Double duty all part of job for Paul

LIKE the rest of the Armagh football panel this week, Paul McCormack is dreaming of Croke Park. Unlike the rest of the Armagh panel, McCormack pictures himself swinging a hurley rather than kicking a ball as he races around the famous sod on Dublin’s northside.

He might get the chance to do just that later this summer if the Armagh hurling team he captains continue to stack up the wins in the Nicky Rackard Cup. Their next major assignment on that road is against arch rivals Louth this Saturday — the day before the Ulster football final.

McCormack is used to that sort of fixture congestion but it hasn’t helped his career with the footballers. Though he has played 38 times for Kernan, only five of those have been in the championship and he will start Sunday’s game against Donegal on the bench.

“Obviously it’s hard enough to break into the team at the best of times but, when you’re playing a game the day before, it just doesn’t happen. At the minute, that’s just the way it is,” McCormack reasoned.

With an All-Ireland and a handful of Ulster medals, football has been good to him. But hurling is in his DNA. His grandfather from Cork was passionate about the game, but no more so than the people of Keady where he comes from. Their hurlers have been county champions five years in a row and, though Armagh football jerseys proliferate like they do in the rest of the county, hurls and sliotars are equally in evidence in Keady.

While Kernan has been understanding of his predicament, McCormack has missed the last three championship matches the footballers played because of his hurling duties. Yet he knows things could be worse.

“With the schedule of fixtures it’s very hard but I know Croke Park are on a tight schedule. It’s very difficult for a dual player, especially at the highest level. With Armagh being a weak hurling county, maybe you can get away with it.

Like Kernan, he dismisses the suggestion that some of the older warriors have fought one battle too many and insists the two replays against Monaghan and Fermanagh have sharpened their spears for the task ahead this weekend.

Not for the first time in recent times, Armagh face a Donegal side described as the coming force in Ulster football and McCormack doesn’t expect anything like the 13-point winning margin Armagh had at the same stage back in 2004.

“Donegal are hungry, they’re good footballers. We saw the way they played against Derry and Derry are no bad team. We are under no illusions that it is going to be very difficult this Sunday.”