JIM McConville was the spark that lit the fire when Crossmaglen rose to dominance in the mid-1990s and his son Cian - a chip off the old block as a quicksilver, scoring forward - has been central to the club’s resurgence this year.
Sunday’s 12-point win over Granemore secured a first Armagh championship title since 2019 and it followed 15 and 10-point wins in the preceding rounds. Cian McConville improved with every game and said that having his father involved with the team management made Sunday’s final win a little extra sweet.
“It is good to have him involved,” he said.
“It makes it even more special for me that he is here today managing us too, so that just tops it off.”
McConville’s footballing ability was never in question and he has now filled out and added a robust physical edge that is the result of long hours of hard work off the pitch.
His eight points on Sunday included some stunning scores.
“Personally, I feel like I’m coming of age,” he said.
“There’s a lot of young boys in this team – I’m only 22 but it has turned out that I’m one of the older boys now and you have to start standing up at some stage.
“It was nice to see the young boys played brilliantly. Tommy Og Duffy has had a fantastic season, Caolan Finnegan got the goal… What you saw there was young boys playing well and it really spurs us on and it is great to see.”
McConville said that the disappointment of losing the last two finals meant Cross “didn’t need any motivation” for Sunday and that showed.
“We started at 100-mile per hour and it is going to be hard to live with any team that plays at 100-miles per hour,” he said.
“We’re delighted to get over the line after having fallen in the final over the last two years so we’re absolutely delighted.”
Next up for Cross is the Ulster club championship which begins for them back at the Athletic Grounds on November 5 against Monaghan champions Ballybay. The winners will progress to a quarter-final against reigning All-Ireland champions Kilcoo.
“That is one we are looking forward to,” said McConville.
“It’ll be our first outing in Ulster for a couple of years and that will be a tough test.
“We have had two good games in-a-row, we played well against Maghery and we were delighted with that performance and we were happy with parts today. We don’t think we are at our final level; we think we can push on even more and hopefully we can do that over the next few weeks.”
McConville won his third county medal on Sunday. The first two came during his formative teenage years but he’ll cherish this latest addition to his collection a little more because he led the way against Granemore.
“This one is the most special because we had the older boys in the team when I won my first two but now we know it is our team,” he said.
“It is the younger boys playing, it is a whole different team from three or four years ago so, this is definitely the more special.”
Cross have added steel to their traditional style this season. Their tackling has been ferocious and to compete with them, their opponents in Ulster will first have to match their physicality and intensity.
At the same time, Cross refuse to compromise on their expansive, ambitious, some might say old-fashioned, brand of kicking football. While other sides recycle the ball in monotonous handpassing phases, attacking remains the first instinct in Crossmaglen and the ball is played forward at every opportunity.
“That is the way we like to play,” said McConville.
“It’s not common to see a team play like that and that is the way we love to play and we wouldn’t change it for the world. I think it shows there today that you can win by playing that way.”
