No going back for Cross

IN Crossmaglen, it felt like winter for the first time in five years. Michael McConville remembers the late 90's when the town didn't feel the season pass.

Back then, life there pulsed to the rhythms of the club championship as people waited for yet another assault on the All-Ireland club championship.

"They were great days and they gave everyone here great memories, times nobody will ever forget," the Crossmaglen manager sighs. After they swept Na Fianna aside with an hour of perfect football on Paddy's Day in 2000, the club disappeared from the national radar.

They still dominated in Armagh - they captured their ninth successive county title last October - but found teams like Ballinderry and Eirrgal Ciaran in Ulster too fresh and too hungry.

It was assumed Cross had become a victim of their own success, too many All-Ireland titles too young, too much football in youthful limbs. There were other factors too. Joe Kernan began working the same miracles with the county that he had done in Crossmaglen. And keeping a bunch of young men who had won three All-Ireland medals in their early twenties motivated was a challenge for any manager.

"I could see the hunger coming back over the winter," said McConville, in his second year as manager. "Armagh went out that little bit earlier this year, and that helped. We have seven players involved with the county, the backbone of the team, and they came back and their hunger to put the Fermanagh game behind them, ignited the whole team."

Although they inevitably claimed another Armagh title, it wasn't the easy road Crossmaglen have grown accustomed to within the county. In the first couple of games, they edged through by the odd score or two. When they met Sarsfields in the quarter-final, McConville watched helplessly from the sideline as his side were three points down with two minutes to go.

They escaped, because Crossmaglen always escape. It has been their trait since Kernan came on the scene in 1996. They even had to do it in London last year, although thatremains a sore point. They had just came through an attritional Ulster final against MickeyLinden's Mayobridge.

"London was always going to be tough. We thought we would be given two weeks to recover from the Mayobridge game, but then the GAA told us we would have to play the following week. We had to organise flights, a place to stay, we weren't the most well-prepared team in Ruislip, but in fairness to Kerry Gaels, they put it up to us."

The McConville name is classic Crossmaglen. Oisin, the talented forward whose point-scoring ability enshrined him as a local legend, is the manager's cousin, while Michael is a nephew of Margaret McConville, the energetic driving force of the club behind the scenes.

His family have been responsible for much of the success over the past decade-but it is a decade that has taken its toll.

Pessimism is hardly Margaret McConville's natural state but she is wary of the challenge posed by Portlaoise. "We'll have to see how the lads do. The team are not as good as they were, ten years is a long time to be on the road."

In the past couple of seasons, the club has benefitted from the drip-effect of earlier success. They captured the U21 title last year, and McConville has brought four of those youngsters into the senior team, including Kernan's two sons, Stephen and Aaron.The club have a formidable under-age set-up, McConville reckons he sees up to 100 kids heading to training every Saturday morning.

McConville, himself, missed out on the glory days by a few years. He was on the field in the bad times, when dreams of a county title seemed wild, never mind All-Irelands. But he enjoyed each success from the stands and sees a lot of that great Crossmaglen side in tomorrow's opponents. Portlaoise are hungry and fearless and their team is hewn from under-age glory. Yet for all that Cross are favourites tomorrow.

"This really is a bonus to have gotten this far. And I think this one is for the players, they are the ones who keep coming back, who keep themselves hungry. They are an incredible bunch of players, they do everything that is asked of them. It is a pleasure to manage them."

Michael's cousin Oisin, so integral to their hopes, won't be 100% facing Portlaoise, but they are a different team without his free-scoring. Whether he lasts the 60 minutes could have a major bearing on the game. But they are other, younger players dying to make their name. Joe Kernan's sons, Michael McNamee, whose older brother was part of that all-conquering side. In Crossmaglen football, the names don't change, only the faces.