Ballymacnab’s breakthrough

SUNDAY the 22nd of August is a date that will be forever sketched into the history of Ballymacnab GFC. That was the day back in 1999 when the ‘Nab finally broke through the glass ceiling and won a much sought after championship title against Belleek.

On six previous occasions, spread over 50 years, the maroon and white jersey had lined out on championship final day and all six times they headed for home empty-handed. This time around, lady luck would be on their side.

The club first reached the Junior Championship final in 1946 but fell at the hands of St Michael’s, Newtownhamiliton. In three of the four seasons from 1969 to 1972, the ‘Nab were defeated in the championship final.

They reached further deciders in 1993 and 1994 but like the previous attempts, those bids ended in failure again. Come 1999 and the ‘Nab had secured their spot in a seventh ever championship final. Was this to be the year?

The management team of Colm Marley, Paul Grimley and John Kelly took the job in ’99 with one ambition. To win the championship. And that’s where it all began.

“I would say, honestly, we were doing training that senior clubs would have been doing at the time,” recalls Seamus McArdle, now chairperson of the club, who lined out at wing half-forward in the 1999 final.

“I remember, religiously, we went to Kilbroney Park in Rostrevor. We were doing runs and Pete McGrath had the Down team running not that far from us and we used to bump into them regularly on a Sunday morning.

“That’s the sort of level we were at. Every time I go past Rostrevor now, I nearly vomit at the thought of it! I’d take the kids up and show them the runs we used to do. That management team at the time just raised the bar in every possible way.”

It was a different time and a different generation to the game we know today. There were no stats, no tactics or kick-out routines, but the trio of Marley, Grimley (Joe Kernan’s right-hand man when Armagh won the All-Ireland in 2002) and Kelly were high quality operators.

“There were no stats or anything like that in those days, but believe you me, they were fit to tell you what was going on around the pitch,” McArdle continued. “They knew who was doing what, who was winning the break balls, the kick-outs and everything else.

“There were no actual stats written down or anything like that, but they were on top of their game. They raised the bar, ultimately, for the club, for ourselves and for everyone else. It was very, very strict, everyone pulled their weight, and no one stepped out of line.”

As a spright 16-year-old entering the senior changing room for the first time, James Gray knew there was something different. Gray was one of a number of youngsters that came through the door at the time, under the guidance of the new management team.

“Dad had played in the years preceding that and I’d been around the pitch plenty of times,” remembers Gray. “Whenever he went training, I was always knocking around, playing to the side with the rest of the lads.

“It was my first year in the changing room and I came in with Joe and Richie (Gribben) and Paul McKee and a few others. Even then, though I hadn’t been there in previous years, I knew there was a different vibe about the place.

“There was something different because Marley, Grimley and John Kelly was as good a ticket as the club had put together for a long, long time and you could sense it in the changing room.”

Looking back on the final itself, while it was a historic occasion for the club as they’d finally captured the Sean Quinn Cup, the blurry video available to watch on YouTube doesn’t cover up some of the horrendous football that was played that day.

“The game itself certainly won’t go down as a classic,” laughed McArdle. “It was our semi-final against Wolfe Tones in Abbey Park that was really our final. We played the shirts off our backs that night.

On the final itself, he said: “Most of the lads had been in a final before, they knew the story but us younger lads were getting our photographs taken for programmes and stuff like that. We didn’t know what to expect.

“We had wide after wide after wide and then Vinny (Loughran) scored a penalty and we got two goals. The result was the main thing, the goals got us over the line and that was all that mattered in the end.”

It was a hectic occasion for young Gray. In the semi-final, beating the Tones came at a cost for Ballymacnab as they lost their inspirational captain Gary Donnelly, a county minor in 1994, to a knee injury.

As it turned out, Donnelly had torn his ACL but with his knee heavily strapped, the skipper waited in the wings ready to be introduced if and when required. His starting jersey had to be filled however, and Gray was the man who got the call.

“I was either starting or the first sub on in the league but for the championship, I was the first sub,” explained Gray, who only hung up the boots at the start of this season.

