All good things come to an end

THE OLD-TIMERS up here have a saying; “There is only a while in anything and all good things must come to an end”.

For Crossmaglen Rangers and men like the McEntees, John Donaldson and perhaps Francie Bellew and Oisín McConville, that good thing came to an end yesterday when they lost their first final since 1996.

Their first defeat in 27 consecutive finals at county, provincial or All-Ireland final.

That was a phenomenal record but they can have no excuses about yesterday at Croke Park where they were well beaten by a better, fresher and hungrier side.

And the main reason that Crokes beat the greatest club football side of the last 30 years is that they had a greater spread of scoring forwards.

Big full-forward Mark Davoren – who had a very fine game – Longford’s Brian Kavanagh, Pat Burke and Mark Vaughan are all well capable of taking a score while Wexford defender Adrian Morrissey, playing at left-half forward, puts tremendous pressure on the opposition as they try to clear their lines.

All those men made massive contributions to yesterday’s success.

Davoren – who should be given a genuine run out in a sky blue jersey after his club exploits — hit his side’s crucial goal after only ten minutes and his fine strike gave them a significant lead and a real boost of confidence that Johnny Magee was going to hoist the Andy Merrigan an hour later.

At the other end of the field, their defence was hugely impressive with Rory and Ross O’Carroll doing some great covering in the full-back line alongside Kevin Nolan.

Brian McGrath at number five is also a good player and he starts a very strong half-back line including Paul Griffin and Cian O’ Sullivan.

Crossmaglen were held to only two points from play and that is testimony to the work-rate and unity of the Kilmacud rearguard.

However it would be remiss not to point out that the Rangers and in particular Michael McEntee hit some horrific wides as they worked up to a total of ten missed chances over the hour.

The three or four wides they struck quickly after half time damaged their self-belief and gave a huge fillip to their opponents.

The more your opposition miss, the more you start to believe they aren’t up to the job.

Their over-dependence on Oisín McConville to make anything happen up-front was unreal and none of their other forwards can feel that they did anything substantial for the cause.

Crokes had another hero in Darren Magee who won a lot of primary possession, hit a vital point and regularly linked the play between defence and attack. He had to have a big game if Crokes were to add to their 1995 All-Ireland title and in fairness to him, he did.

No doubt Dublin manager Pat Gilroy will be delighted to welcome back the likes of Magee, Paul Griffin and Mark Vaughan into his struggling squad, while Mark Davoren and perhaps Ross O’Carroll might also see his mobile number appearing on their screen in the coming days.

Paddy Carr has done a very fine job with this panel and it was great to see so many youngsters in their club colours running onto Croke Park after the game.

A successful club championship run is a great recruiting ground for the players and club members of the future. Keeping Gaelic football going in cities is a tough gig and it is credit to Kilmacud Crokes that they are such a progressive and community focused club. They have their detractors, however nobody can question the effort and work being put into the GAA by the club.

A lot of their side are young men and if they stay together and keep their foot on the pedal there is no reason why they cannot challenge for All-Ireland club titles on a more regular basis.

One thing yesterday’s game also did was make me more of an advocate for the new rules that are currently in-situ at county level in Gaelic football.

The amount of nasty pushing in the back, rugby tackles, third man tackles, body checks and persistent fouling that went on all through the game took away a lot from this All-Ireland final.

Quick example: between the 19th and 20th minute, Kilmacud players committed three yellow card tackles in-a-row to stop Crossmaglen players in their tracks. Gearóid Ó Conamha however did not issue any cards for those offences which was a mistake. Constant and persistent fouling should be clamped down on at all levels. If players realise that they can get away with fouling their opponents, what do you think they will do?