Crosserlough camogs bid for a provincial prize

By Niall Gartland

THE Crosserlough camogs are back in business after a few years where county honours proved elusive.

Four weeks ago, they got the better of Lacken to win their first Senior Championship title since 2023. According to manager Anthony Sheridan, a former Cavan hurler, that was very much the big aim this season.

They did have cause to believe they could excel on the provincial stage, however, and now they’re 60 minutes away from the Ulster Junior Championship title. This Saturday, Ballinderry stand in their way of the trophy.

Crosserlough have three Junior titles to their name, won in 2012, 2017 and 2018, so they certainly have the pedigree but they’ll still have to go out and do the business on the pitch.

“There’s a good bit of experience in the team,” Sheridan said.

“We last won it in 2018 and made the final in 2023, but were beaten by Granemore. They were very strong and went on to win the All-Ireland.”

“There’s still a few of those players there, with a couple of young ones having joined the team as well, so there’s a good mix at the minute.”

There’s no shortage of talent in the Crosserlough ranks. They’re captained by the vastly experienced Ciara Finnegan, while Cara Reilly was the star of the show in their semi-final win over Loughgiel last weekend, racking up 1-8, 1-5 of which was from play.

Then there’s a number of players who were involved in Cavan’s run to the All-Ireland Junior Championship final earlier in the year.

“Ciara Shalvey, Orla Smith and Tess Ryan were involved, while Erinn Galligan, who is pregnant was part of the extended panel,” Sheridan added.

“Cara Reilly has been excellent. Once you get the ball into her, she’s strong and she knows where the net and the posts are. Ciara is captain at the minute. She struggled for a few years with injury, but thank God she stayed injury-free this year for us.”

Crosserlough are a proud dual club and Sheridan, who is from Mullahoran, says both wings of the club work in tandem with each other.

“There’s football and camogie, and there’s a very good way of doing things,” he said.

“It’s all connected, and there are probably 23 of our panel playing football as well. Crosserlough got their own ladies’ football team up and running five or six years ago, and they won a county title a few years ago too.”

“The committee and both management teams work together, and it’s well run. This year, we used to do dual sessions, a bit like Sleacht Néill. The girls would train for an hour in camogie and then do football for an hour afterwards, three nights a week. It worked well coming into the championship. Earlier in the year, we did our own thing, but coming into the championship, the joint sessions worked well.”