McConville and Cross savouring championship success

By Shaun Casey

CHAMPIONSHIP medals are the only currency that count for anything around Crossmaglen and Cian McConville picked up his fifth county medal last Sunday.

He was just a teenager in 2018 when he was sprung from the bench to win his first and McConville also got his hands on the Gerry Fagan Cup in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2026.

A three-year wait isn’t exactly a famine, but around Crossmaglen, who are used to winning championships every season, three years is too long.

The Rangers came through an evenly contested county final with Killeavy, who made their first final appearance since 1988, to win by five in the end.

“It’s enjoyable, you miss it after being away for a couple of years, so we put big emphasis on that and it’s a great feeling,” McConville said after the game.

“The game felt like it was lacking a bit of quality at times but that’s the way it goes – county finals are for winning, it’s not about playing pretty football, it’s just about getting over the line.”

While McConville was only a young buck when he won his first championship medal, he’s now one of the more established members of the Crossmaglen changing room.

The Rangers are still producing quality players as they have always done, and it was the young guns who really stood up and delivered at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds.

Eugene McEntee, Ryan Martin, Harry Cumiskey and Odhran Caragher all started their first county finals as did man of the match Pearse Blessing. Teenager Keelan McEntee also came off the bench to nailed two important scores.

“We got the scores at crucial times,” McConville continued. “Pearse Blessing got the goal at a good time, and his two-pointer was at a good time too to stretch the lead out and that was probably the winning of it.

“Killeavy were always able to stay in it, but our scores came at the right time. I thought Pearse was unbelievable and Keelan Mac came on, he was pulling balls out of the sky and got two big scores as well, so everyone is adding and that’s what we want.”

Shane Lennon’s men lost twice in the championship, to Dromintee and Madden, but once they hit knockout football and reached the Athletic Grounds, Crossmaglen really found their groove.

“That’s the aim every year, to build towards the right end of the year. I suppose it has been said about us a lot that we’re a championship team but obviously we’re building throughout the year too.

“We use the league to build towards this but there was a couple of key parts. The Clan na Gael game, everything came together and we probably needed a win of that nature and we took good confidence from that.

“We’ve played really good stuff since that. We had a big battle in the semi-final (against Clann Eireann), even the quarter-final with Culloville and that was another big battle in the final so by every means, we hard to work for the county title.”