THE true value of their famous club and the GAA shone through as Crossmaglen’s players found refuge and support among each other in the days after they laid their friend and team-mate Caolan Finnegan to rest.
The Rangers squad returned to training last Wednesday night and were back in action on Sunday when they finished strongly to see off Sarsfields and claim their first championship victory of the season.
Football was over-shadowed by the tragic death of 20-year-old Caolan who played for Cross in last year’s championship before he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
“We tried to keep it low-key coming into the game because a lot of these boys who grew up with ‘Stringer’ and it has been so difficult for them to say the very least,” Crossmaglen manager Anthony Cunningham explained.
“We had to get on with it and that was it, it’s football and all the boys wanted to play football. We buried ‘Stringer’ on Monday and we had a full panel at training on the Wednesday. We kept it very light and it was the out for a lot of players just to get back on the field.”
Cross were without suspended Rian O’Neill for the round two game against Sarsfields but seven points from Cian McConville saw the defending champions to a three-point win. Afterwards the Sarsfields players gave them a respectful and fitting guard of honour as they left the field.
“It was a tight game,” added Cunningham.
“It was a difficult game for us. It was unsure what way it was going to go for us in terms of the players’ heads but we came out on the right side of a tight game and we move on.
“It was extremely difficult for all of us to get our heads in football, there’s no getting away from that. We weren’t sure what we would get in terms of performance, all we were asking for from the lads was a result and we got that.
“We go into the last game against Granemore now and, if we can win that, we’ll probably finish second in the group.”