Gaffey: We can shock Cross

Listening to John Gaffey, you’d swear he’s been here before but the 27-year-old will lead out Garrycastle in their first ever All-Ireland Club SFC final in two days.

But don’t think for a second he’ll be overawed by the occasion, the venue nor the opposition that Crossmaglen present. Bolstered by his belief that Garrycastle are a big-game side,pointing to their semi-final win over neighbours St Brigids as evidence, and accepting they have “surpassed all expectations” he is confident.

“I had a feeling coming up to the semi-final that kind of occasion, the big crowd and buzz around, was made for players and I think they showed that it was.

“I think looking forward to the final that we can rise to it again. The bigger the crowd the better for us. It might get that 5% out of lads they mightn’t have known they even had, just to get the buzz of Croke Park.

“It would be worse if you weredealing with a set of nervous players but the lads are very confident notonly in football but outside of it as well. They’re very confident ineverything they do. I’ve no doubt we’ll bring that to Croke Park.”

Even with Jamie Clarke back where he picked up man of the match in last year’s final, Gaffey has no concerns about being able to handle Cross’sattack.

“We know how to defend. We don’t concede too many goals so I can’t see why that will change come the final. You’d be worried alright if there was huge pace in the inside forwards. Jamie Clarke is pacy and that but nothing that we’re not able to stop.

“We should be able to have enough pace for them. There’s no reason they won’t get in behind us. I’m confident we can keep the goals off the scoreline.”

Meanwhile, Crossmaglen vice-captain Paul Hearty has made light of Gareth O’Neill’s possible absence from the sidelines for Saturday’s game.

The joint-manager is likely to beunable to join Tony McEntee due to a suspension for verbal abuse of anofficial in the semi-final win over Dr Crokes. “He missed last year as well,” smiled Hearty, in reference to O’Neill’s similar ban in last year’s decider. “He’ll have a big mobile phone. He’ll bealright, he’ll be alright.”

Hearty, 33, is taking a lot of pleasure from the way Crossmaglen are playing their football — even if it has onoccasions given him cause for concern.

“The brand of football that we play and the drills they set up to make that happen... it’s very enjoyable to watch the brand of football we play and as a goalkeeper you do a lot of watching. To see it happening in front of you is class and it’s something that everybody has bought into andeverybody agrees with it.

“You get a lot of enjoyment out of winning a game like the Crokes game but you don’t want to win like that. You’d rather win from the front. It’s not good on the heart.”