Kernan: Tullysaran are relishing Crossmaglen visit

By Shaun Casey

TULLYSARAN couldn’t have asked for a more enticing welcome to Senior Championship football than the visit of 47-time winners Crossmaglen, and the entire club can’t wait, according to captain Matthew Kernan.

Tullysaran were promoted to Division 1B for the first time ever last season but finished bottom of the table and will return to Division 2A for 2027, but that hasn’t impacted the feel-good factor around the club following the championship draw.

They host the Rangers on day one (Sunday afternoon) while their group also contains reigning holders of the Gerry Fagan Cup Madden along with Dromintee.

“To be honest, it’s brilliant and it’s exciting to have one of the most successful GAA clubs in history coming to our home pitch for a first-ever Senior Championship game.” said Kernan. “That’s where we wanted to be when we were coming up through junior and battling through intermediate. To have Crossmaglen, at home, as our first Senior Championship game is brilliant and it’s where we want to measure ourselves against.”

Tullysaran, who won their first ever Junior Championship title in 2015, the last time Cross were crowned Ulster Senior Club champions, experienced a fairly tough campaign in 2026.

“It was a little bit indifferent,” Kernan explained. “We had a very strong start, our very first four games were good. We took points off Clan na Gael and Dromintee, the two teams that won the league and got promoted. We know we’ve got the quality there, but it was just one of those years where, as a small rural team, you get one or two injuries, and the quality just drops a little bit. But it’s still been a brilliant learning experience for everyone.

“We know what we need to benchmark ourselves against going forward. In the long term, those are the standards that we need to set and the standards we need to maintain, we’ve seen how other clubs operate at this level.”

The future is bright for the O’Connell club and with youth on their side, they’ll be keen to make a swift return to senior football when the opportunity arises next season.

“Our average age in the panel is 23 at the moment and there’s the likes of myself and a few of the other older lads bringing that age up, so there’s a very young team there,” Kernan continued. “There’s a lot of years of success ahead for those lads, so we know that after this season what we need to be doing to maintain this level of football.

“This year has given the players a lot of confidence and we know we have the quality there. It’s just the consistency and being able to turn in performances week-in and week-out that we’re still working towards and we will get there eventually.”