Following the way of the Cross

ONE thing that can be said with some certainty about Crossmaglen Rangers is that they won’t lack motivation when they play Monaghan champions Clontibret in the AIB Ulster Club SFC in Clones on Sunday.

However, while they are most successful team in Armagh over the last decade — and have the distinction of winning all four All-Ireland finals they have appeared in — their record in the province isn’t quite as impressive.

One of the teams that beat them during their current dominance of the county championship — 12 straight wins in a row since 1996, unbeaten in a total of 51 games — was Castleblaney, who lost to Clontibret in the championship decider last Sunday week. Crossmaglen made no secret in advance that they would prefer to be playing ‘Blaney. They haven’t forgotten that they got a bit of a hammering from them a few years ago.

Crossmaglen manager Donal Murtagh, who has been associated with all 12 winning county championship teams, didn’t need to be reminded about the game. “They caught us on a day when we were a tired team. We were after winning two All-Irelands in a row — three inside four years. We had a bad day at the office and ‘Blaney took advantage,” he explained.

While Crossmaglen’s record in Armagh is impressive, Murtagh points out that it hasn’t always been that way. Murtagh played with the club for 20 years and it took him 10 years before he won his first medal. They he won 10 in a row. And, he has been manager for the last two victories, last year’s culminating in their fourth All-Ireland title won in a replay against Dr Crokes.

It begs the obvious question: why have Cross enjoyed such remarkable success? According to Murtagh, the tradition for winning championships was always there. “Long before we were even born, they had numerous titles won. But, this present bunch of players have taken it a step further. It’s a well-run club, and we have the structure at underage which produces the players.

“They come through and we get to see them at senior level, because we have good men with patience working with the younger players. Obviously, some fall by the wayside, but the more serious player — the better player — tends to stick at it more with us than other clubs.

“Our turnaround from minor to senior, in ‘producing players’ would be better than most clubs.”

Aaron Kernan would be representative of the best of the younger generation of players, at 23 the holder of seven medals. He was one of four players promoted from a winning minor team and, by coincidence, it happened after his father Joe had given up as manager to concentrate on the Armagh job.

“The way I look at it, we were very young when Cross won the first Armagh championship (of 12) in 1996,” said Kernan. “The players we looked up to were the likes of Jim McConville, Donal Murtagh, the McEntees and Óisin McConville.

“We’re trying to follow what they have done. What you are seeing now is the next generation of young boys are all starting to follow us. They’re doing the same things, training, looking after themselves. Once the ability is there and you’re backing it up with what needs to be done, we seem to be getting the right results.

“We did the double for the past two years, senior and minor. We actually won two minors in a row for the first time, which is hard to believe. All these young boys know where they want to be and they have seen what it takes to get there. So they are pushing everybody else on. We seem to be changing all the time, maybe one or two players at a time. But new faces are coming in all the time and freshening things up for us.”

Looking at the bigger picture, it’s clear that Crossmaglen’s recent past — remember their property was occupied by the British army for a lengthy period — helped to bond the people of the area and foster the development of the club. Kernan explains: “It means everything for the people of Crossmaglen to be rewarded for footballing reasons. You’re proud to be from Cross and the best way we can portray ourselves is on the football pitch — the way we handle ourselves.

“A lot of people might have different ideas, but we’d like to think we can be gracious both in victory and defeat.”

* Once more, Francie Bellew is a notable absentee, recovering from a knee operation and surgery on an old shoulder problem. “He’s eager to get back playing, but we won’t be rushing him back,” added Murtagh.