Crosserlough captain Smith ready to embrace the challenge

SFC final preview

After winning the county championship in 2020, ending a 48-year wait, the future looked dazzlingly bright for Crosserlough. A young side who had also been in the county final in 2018, losing by a point, were tipped to dominate but the last three seasons has seen them come up short.

Now, they’re back in the final and determined to make up for lost time.

“Four years since we won it, I thought we’d be back in it again but it hasn’t been the case. We know it’s hard to get back to finals so when you get back to them, you need to make sure that you’re up for them and ready for them when they come around,” explained team captain Peter Smith.

Crosserlough, under new management, have been a little more defensive in how they set up but Peter doesn’t feel it’s a major shift in approach.

“There have been big games where we have come up short in the last couple of years. We made it our aim at the start of the year to get back to the county final and to have a strong team, you need to have a strong defence. The boys in the defence last Saturday, you couldn’t ask any more of them. That’s the building block for going forward as it was throughout the game.

“We’re back where we wanted to be, it wasn’t pretty but semi-finals are for winning. The last couple of years we didn’t get over the line, now we’ve finally got over the line, we’ll take that and look forward to the next couple of weeks.

“There hasn’t been too much of a change really, we play the football that we want to play, the attacking football that we enjoy, that’s what we’re best at. We haven’t changed away from that too much. They’ve very professional – with Tom, everything is by the book, there’s no shortcuts with him.”

The new management team, led by Ryan Daly, have left no stone unturned, he said.

“Stephen’s trainings are top class as well and Ryan too, he has everything down to a T, it’s a very good set-up and it’s working well at the minute, you can’t ask for much more.

“We’re enjoying it surely, look we’re in a county final, you have to be enjoying it.”

Losing Paddy Lynch to a cruciate ligament tear was not part of the plan but the squad have got on with it.

“This year with Cavan was probably the best year Paddy has had from he first came into senior football nearly, he’s flying. When it happened, it was hard to believe it happened and how simply it happened, a lad could fall like that again in the morning and be alright. It was the simplest thing and so unfortunate for Paddy.

“It was a massive blow but the thing is, we knew that back in April, that he’d be potentially out for the championship so we had lots of time to get ourselves organised around that. We’d love to have Paddy with us now, as you said he is one of the best forwards in the country, especially from dead balls. He’s back training, Paddy is back in good shape again now so, he’ll be back and he’ll hit the ground running again.”

In his absence, others have stepped up and county panellist Smith, 24 and a plumber by trade, is delighted with the performance of the younger members of the panel.

“Matthew (Costello) has been scoring freely all year, Oran (Rehill) as well has chipped in lots of scores, you’ve Kieran (Smith, Peter’s brother) and Harry (Boylan) there too and Michael Donohoe came on the last few games as well. There are five young lads there that a couple of years ago were Division 2 minor, Division 3 minor, you wouldn’t have thought they’d be able to mix it at senior football.

“Fionn Lovett there too, he’s probably one of the best corner-backs around with his speed and the whole lot, he’s very good. He just does his job and you can’t ask for much more, the attitude is great with these young lads. Everyone buys in and they are driving the team on this year in all fairness.”

Smith’s outstanding club performances were rewarded with a call-up to the county panel.

“Different ideas and different voices. Trainings with Cavan are at a different intensity, back from December time. They stood to me and I enjoyed every bit of it, I didn’t get much game time but training-wise and the whole lot, I enjoyed every bit of it. I got to know a lot of other players then too from other clubs and their strengths and weaknesses more than I would have got just with Crosserlough.

“There were a lot of benefits to me this year and hopefully again, next year, learn a bit more from it.”

Before that is the not-so-small matter of Ramor United.

“Ramor are a serious team, they have a lot of serious players all over the pitch, from one to 20 even. We play them every year and there’s not much between the teams at all. The lads who have taken over them this year, the McNabb brothers, they seem to have transformed Ramor.

“They won the league title, they won that easily you could say, look, Ramor have lots of quality, their defence is probably the best in the county. It will be a tough test, it’s going to be an enjoyable test.”

Crosserlough is a GAA-mad parish where the club also excels in ladies football and camogie and the buzz, naturally, is good ahead of Sunday.

“The Crosserlough people will travel in their droves no matter where you play, no matter what league game you have or how wet or windy the weather is, they’re always there. We have three county finals in three weeks in a row, the ladies, the camogie and ourselves the following week, so there’s a lot of colour around the town, everyone’s in good spirits looking forward to it.

“Everyone you talk to now it’s all football, football, football, it’s good.

“The older folks especially… we won it during Covid, hopefully with this county final, everyone can go to it, there’s no restrictions on anyone. Look, everyone is looking forward to it, people will probably come home from abroad if they can because they couldn’t come back four years ago.

“That hasn’t changed our preparations at all, we’re not worried about any of that, we’re just happy to be there and looking forward to it and hopefully we can get over the line, that’s the main thing really.