GAA: IT'S NOT exactly coincidental that of the six clubs contesting this Sunday's trio of provincial finals the only two to have won a title before will need no introduction.
At the Morgan Athletic Grounds in Armagh, Crossmaglen Rangers face off against Down champions Burren in the Ulster club football final, and incredibly they’ve now collected 13 titles between them, with Crossmaglen actually going for a ninth title.
This enduring winning ethos of the Armagh club is perhaps best personified by the extraordinary longevity of Oisín McConville who, despite turning 36 last month, will once again lead the Crossmaglen attack both in spirit and by his example.
Consider too that Crossmaglen have never actually lost any of the Ulster club football finals they’ve contested, between 1996 and last year, and indeed McConville has been part of them all. Yet that in no way means he or anyone else from the club will be underestimating Burren, who although they have now gone 23 years since their last title, in 1988, were actually one of the original inspirations for the Crossmaglen success.
“In 1996, when we won our first county title, we ended up playing Burren in the first round of the Ulster championship,” says McConville. “We ended up winning by a point. That gave us a huge amount of belief because they were a team we looked up to, and they had achieved what we wanted to achieve.
“So I would have known them then, and all of us in Crossmaglen would have looked up to that team, and been told about that team. I think now the role has been reversed. People will put us into this game as raging hot favourites, and we accept that, because we realise that we have been in this position so many times before.
“And a lot of people do not expect Burren to put it up to us, but we are not that naive as a team, and know that we are in for a huge battle.”
Naturally enough there aren’t any remnants of that successful Burren team of the 1980s, which won three-Ulster titles in a row from 1983-1985, and also collected two All-Irelands (they last reached the Ulster final in 1992, losing to Lavey).
McConville is the sole surviving playing member of Crossmaglen’s first Ulster success, in 1996, and among the many honours won in all the years since – including two All Stars and the 2002 All-Ireland victory with Armagh – is the remarkable record of playing 103 consecutive club championship games with Crossmaglen, until injury forced him to miss the 2008 county semi-final.
Yet there was strong speculation he would go out on the ultimate high last March, after helping Crossmaglen to claim their fifth All-Ireland club title (he scored 0-6 , two from play), 14 years after their first title, and four years after their last.
“Funny, a lot of people are trying to retire me now,” he said at the time. “I’ll see. The thing is we’re nearly into the new season already. After matches it doesn’t be pretty. But I love it. That’s why I do it. But I’m married now as well. So I don’t have the full say, only 50 per cent. But I’ve to go on a honeymoon now, and we’ll think about it then.”
Clearly McConville convinced his better half that football still had a place in his life, although he was in and out of the starting team that recently collected their 15th Armagh title in 16 years. But then he was called into the starting line-up for the Ulster semi-final win over Ballinderry, scoring the first and last points to bookend their four-point victory.
He played his last championship match with Armagh in 2008, but then came back on board this summer under manager Paddy O’Rourke, acting mainly as a forwards’ coach. And it’s going to take some time, he says, before the county team once again manage to mirror the club success of Crossmaglen, like they did for much of the last decade.
“I worked with the minor team these past three to four years and there’s 20 players who are top class and who are going to be coming through in the next few years. I can’t see any reason why those players would not be as good. I think that’s something you’ll probably see with Armagh next year, a lot of young players being introduced, a lot of pace brought into the team. Hopefully, we can start building back to where we were. . . . I don’t think that’s possible for now, but maybe three or four years down the line.”
Sunday’s other provincial club finals feature Crusheen of Clare playing Na Piarsaigh of Limerick, in the Munster hurling final in Thurles, and Coolderry of Offaly playing Oulart-the-Ballagh of Wexford, in the Leinster hurling final Nowlan Park. Unlike the outcome in Armagh whatever happens there will result in first-time title winners in both games.
