From Crossmaglen to Croke Park: Tony McEntee and Oisin McConville

Former club and county teammates Oisin McConville and Tony McEntee will go head-to-head in the Tailteann Cup final.

By Shaun Casey

YOU probably couldn’t find two more different types of footballers than Oisin McConville and Tony McEntee. Two great players in their own right, with the medals to back that up – but still completely different in many respects.

McEntee could be an enforcer at the back, a really strong presence around the middle or an authority figure up the spine of a team. When Armagh reached the All-Ireland final in 2003, he wore the 15 shirt but played at centre half back, leaving Kieran McGeeney to roam free.

McConville was a go-to man up front. He wasn’t expected to chase back but he was a player that stepped up when needed. Someone who might not touch the ball for 69 minutes, but when a big score was required both Crossmaglen and Armagh looked for Oisin.

The McConvilles grew up alongside the McEntees in Crossmaglen and won everything imaginable for both club and county coming through the ranks. Next weekend, they’ll be in different camps along the Croke Park sideline.

McConville is aiming to lead Wicklow to Tailteann Cup success on Saturday week in his fourth season in charge. McEntee is in the Down management team, having joined forces with Conor Laverty at the start of the year.

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It’s not the first time they’ve come up against each other on Ireland’s most hallowed turf. They faced off in the 2023 Division Four league final, when McEntee’s Sligo saw off McConville’s Wicklow.

“The pair of boys would have an unbelievable relationship,” said their former Crossmaglen teammate Johnny Murtagh. “They grew up together, played in the park together and played their football right up alongside each other.

“When it comes to football, they have the exact same mindset of how it should be played. Head up, fast football. That understanding would be the exact same, and the physicality expected of players would be the exact same.”

The same mindset, but different methods. Murtagh shared a dressing room with both men during a golden era for Crossmaglen that lasted for more than two decades.

Murtagh also played under both men during their stints in charge of the men in black and amber. McEntee, alongside Gareth O’Neill, took up the Crossmaglen post in 2010 and won back-to-back All-Ireland titles along with three Ulster titles in a row.

McConville took over from Joe Kernan in 2014, along with John McEntee, Tony’s twin brother, and led the Rangers to a provincial title in 2015, which remains their most recent Ulster Club success.

“Oisin and Tony have two slightly different styles of management, although they are both winners in their own right,” Murtagh, who is back playing senior football for Cross, said.

“Tony has always done a great job no matter where he has gone while Oisin has done an excellent job with Wicklow, he’s learned his trade really well.

“He did a good stint in Inniskeen a few years ago and I think he’s done an incredible job with Wicklow just getting them this far, and that’s no disrespect to them.

“Oisin is pure passion. The passion he brings to everything, the sideline, the dressing room, it’s all absolute raw emotion and you just can’t beat that.

“It’s all flesh on the bone type stuff but as a player in the dressing room, Oisin would have been really quiet. He stuck to his own game and what he was good at. He had serious craftsmanship on the football field.

“He was one of the best, and probably the very best, that I ever played with. He was quiet enough although he was very charismatic and has a dry wit so I would really enjoy Oisin.”

On McEntee and what makes him unique, Murtagh continued: “Tony is the total opposite. He is a completely different type of character. He just says it as it is, whether that be in the dressing room or whatever.

BROTHERS IN ARMS…Oisin McConville and Tony McEntee won All-Irelands with club and county

“He was very direct, even as a player. He would tell you exactly how it is and I think that’s probably something that is missing in dressing rooms now.

“You have players that have maybe gone a bit soft and that’s across the board, that’s just the nature of it, but as a player, he was a powerhouse on the football field, but he would have called out whatever he had to, like it or lump it.

“Down have a very skilful team and I believe that bit of direct coaching was definitely needed. You probably have a scenario there where Conor Laverty is a top coach, very smart, and you’d imagine he is bad cop and Tony McEntee is worse cop!”

The Mourne men are expected to come out on top at Croke Park and guarantee their place in the race for Sam Maguire once 2027 throws in.

While Murtagh believes Laverty’s men will be too strong for their Leinster opponents, he thinks the result shouldn’t devalue the brilliant work that McConville has done in the Garden County.

“They are going to go to battle and Wicklow are massive underdogs. I would expect Down to push on and lift another piece of silverware, and they’ve approached the Tailteann Cup really well.

“Oisin will rally the troops, it’s a massive game for them. They are no strangers to Croke Park, they’ve had numerous games there and they’ve had some brilliant results, but they’ll have to play the shirt off their backs and Down will need an off day to cause an upset.

“If they lose, it won’t diminish the season that Oisin has had with them. You can see steady progress under Oisin, particularly in knockout championship football. He’s done a brilliant job and it’s going to be a great day out in Croke Park for both the lads.”

While the pair are in opposite corners next Saturday afternoon, Murtagh envisages them possibly teaming up with each other at some stage in the future.

When Kieran McGeeney decides to leave the Armagh gig, a joint venture of McEntee and McConville could be just the ticket.

“The boys have been getting plenty of experience whether that’s with really good club teams or with the county. They have gone out and learned their trade. They have great CVs and they’ve both gone about it the right way,” said Murtagh.

“They’ve got that experience at county level and the funny thing is, they would probably be a nice wee match up down the line, the two of them, in the future if Geezer decides to call it a day with Armagh.

“They definitely wouldn’t be a bad replacement. They’re All-Ireland winners at club and county level but they’ve earned their stripes in the management game, and they have very attractive CVs now.

“You have one of the best forwards in Ulster of all time, if not the best, in Oisin McConville and he knows how to set up a forward line and equally, Tony has a serious brain for defence.

“With county teams now, with the discipline in your structure, discipline in the tackle and manning up, Tony McEntee holds those values in abundance.

“A niche of Tony’s was controlling the tempo of a game and knowing when to take the sting out of it.

“He knew maybe when a fair hit was needed on an opponent.

“He just knew what was needed at the right time and that’s a talent on its own.”