HE WON’T tell you this himself, but Sunday will be Tony Kernan’s 13th county final. He has a dozen medals so far and the only decider he’s ever lost was the All-Ireland against Kilmacud Croke’s in 2009.
But past is past and, for him, all that matters is the next one.
“It doesn’t matter how many I’ve played in or won, I won’t enjoy my Christmas dinner unless I win this one,” said the skilful half-forward playmaker.
That voracious appetite to play, and to win, remains as keen with him and with his club as ever as they prepare for Sunday’s duel with Maghery. They’ll go into that game with experience and a few new faces too because Cross, now managed by Tony’s brother Stephen, have continued their policy of continuously refreshing their squad.
Tony says it has been: “The secret of our success over the last 25 years”.
“There are always new young players coming through who get a couple of years playing with experienced players and then they become the leaders in the team,” he explains.
“That has been the case this year. The likes of Oisin and Rian (O’Neill) and Stephen Morris were at Dara O’Callaghan’s stage three or four years ago and now they’re the main men in the team.
“Each management team has had a plan there to make sure that we keep being competitive and playing in county finals for the foreseeable future.”
It was Donal Murtagh who blooded him at senior level and, having played under his father Joe’s management, Tony is no stranger to taking directions from a family member.
His brother Stephen also has Francis Fitzpatrick and Cross legend Jim McConville in his management team and the set-up has worked well this season.
“Francis does a huge amount of work in terms of preparing us and then Jim is someone that I grew up idolising and looking up to,” says Tony.
“He had just retired when I came into the senior team but I got snippets of the way that he would have said before games and he really made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. You got an impression of what it meant to play for Crossmaglen Rangers senior team.
“Stephen has great help there from those boys and as a group the three of them seem to be doing alright so far.”
Year after year he returned to the Cross fold after spending the summer months on duty with Armagh. So he’s in a good position to judge how well the club-only season has worked so far.
“In terms of having everyone in from the start, yes it has been helpful because you’re not bringing in county players who are maybe fatigued or disappointed or carrying baggage from the county season,” he says.
“There was a couple of years when the (Armagh) management didn’t think I was a county-standard footballer and I was coming back to the club after not playing a huge amount of football.
“There was a year I came back in after missing a big free-kick in an All-Ireland quarter-final (2014 against Donegal) and I was sort of moping around a bit.
“You have all that sort of stuff coming back with you plus the fact that you’ve missed the craic and the banter over the summer with the boys because you’ve been in your own wee bubble and you’re not really socialising with them.
“So you’re trying to get to know them and they’re maybe cracking jokes that you don’t get and you don’t find particularly funny because you haven’t been around.
“This year all the boys have been in from the start which has been brilliant.”
