Tony Kernan and Crossmaglen still wedded to success

Around Crossmaglen way, they’ve got in the habit of staging weddings around their football.

Back in January 2010, it was current joint-manager and then player Oisín McConville who tied the knot. He postponed his honeymoon so he could line out against Dr Crokes in an All-Ireland semi-final, which they won.

The latest is Tony Kernan who married on December 28, took in a honeymoon to Australia and Thailand, returning just over two weeks ago to prepare for tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final with Castlebar Mitchels. He took his learnings from his brother Aaron who too celebrated his marriage abroad, only to return in time for that aforementioned 2011 semi against the Kerry and Munster champions.

It’s not Crossmaglen are presumptuous, says Kernan; it’s just they like to plan for the best case scenario. “I think it’s just trying to fit it in. You’re sort of planning 12 months in advance and we didn’t think in our wildest dreams — the way we’d been going — that I was going to be in an Ulster club final and an All-Ireland semi-final.

“But you sort of have it in the back of your head and you’d kind of like to be there. So, yeah, the wedding was planned, hoping that we would be at this stage.”

Kernan’s new wife Sinead plays with Armagh ladies football team. Not only did she understand he had to keep in shape on the honeymoon but she was the prime motivator.

When Kernan speaks of having doubts about Crossmaglen’s provincial aspirations, he points out the club hadn’t won an Ulster game in the previous two seasons. But then an influx of minors midway through the county championship sparked the team back to life.

“We were maybe getting on a bit, a couple of the boys, and we had a different management team in and, yeah, I didn’t think we would be winning Ulster clubs again. We thought maybe the amount of Ulster clubs and All-Irelands we had, that was going to be our lot and we’d look back at that whenever we retired.”

Equalling Nemo Rangers’ record of seven All-Ireland titles is once more in Crossmaglen’s sights but Kernan suggests he’d be foolish to consider it a motivation, with 120 minutes-plus standing between them and lifting the Andy Merrigan Cup again.

While most club players in Kernan’s position appear to favour a calendar season, he’s not ashamed to admit were it not the Christmas break, Crossmaglen would have been in bother going into an All-Ireland series so soon after their epic extra-time Ulster final win over Scotstown.

“I think if we had to go and play a game two weeks after that Scotstown game, we’d have struggled. At county level, you usually have four weeks between games and it’s a bit much. At club level, you have two weeks and the games build up and especially for club players the recovery isn’t what it is at county level and the conditioning isn’t what it is at county level.

“If it was three weeks later, yeah, you certainly would be looking forward to it, but I think two weeks is a bit tight.”

The resolve they showed in that thriller will serve them well facing a slick Castlebar. “It was a great game and we found out we still had the hunger. You don’t really know about these things until your head is in the ground and someone’s just scored a goal and you have to pick yourself up.”