HE’S been having treatement since the summer. After surgery, James Morgan wasn’t able to drive until a fortnight ago so he hasn’t been to training, he hadn’t seen a lot of the players.
His target wasn’t to start last Sunday’s Armagh Championship final, it wasn’t even to be in the squad, it was just to be in the Crossmaglen dressing room.
He got there and as he sat and watched his teammates prepare to take on Clan na Gael he was blown away: Their physicality, their fitness, their determination, their focus…
“You’re thinking: ‘Jesus look at this here, there could be something on here if the boys keep pushing on and playing good football’,” he says.
“If I can get myself right then we can all… We can win a wee bit more here if things keep going the way they’re going.”
At the end of the final he was smiling and happy for his club and his teammates but it’s been a while since he was fit to join them on the field.
Read more:
Irish News Ulster Allstars: Men's Footballer of the Year: Shane McGuigan (Derry)
Brendan Rogers: Derry will have to do it the hard way to retain Ulster title
Errigal Ciaran joint-manager Adrian O'Donnell insists they have been tested on road to Tyrone final
Injuries have taken an almighty toll on him but even without the services of the 31-year-old defender, Crossmaglen won comfortably to record the club’s 47th Armagh title. It was the 10th championship Morgan has been a part of but the third he has missed through injury.
How is he fixed, injury-wise?
“I’m not great, to tell you the truth,” he replies.
And he’s not.
Wear and tear over a decade with club and county means there’s a lot to sort out. He has torn ligaments in his foot and has had three injections to counteract that. He hurt his hip playing for Armagh last summer and six weeks’ ago had his second operation. It went very well.
And then there are his ongoing wrist problems.
“I have weak wrists but I’ve got titanium wrapped around them now which will maybe bolster them for a while and get me a few more years’ football,” he says.
Is it hard for him sitting watching from the dugout, the stand, or the sofa? Of course it is. Football has always been a massive part of his life and it’s probably moreso now than it ever was before.
“They used to say to us a lot when we were younger: ‘You’re doing this for more than just yourself, you’re doing it for your club, your family and for your people’,” he says.
“You kind of looked at that when you were younger thinking: ‘What’s he on about?’ but when you get injured or you take a bit of time out you understand what that means.
“When you see Rian O’Neill striking a ball or Chris Crowley getting stuck into a tackle you feel it a bit more when it’s people from your own area and people that you’ve grown up with. That’s how I feel about it and although I’m not on the pitch this year I’m still enjoying it.”
New boots for Christmas
HE’LL enjoy it even more when he gets back on the pitch which he “definitely, 100 per cent” will, he says. He feels that his previous injury problems will actually aid his recovery process this time.
He had a similar operation on his hip so he knows the stages of recovery and the process and he’s had the same operation on his left hand before so he know the process of recovering from that.
The foot injury is the one that worries him most but he’s hoping that, if he gets new boots for Christmas, he’ll be wearing them by the New Year.
“I’m hoping I can get the foot cleared up and push the other injuries on and I’d like to be playing football in January, whether that’s with Armagh or Cross,” he says.
“It would be great if Cross were still playing in January. We’ll see what happens.”
At 31, he’s a young man with his life ahead of him and there are some who might well have called it quits after the injury setbacks he’s had. Last season he didn’t play in the National League at all for Armagh and struggled to play back-to-back games in the Championship.
But Morgan is a determined character with a very positive attitude…
“You can look at it in two ways,” he says.
“You can say it’s not worth the hassle, or you can see what boys are doing around and be envious in a way and think: ‘I want to be there too, look at what the senior team are doing with Cross, look what Armagh are achieving, I want to be part of that.’
“And when you are in that environment of the physios with Armagh or the club system, you can use that to get yourself back.
“Without football, would I rehab myself to the same standard? Probably not. So in a way, I’m using football to get myself to a place where, even when I finish football, I aim to be living a healthy and active lifestyle. That starts with getting myself right, and I’m in the best environment to get myself physically fit. I’m 31, I’m not finished yet!”
A nice round number of 20
THERE are other men of the same vintage in the Crossmaglen team who aren’t finished yet either. Aaron Kernan is one and Jamie Clarke, this year’s skipper, is another.
Clarke seemed something of a lonely Ranger when he left the Crossmaglen fold for a couple of seasons but he’s back and all-in and Morgan has nothing but praise for the elegant former Armagh forward.
