA season is rife with rumor at the moment of player movement when the transfer window and draft opens, it is all speculation at this point.

Certainly all senior clubs will have their hands full trying to wrestle the senior football championship from three-time champions Kerry. The Kingdom is celebrating the 2006 title with their victory dance on Saturday night at the Astoria Manor, with guest of honor Cyril Kearney from Clohane, Co. Kerry.

It promises to be a fantastic night for the Gaels from the Kingdom. However, they are sharing one attribute to their victory dance this year, and that is the special visitor that is arriving courtesy of the big win over Mayo last fall in Croke Park.

The Sam Maguire, which of course is given to the All-Ireland senior football champions, will be in New York for the weekend. The Kerry club is making it available to the children of New York with a function at the Kerry Hall in Yonkers on Saturday morning between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. They are inviting all the children and teenagers involved with the Minor Board and indeed their friends who may not play to come along and see the magnificent trophy first hand.

The children are invited to wear their county colors for the day and pictures will surely grace mantles across the tri-state area for years to come.

Where does the name come from, one may ask? Sam Maguire was a native of Dunmanway, Co. Cork, where he was born in 1879. Maguire at 20 years of age took a position with the postal service in London. There he was prominent in GAA affairs as a member of the Hibernians club and played with London in the All-Ireland football finals of 1900, 01 (as captain) and ‘02.

He was active in the

Irish Republican Brother-hood and he initiated Michael Collins into that organization. In December 1924 he returned to Dunmanway, and died there three years later.

The trophy in his name was presented to the GAA by a group of friends and former colleagues in 1928 and the first winners were Kildare, who beat Cavan in the final. It was taken out of circulation in 1988, and the replacement first won by Meath when they beat Cork in that year’s final.

New York have not come close to winning the famed Cup, but they will play Sligo in New York on May 13 this year in the first round of the competition. The New York panel for the Sligo game will begin their training for that encounter in the coming weeks under the auspices of Louis Holland (Cork), who returns for the second year as manager. He is joined by selectors Pat Scanlon (Clare) and Mark McAllister (Armagh).

Following on the strong showing they had against Roscommon last May, hopes will be high to go further against the Yeats men and secure the impossible dream and qualify for the next round and a rematch against last years foe.