FOCUS ON CROSSMAGLEN RANGERS: Keith Duggan talks to Crossmaglen's Cathal Short who charts the club's rise to power locally and nationally.
In Crossmaglen, the years change but the story stays the same. The famous Armagh club have been the source fire of Armagh's transformation from just another pretty Ulster team to the most vivid and feared football county in the land. Without any disrespect to Mullaghbawn, it will be a shock if Crossmaglen Rangers do not land their ninth consecutive county championship tomorrow.
Since the 1996 county title - a championship that ended a decade without senior silverware, Crossmaglen have put together a string of seasons that have been as rich and constant as any club rival. The All-Ireland club titles of 1997, 1999 and 2000 were remarkable and were nationally celebrated but the club's domination in Armagh has been remorseless. Nine years ago, the winning of the county final against Clan na Gael, the other traditional force in Armagh football, meant a carnival in the town.
"They wouldn't pay much heed to a county final down the street now," laughs Cathal Short. "I suppose people come to expect it. But when we are up there training in the field, you kind of forget all about what is happening down the town."
The Short name is classic Crossmaglen - his uncle Paddy runs a bar in the centre of the town that is probably one of the best and one of the most famous in the country. Cathal was one of the 1993 Crossmaglen minor team that featured a truly incomparable harvest of talent - the McEntee twins, Oisín McConville and Francie Bellew would go on to feature in Armagh's 2002 All-Ireland victory - that never really lost anything.
"Tim Gregory trained us and he continues to have a huge influence on Crossmaglen football. Like, Joe's boys Aaron (Kernan) and Stephen (Kernan) would have come through under Tim as well. But that 1993 team, I suppose was that good that by the time they were old enough to go senior with the likes of Jim McConville, there was the makings of a good team in place."
The record shows Joe Kernan guided that 1996 team to a one-point victory over Sarsfields in the first round of the Armagh championship. The faltering nature of the victory did not bode well for the town but Crossmaglen kept winning right through to St Patrick's Day the following year, when they beat Knockmore of Mayo in the All-Ireland club final.
"Momentum," explains Short. "One game just rolled into the next and we kept it going."
By then, Crossmaglen had in place a system that was probably without equal. Short reckons in the period 1997-2000, they were as rigorous about training and approach as any county side. The long club season meant the intercounty careers of players like Short were hindered: he was constantly unavailable for National League duty and hence did not get the chance to shine at county standard. It was a trade he was willing to make, finding himself immersed at club level. Shortt was man of the match in the 2000 All-Ireland final win against Na Fianna.
"I would say we were probably playing our very best football that time because we had the experience behind us and we were very comfortable with each other, with Croke Park. We were beating good teams handily - like, that was a fancied UCC team we came up against in the semi-final."
By then, Kernan's appointment as Armagh manager was only a matter of time and he was given his opportunity after the 2001 season. Short believes Kernan's best quality is that he was never afraid to show he didn't know it all: that he sought out and absorbed the advice of those around him.
"Joe just pulled out all the stops. He wanted a trainer so we had John McCloskey, one of the best. He would bring in the likes of Seán Boylan and Colm O'Rourke to talk with us. And then Joe himself is such a great motivator. All that carried through when he took over the county and I have no doubt that the confidence that other players drew from him came from knowing what he had achieved with Crossmaglen."
As Short sees it, the emergence of Kernan's sons as players dripping with potential made it the right time for him to step away from the club scene anyhow. It gave the two boys the chance to develop with a bit of breathing space. Four years have passed since Crossmaglen have emerged from Ulster but if there was a period when the senior team was operating below par, there has been a freshness about their play in this year's championship.
They are facing a Mullaghbawn team that reminds Short of his own yesterdays: young, fearless, strewn with under-21 players. The thing is Crossmaglen are not simply a great team caught in a time warp and loyal to the players of yesteryear. They are changing too. Crossmaglen has a formidable underage set up. Most Saturday mornings, Short sees around 80 or 90 kids heading up to the ground for training.
Since its formation in 1909 - the club had previously played as the Red Hands and Creggan - the Rangers (so called after a Dundalk salesman named Pat McCusker stopped into a Crossmaglen pub when a meeting to form a new club was in session and suggested they go by the Rangers and wear black and amber) have enjoyed dominant streaks.
They won five county titles in the 1960s, including three in a row and appeared in five county finals in the 1950s, losing all before taking the 1946 championship.
The 1950s were the only decade they went without the McKillop Cup. But no streak has compared to this and it is probable none ever will. The game will be played in Crossmaglen's home ground - "the Gaelic Grounds is under repair and you can't go taking two south Armagh teams up to Lurgan for a county final," explains Short.
The local supporters, accustomed to welcoming All-Ireland club champions and indeed the Sam Maguire to the clubhouse - will expect. Eight years of dominating Armagh has made the domestic championship seem like a prelude to the bigger accomplishments.
"It is human nature, I suppose," says Short. "It doesn't matter to us, though. The day you stop worrying about who you play next is the day you are in trouble. We take nothing for granted."
