BEN Crealey came into his own this season - is there a more improved player in the country?
You could make a case for others, but the towering Maghery midfielder was literally head-and-shoulders above so many of his rivals.
Once pigeon-holed as the man to ‘wreck and break’ around the middle of the field, Crealey was given the confidence to let the light shine on his footballing ability and he blossomed alongside Niall Grimley in the Armagh engineroom.
His two points against Donegal in the Ulster final were evidence that he was about the throw the shackles off and he landed two more crucial scores – both in the first half - in Sunday’s All-Ireland final.
With a hard-earned Celtic Cross now in his back pocket, individual accolades will surely follow.
“I had been told all year to back myself with those shots,” said Crealey, who was reunited after nine months with his Australia-based girlfriend Aoife after the game.
“It’s probably the first year the shots are coming off, unlike previous years. You have to back yourself in those situations on the big day and it has paid off this year.”
Crealey had scored at Croke Park before of course. Back in 2018 he got on the scoresheet when Armagh won Division Three and he says the transformation of the team since then is down to three ingredients that all need to work in harmony: Players, coaching and supporters.
“We are the best coached team in Ireland in my opinion,” he said.
“Our backroom is unbelievable. Kieran Donaghy, Ciaran McKeever, Conleith Gilligan, Ciaran McKinney… They are brilliant.
“And then the players, we have been through so many challenges, so much adversity. It is hard at the time but it strengthens you.
“And then the support. It has been unbelievable this year. When you hear that roar after you score two points in a row, well…”
CREALEY is a big unit. One of those guys you can’t see the top of, he just keeps going up and up towards the ceiling. He his built for green fields and football but at one stage of his life it was rally driving that was his main focus.
Fast cars were his dad’s passion. He had started off driving Ford Fiestas and then worked his way up to a semi-professional contact with Mitsubishi in 2001. Driving Evos, he competed in the British Championships but a couple of serious accidents ended his career.
Ben was behind the wheel from the age of “seven or eight”. He began competing in go-karting but once he turned 17 – and got his driving licence – he was whizzing round circuits.
“I was in a wee Fiesta driving through forestry and it might not have been that fast, but the thing was, you hardly knew where you were going,” he explains.
“You had to go on your co-driver’s pace notes so maybe it seemed a lot faster than it was. I had a couple of crashes, nothing too crazy and nothing to hurt myself with.
“Liam Regan was my co-driver and he’s actually competing now in the World Rally Championship with William Creighton (last year’s Junior WRC winner).”
For a few years Crealey would be off rallying one weekend and playing football the next. However, when he broke into a Maghery senior team that was starting to compete with Armagh’s big guns it got to the stage where he had to make a choice.
“I had to juggle the two,” he explains.
“I started missing big football games because I was playing for Maghery seniors at the time. I missed the (Armagh senior championship) semi-final against Crossmaglen in 2015.
“We were beat by Cross and I missed that game because I was over in England. I couldn’t live with the guilt of it - missing games. Rallying is a small sport and it runs through families I suppose. It’s pretty niche and you are born into things like that. It’s just adrenaline.
“I had to make the decision and football was starting to get serious then too. You have to go down the either road so I chose football.
“I went to rallying because my dad was looking for me to do that but you go to football because there are 35 lads going after something. I remember watching that game in 2015, and then having to face the lads after…
“That was my last rally.”
The following year, with Crealey lording it around midfield, Maghery were Armagh champions.
MAGHERY is a thriving GAA outpost on the shores of Lough Neagh in North Armagh. Over the years the club has produced a steady stream of players for the county from Sean Smith (an All-Ireland minor winner in 1949) to Kevin Rafferty (a member of the 1977 All-Ireland final team) to James Lavery and onto the current crop that includes Aidan Forker – only the second Orchard county captain to raise the Sam Maguire – Crealey and Ciaran Higgins.
“It’s great for the club,” says Crealey.
“Yeah we are probably one of the smallest clubs and three of us in the squad was brilliant. It gives everyone at home a good lift and they are proud of us.
“I’m delighted for Aidan because he has soldiered with Armagh for 12 or 13 years and he dedicates his entire life all around Armagh.
“I’m so happy for him to be the captain and lift the trophy.”
Men like Forker had to soldier on over many years with Armagh when winning the Sam Maguire seemed to be little more than a distant dream. But Crealey says that despite the setbacks there was a belief in the squad that better days were ahead.
“You always believe,” he said.
“You always thought you could get over the line in big games. The penalties… We played a lot of big games and we knew from that we were always going to be in it for the last 10 minutes.
“We also had to tidy up on the last five plays - we could have beaten Donegal in our last five possessions in the Ulster final. That’s what had cost us in the past and it wasn’t perfect on Sunday.
“When you watch it back, the coaches are always telling us there was an All-Ireland in this group and they were telling us for years.
“There are days when, like the days after those big defeats, you are so down but what do you do? You have to get up and go after it again.
“The same as any player - you always have that dream in the back of your head. There were days it was hard to believe it was ever going to happen. But you always have the dream. It’s the same as any Gaelic player at this level.
“Me personally, I always felt we had an All-Ireland in us.
“It’s funny, after those games, we were getting wrote off. Missing penalties… I know there’s a bit of skill in penalties but we were getting wrote off after playing 100 minutes of football and not getting beat!
“You have to take it on the chin and move on and do better. When it (losing on penalties) became a trend we started to get a bit more heat. The first one or two and then the third and fourth one and a bit of a narrative started then so it was great to change the narrative.”
SUNDAY’S final was level at half-time and the draw many had predicted was looming. However, it was Armagh who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck when Aaron McKay thumped Stefan Campbell’s pass (and it was definitely a pass) into the Galway net.
Armagh stuttered after that and they hung on and Crealey came up with a brilliant tackle on Cillian McDaid to deny the Tribesmen an equaliser.
“It’s very reactive I suppose,” says Crealey.
“I think the ball got popped over my head and you are just reacting. You don’t have a whole pile of perception of the moment so you are just trying to get hands on.
“I think McDaid tried to turn back out and I got a hand in.”
Even then, Joe McElroy had to produce a diving block to stop Paul Conroy’s last-ditch shot. The whistle final blew a few seconds later and when it did…
“Satisfaction - that would be the word for me,” says Crealey.
“All the nights you go to training, all the defeats… It all kind of fizzles away when that whistle goes. Just satisfaction and then you are cramping and exhausted - you’re trying to celebrate but the body won’t let you.
“So, yeah, satisfaction and I’m so happy for Geezer and the team and just relief too… Brilliant.
“Seeing Stevie McDonnell and Paul McGrane (at the celebration banquet) last night and you still look up to them… To emulate them is unbelievable.
“It’ll take a while to sink in.”