“Jamie really lifted the standards this year,” he says.
“Anytime Jamie is there his commitment and dedication has been second to none. He’s been an excellent team-mate. People get frustrated with him going traveling because they want to see the best players play football; they want to have the best players available in their county.
“That’s where the selfishness and the frustration might come from but I wouldn’t really begrudge him too much doing a bit of traveling. I did a wee bit of traveling myself. I wouldn’t begrudge that much because any time he’s there, that’s where he is.”
As for Kernan, the evergreen half-back won his 18th county title on Sunday and Morgan reckons there’s at least a couple more in him.
“With Aaron I would say he is the best competitor I have ever played alongside,” he said.
“Possibility he might have retired a couple of years ago only people started telling him on the field: ‘Maybe you should retire’ and that is probably the worst thing you could say to Aaron.
“Because if you motivate him or give him something to hold on to then he can push himself and it has always been the way, whether it’s runs at training or leading up to a big game.
“If there is a challenge put up to Aaron very few could out compete him. I’m hoping he is targeting a nice round number of 20.”
Crying on the way home in the car
MORGAN was watching a teenage Kernan in the Cross side that fought out an unforgettable trilogy against then Tyrone champions Errigal Ciaran in the Ulster Championship in 2002.
Three times Cross raced into the lead in those games but Errigal refused to lose and, after two draws, it was the Micky Harte-managed Red Hand champions who eventually prevailed in the second replay.
If Errigal can get past Trillick in Sunday’s Tyrone championship final, they’ll set up a repeat of that clash 21 years ago.
“I have minimal memoires of 2002,” says Morgan
“I remember Peter Canavan scoring a goal and maybe crying on the way home in the car...
“There is such competition within Tyrone itself that they come out of the Tyrone championship very battle-hardened and any team that comes up against the Tyrone champions know they are going to get a good game.
“You know they will be very physically fit and you know they are going to be well organised and you have that same template to look at whether its Trillick or Errigal.
“Fortunately enough we have an extra week on them so we can maybe take a spin down the road on Sunday to see what they have on offer.”
What do Cross have to offer? They’ve always prided themselves on their footballing principles but there is a feeling now that they have to adapt their mano-a-mano style to compete outside of their county borders.
In Crossmaglen there is an expectation to play expansive, kicking football but there is also an expectation to win and the two things don’t always go hand-in-hand.
“We haven’t been successful in Ulster since 2015,” says Morgan.
“We’ve had a couple of disappointing outings in Ulster and sitting down and looking at that is probably one of the reasons why we brought Anthony (Cunningham) and Andy and Stephen in.
“I’d have to get back up to training a wee bit more to see what is going on, but from all accounts we are developing with the game - the game is developing so we have to develop as well.
“You can’t die on your hill of kicking the ball if other teams are sitting in or if it’s not working for you, particularly.
“But I do believe we have the players, and we have the young players coming through, to be competitive, if we fine-tune a few things like defensive structure and game management in particular.
“Just managing different periods of the game and being a wee bit cuter in certain times. It’s the same group essentially as last year with Stephen Kernan and he put a lot of good foundations in place with his training and gym work.
“Although we were unsuccessful last year with Ballybay and beaten by a better team on the day, we still weren’t too far away. We are trying to tweak a few things, particularly in our defence and we’ll have an opportunity to test that now in a couple of weeks.”
Geezer at the wheel
AS much as he’d like to be, he won’t be involved in that game but he hopes to be there, or thereabouts, when Armagh begin their campaign early next year.
The Orchardmen will have two objectives in 2024: The first is promotion back to Division One. The second is winning the Ulster title they missed out on last season.
“We were very close last year, penalties are a hard pill to swallow but it gives us belief that we are doing something right,” says Morgan.
“Rather than thinking about practising penalties, we can look at what went wrong in the game and what went right and try to achieve that this year. But an Ulster title is something we are focussing on and getting back to Division One because that gives you more of an opportunity to compete in the second part of the Championship too.”
And the man to deliver both is Kieran McGeeney who will begin his 10th season as manager with the backing of the Armagh clubs and the senior players.
“Kieran got the majority of votes from the clubs and he got full backing from all of the players, so Armagh want Kieran McGeeney behind the wheel,” says Morgan.
“A lot of the group of players are at the age where we’ve built something up and we want to see it out with that man and see it out together, so I don’t think it would have made any sense chopping and changing that at this stage.”