“I made my championship debut against Corrinshego, I came on as a sub and got my first ever point in championship football that day. I came on against the Tones and then Gary, who was instrumental in that team, got the injury in the Tones game and so I started the final.

“I think it was about ten minutes before half-time and we were four or five down at that stage and things weren’t going the way we wanted. I was taken off and Gary was brought on, but I always remember in the old Athletic Grounds, they had the long, concrete subs benches.

“I walked off and at that time I had the old goalkeeper-style football gloves and for whatever reason I took my gloves off and set them on the line and I walked to the far end of the subs bench.

“I was literally leaning my hands down on that concrete edge, looked up, and I could see Gary was down injured. By the time I got to the end of the subs bench, Marley gave me the call, so I literally walked straight back out of the bench, lifted the gloves, and came back on.”

Having put in a mighty performance against Wolfe Tones in the semi-final, things were looking bleak in the showpiece. As the game entered its final quarter, Ballymacnab trailed 0-7 to 0-1 against Belleek and another final defeat seemed to be on the cards.

But as fate would have it, Belleek wouldn’t score again and two goals from Loughran, a former Armagh footballer, breathed an air of confidence into the ‘Nab legs and they ran out eventual 2-5 to 0-7 winners.

Loughran, along with full-back Liam King, were the experienced heads in the group. The pair had originally played for Keady and won Intermediate and Senior medals there, before joining up with Ballymacnab to complete the set.

“Those two were absolutely massive,” confirmed McArdle. “Us young lads came into the team, and we were relatively new to it. Jemmy Gray was only 16, I was only 18 or 19 and then you had those boys that were maybe in their late 20s or their early 30s.

“That mix of youth and experience was key for us at that time because they kept us on our toes, and I suppose we kept pushing them on too with the runs and whatever else. The two went hand in hand.”

That championship glory provided the launchpad for the most successful period in the clubs history. They went on to win the Intermediate title at the first time of asking in 2006 and competed all the way to the Ulster Club final.

For 25 years, Ballymacnab arguably punched above their weight, always challenging and always chasing. The club have essentially relegation from senior football this year after a prolonged stay of 18 years – only a shock championship success would save them.

Ballymacnab collected Division Three, Two and One league honours in the following years after 1999 and competed in three Senior Championship finals in 2011, 2018 and 2019, although they came up short against Crossmaglen on all three occasions.

They even have an All-Ireland winning medal in their ranks now as perhaps their most famous son Rory Grugan was a crucial member of the Armagh team that collected Sam Maguire this season.

All that success, started in ’99.

“It just rejuvenated the club as a whole,” added Gray. “When you look back now, in hindsight, the timing couldn’t have been any better because after that, you had the influx of younger players all coming through.

“Chris Loughran, Brian McCone, Gary McKee, Dwayne McParland, Pauric Gribben and Michael Beagan, all those lads came through within the space of three or four or five years after that. Then you had Rory, Gavin (McParland) and Ryan Kennedy coming along.”

McArdle echoed those thoughts: “1999 opened the door for the other lads that were starting to come through.

“The older lads finished up and then we became the older lads of the team. In a short period of seven years, we were Intermediate champions.

“Another five years after that we were in our first ever Senior final so we definitely were knocking on the door.. We were in two Senior finals back-to-back in 2018 and 2019, but we just couldn’t get over the line ultimately.

“Still, that win in 1999 was massive, absolutely massive. I think there was a genuine monkey on the club’s back, that we couldn’t win the championship because we’d been to several finals before then and been beaten.

“It was just a relief and at that stage we had youth coming through, and we were able to push on. By 2006 we won the Intermediate Championship and went all the way to the Ulster final that year but lost out to Coleraine after a replay and extra-time.

“Winning that Junior was a springboard. The club itself, we’re just a small rural club in Armagh so for us to push on and win that Intermediate and then challenge at Senior level was a huge achievement.”

The club is honouring their first ever championship winners with a reunion on Saturday night and the players and management will reflect on their former glories. After all, the club has been through plenty of heartache, so remembering the good days is essential.